Nobody’s Hero (24 page)
Authors: j. leigh bailey
* * *
Ten minutes later they walked out of the courthouse hand in hand.
“What are you going to do about the money you gave Ray?”
Mind still whirling with the events of the morning, Brad looked at Danny. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I assume you made some kind of deal with your parents. The money for coming back for your brother’s hearing. What’s going to happen now that you walked away without doing your part?”
Until that moment, Brad hadn’t thought about the consequences of his little scene in the courtroom. He wasn’t worried, though. “Nothing’s going to happen. They may try to bring it up again, but honestly, they’ll be so focused on damage control they won’t have time to make a plan for me. They’ll disinherit me, which they’ll think is a big deal, but I don’t care about. If they try anything else, I’ll threaten to do the same thing I threatened to do if they bother your family again. Make such a scene they’ll never recover.”
They crossed the street and strolled along the edge of the park there. “I’ve got to ask,” Danny said, “confronting your family. How’d it feel?”
“It felt fucking fantastic.” Brad grinned, the smile wide enough that his cheeks hurt.
“I have to admit, it was hot. You were amazing.”
They stopped beneath a taxi sign and Brad realized he’d forgotten something. “I need a favor.”
“You want it, you got it,” Danny said immediately.
“Any chance I can borrow enough money to fly back to Minneapolis? I’m broke again.”
Danny laughed. “Yes, God yes. I’ll pay whatever it takes as long as you come home with me. And, given what you did for Ray, for my family, a plane ticket is the least we owe you.”
“It was nothing. You guys—
you
, Danny—saved me. You saved me from myself. I was so closed off, from people, from emotions, I was practically starving myself.”
“Nobody starves with the Ortegas, not in any way. Food, support, love, you get it all with us.”
He cupped Danny’s face, right there in the middle of a city with people all around, and kissed him.
Danny goggled at him. “We’re in public.”
“It might be a while before I’m totally comfortable being openly gay, but I love you and I love the way we are together. I’m not going to hide it from anyone. Not anymore. Because you, Daniel Ortega, are my hero.”
“It’s only fair,” Danny said, resting his head on Brad’s shoulder. “You’re my hero too.”
“I’m nobody’s hero.” Brad shrugged. “But if you want to think so...”
“I think so.”
“Does this mean we can go home now?”
“Yeah, let’s go home.”
* * * * *
About the Author
j. leigh bailey is an office drone by day and the author of New Adult and Young Adult LGBT Romance by night. She can usually be found with her nose in a book or pressed up against her computer monitor. A book-a-day reading habit sometimes gets in the way of...well, everything...but some habits aren’t worth breaking. She’s been reading romance novels since she was ten years old. The last twenty years or so have not changed her voracious appetite for stories of romance, relationships and achieving that vitally important Happy Ever After. She’s a firm believer that everyone, no matter their gender, age, sexual orientation or paranormal affiliation, deserves a happy ending.
Meet the young men of A.M. Arthur’s
The Belonging Series
as they learn that there’s more to life and love than just sex—no matter how steamy it is...
NO SUCH THING
The Belonging Series, book one
“
No Such Thing
is an irresistible delight!”
—Prism Book Alliance blog
Twenty-two-year-old Alessandro Silva knows that returning to tiny Perch Creek to help his foster mother was the right thing to do. With no degree and a delinquent’s reputation, he’s lucky to have landed a job waiting tables. But not everyone is happy he’s back, and the only thing keeping his move home from being a total bust is his boss’s hot brother.
MAYBE THIS TIME
The Belonging Series, book two
“With fluid prose, Arthur washes the grit off these two rough characters as they gradually show each other their pain, zest and hope.”
—Publishers Weekly
As a regular at gay hotspot Pot O Gold, Ezra Kelley avoids his tangled emotions with the simplicity of one-night stands and attachment-free hookups. Until the night bartender Donner Davis picks him up off the floor after a misunderstanding and too much tequila. Ezra can’t remember the last time someone was...nice. It’s more than he deserves.
STAND BY
YOU
The Belonging Series, book three
“In depicting the hurts of living and the healing comfort of love, Arthur hits all the right notes. The satisfying conclusion resolves both threads of the story in an appealing and realistic way.”
—Publishers Weekly
Three months after his rescue from an abusive boyfriend, twenty-two-year-old Romy Myers has landed his first legitimate job—bussing tables at his friend’s new coffee shop. The job has brought him some stability after years of abuse have left him feeling damaged and broken. He’s working hard on his panic and social anxiety, and those things are often tempered by the big, burly presence of Brendan Walker.
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ISBN-13: 9781426899744
Nobody’s Hero
Copyright © 2015 by j. leigh bailey
Edited by Alissa Davis
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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