Shiny!

Readers love Amy Lane’s

Ethan in Gold

“
Amy Lane is brilliant. She knows how to weave a story that pulls on all my emotions and makes me feel like the characters are my family, my friends. I felt honored to be able to review this ARC of
Ethan in Gold
.”

—Live Your Life, Buy the Book, 5 stars

“I was at home as soon as I opened this book, I was invested in pretty much every character, and wanted to hear about where Ethan was, and who the man was that could help him get to his happy ending.”

—The Tipsy Bibliophile

“
ETHAN IN GOLD
has made the Johnnies series one of my top two favourite Amy Lane series. The way it merges darkness and heartbreak with hilarious antics and heart,
ETHAN IN GOLD
shines.”

—Under the Covers

“
Ethan in Gold
… is an emotionally tactile story of pain and redemption, of losing and gaining so much more in return, a story of forgiveness and absolution and of loving someone so hard, even when he doesn’t believe he’s loveable, that he can’t help but finally understand it’s not about how much he is worth but about how much he is worthy of that gift.”

—The Novel Approach, 5 stars

“These guys, their issues, their love of one another, their friendship, and the hope they bring to each other will live forever and I'll keep seeing them in my dreams. Thank you, Amy, for giving me the dreams and sharing them with me.”

—Rainbow Book Reviews

By AMY LANE

N
OVELS

Bolt Hole

Clear Water

Gambling Men: The Novel

The Locker Room

Mourning Heaven

Racing for the Sun

Shiny!

Sidecar

A Solid Core of Alpha

The Talker Collection (anthology)

Three Fates (anthology)

Under the Rushes

T
HE
K
EEPING
P
ROMISE
R
OCK
S
ERIES

Keeping Promise Rock • Making Promises

Living Promises • Forever Promised

T
HE
J
OHNNIES
SERIES

Chase in Shadow • Dex in Blue • Ethan in Gold

N
OVELLAS

Bewitched by Bella’s Brother

Christmas with Danny Fit

Hammer and Air

If I Must

It’s Not Shakespeare

Left on St. Truth-be-Well

Puppy, Car, and Snow

Truth in the Dark

Turkey in the Snow

T
HE
K
NITTING
S
ERIES

How to Raise an Honest Rabbit

Knitter in His Natural Habitat

Super Sock Man

The Winter Courtship Rituals of Fur-Bearing Critters

G
REEN
’
S
H
ILL

Guarding the Vampire’s Ghost

I love you, asshole!

Litha’s Constant Whim

T
ALKER
S
ERIES

Talker • Talker’s Redemption • Talker’s Graduation

Published by
D
REAMSPINNER
P
RESS

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com

Copyright

Published by

Dreamspinner Press

5032 Capital Circle SW
Suite 2, PMB# 279
Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886

USA

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Shiny!

© 2014 Amy Lane.

Cover Art

© 2014 Paul Richmond.

http://www.paulrichmondstudio.com

Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.

All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/.

ISBN: 978-1-62798-654-0

Digital ISBN: 978-1-62798-655-7

Printed in the United States of America

First Edition

February 2014

Aherm. E? You asked for it! And Mary? You can have it if she doesn’t want it. (And Mate—’cause you’re still shiny.)

Garden Party

W
ILL
L
AFFERTY
thought his aunt Cara’s wedding was spec
tacular
!

Held outside, in the brides’ backyard in Grass Valley, the event smelled of dusty pine trees and garden flowers. Big granite boulders littered the yard, with irises and snapdragons planted around them to make it look as though they were purely decorative, and the brides (or their faithful helpers) had set chairs and tables to look toward a nice shady spot under a great tree with tiny leaves. There was even a big porch with an extended concrete apron for dancing.

Cara wore a feminine off-white suit, with a cravat and wide-legged slacks. She wore her hair in a Gibson Girl bun, with baby’s breath threaded through the graying brown curls that surrounded her face. Her beloved, Nina, wore the full-out wedding frock, narrow around the waist, tiny embroidered daisies complete with yellow-gold centers and pale-green leaves embellishing the frothy tulle of the skirt. Her hair was cut short and colored blonde—with her piquant little face, she looked very Audrey Hepburn except with a dye bottle and a nose stud. Only the fine lines around her eyes revealed that she too was in her early forties.

Kenny cried on Will’s shoulder the entire time.

Will just beamed. He’d never seen Aunt Cara so happy.

The ceremony didn’t take long—long enough for Will to hold Kenny’s hand and watch his mother, the one bridesmaid, wipe away some happy tears herself.

At the reception, Will told Kenny to splash water on his face and gave him eye drops to clear up the red. Afterward, the two of them sat in a corner and picked at a single plate of vegetables and, together, deconstructed the wedding.

“Cara looked amazing,” Kenny said dreamily. The bride in question was making the rounds to the tables to make sure everyone was having a good time. Her laughter rang across the yard more times than Will could count. “I have to admit, when I first saw Cara, I didn’t think she’d clean up that nice.”

“You were so nervous that day,” Will said, rolling his eyes. “You thought everybody in the room was a giant Kenny-eating troll!”

Kenny sniffed delicately. “Well, yes. But she’s really rocking the suit today. And your mother—she looked thrilled.”

Will watched as his mother shooed Cara from one table to the next.

Anne Lafferty looked good today, he thought fondly—she’d actually dressed like the pretty woman he thought she was. Today, she’d worn a white fitted shell and a full skirt with daisies on it. She’d slimmed down a little, so her comfortably middle-aged body was just a little
less
comfortable and more svelte, and she’d actually
dyed
her shoulder-length brownish hair a fashionable red and let a stylist have a go at it. Until after the pictures, actually, it had looked “done,” in soft waves around her face. Once the pictures were over, she’d grabbed a scrunchie that looked like a bunch of joined daisies and pulled that mess (her words) back from her face.

“Not as thrilled as the bride,” William said warmly, and Kenny rolled his eyes.

“Nina really
is
everything your mom thought she’d be, isn’t she?”

William had to laugh. For about a half a minute, Will’s mom had thought she’d try to match Will up with Nina—way before anybody had come out of the closet, of course, and only because her son seemed to be terminally lonely.

Well, he had been, William thought fondly, looking at Kenny, who was pretending he wasn’t jealous as all hell.

He’d been so lonely, he hadn’t been able to see how lonely he really was.

In a swish of satin and tulle, the blonde bride with the Audrey Hepburn face and the tiny diamond nose stud rustled up to their table. With a quirky smile, she sat down at their table and made an exaggerated sigh.

“Whoo! I’m exhausted!” With that, she turned toward the preadolescent girl who had followed her to the table. “Ashley, be a luv and go get your aunt Nina a really big glass of punch, okay?”

The girl had mouse-brown hair and a thin little face. She was wearing a dress much like her aunt Nina’s, only more tailored for a little girl’s Easter and less for a grown woman’s wedding. “Aunt Nina, they only
have
one size glass for the punch.”

Nina laughed a little and dimpled. “Then you’ll have to get me two, precious. I’m
thirsty
!”

“Okay! I’ll be back!” And the girl skipped gaily away.

Nina turned those devastating dimples on William and Kenny, and William had to admit, even though she was about ten years Will’s senior, she was a
very
pretty woman. It was a good thing William had met Kenny first, or that gamine face and blinding smile might have made Will forget some very important doubts he’d had about himself—and women in general.

“Okay, boys, so here’s my chance. For an entire month, I hear nothing from Anne and Cara but what a
wonderful
boy Will is, and how he and I would make this
stunning
couple, and then suddenly, poof!” She waved her fingers and laughed at the pun. “And then, you know, Cara and I hook up, and by the time we come up for air”—she smirked—“you’re a couple. How did that happen?”

Will smiled sunnily at her. Oh, she was wonderful—he’d enjoyed her company pretty much from the moment they’d met. He
loved
people with a sense of humor and who loved a good story. He’d heard
her
story already. The first time he’d met her at his mother’s house, Kenny and Will had heard all the details—and they’d been sweet, exactly what he wanted for his beloved aunt Cara who had snuck him sweets and hugs and who had taken him out to her farm since he was very small.

“You don’t want to know that story,” he said, not wanting to intrude on her perfect day.

“Of course she does!” Kenny said, straightening from his slouch at the table. His dark hair—which sort of artfully tumbled from standing up straight on his head—was perfect, and the tiniest bit of guyliner he’d used that morning made his blue eyes stand out. His face was all hooks—chin, nose, cheekbones—and Will sometimes told him that it was a great face because it had just hooked Will right in, hadn’t it? He was wearing a truly shocking turquoise suit jacket with a lime-colored paisley liner displayed at the collar, and a lime tie. His pants were race-car red, and he looked like the thin, artistic swirls of color on a birthday cupcake. William was wearing a basic navy-blue suit, but he’d been following Kenny’s bright plumage with his eyes all day. That much color attracted him like a big red plastic flower full of sugary goodness attracted a hummingbird.