Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 68599 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68599 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Sawyer Hendricks is the best friend I’ve ever had—the Goose to my Moose, and the shoulder I’ve cried on even though I’m not the crying type. The difference between us? Sawyer brightens any room in an instant, and I’m the gruff guy wearing flannel who’d rather be alone.
My first mistake was admitting to Sawyer that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been kissed--because the punk leaned over and kissed me, right then and there.
…And then he ended up in my bed. Just friends, right?
Now I’ve gotten a taste, and he wants another taste of me, too. But no matter how hot it is when we’re together, Sawyer’s straight. This is innocent fun for him, and I’ve long since learned to shove my true feelings for him where the sun don’t shine. I’m no good at feelings, anyway.
He’s renovating the brewery where I work, and now we’re in closer contact than ever. My heart’s been shattered before, and there’s no chance I’ll let anything threaten the deepest friendship of my life.
But I’m only human. How can I resist when my best friend is begging for more?
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
1
HARLAN
“Finally decided to show up, huh?” I teased my best friend as he walked over toward the bar.
Sawyer raised an eyebrow at me. “Miss me much? I said I’d get here at six, and it’s two past six right now.”
“That’s what we like to call late.”
Something twinkled behind his eyes. I didn’t know if I wanted to hop over the oak bar top and wrestle him to the ground or pull him into a big hug.
Sawyer tossed my bullshit right back at me, teasing me like no one else did. “Not my fault you were twiddling your thumbs waiting for me to get here. Where’s my red carpet?”
I gave him a look of mock anger when in reality, we both knew I was glad every time he walked through the brewery doors. He could be as late as he wanted, and I’d still melt whenever I saw him. Sawyer brightened any room he walked into, and my heart may as well have had his name tattooed all over it.
I grabbed a frosted glass. “Sit your ass in that chair and get ready to try this. I’ve created the best IPA in all of Colorado, bar none. No competition.”
“Those are some big words,” Sawyer said. He leaned over the bar, peering at my phone, which I’d been looking at before he’d walked in. “Hold on. What’s this?”
I glanced over at my phone screen, a flash of embarrassment bolting through me in an instant. “Fuck. Don’t look at that. Sawyer Hendricks, I swear to—”
But it was too late.
Sawyer was wide-eyed, leaning over my phone and reading one of my private dating app messages while I was pulling the tap on our new pale ale.
“Hi, Daddy,” Sawyer read the message out loud, affecting a smooth, sultry tone of voice. “I’ve never seen a bear as perfect as you on this app. I would suck you dry before you could even scream my—”
“That’s enough,” I said, reaching for the phone and swiping it away. I locked it and slid it into my pocket.
I’d never let Sawyer know how embarrassed I was, and I hoped to hell he couldn’t see it. My cheeks felt hot. I shared almost everything with him, and I’d trust him with my whole world, but this type of message was unusual to say the least.
“I didn’t know you were on a dating app,” Sawyer said, his crystal-blue eyes going wide. “Since when?”
I clenched my jaw as I finished pouring his IPA, and I slid the glass over toward him.
“I am not on a dating app,” I said. “I don’t do dating apps. And am I really a bear just because I’m gay, I have a nice beard, and I look like a lumberjack?”
Sawyer gave me a mischievous, quizzical look. “Well… it seems like you are, considering I just read a message you got from a guy who wants to suck you dry.”
“Christ, don’t say that phrase.”
He laughed, and I took a beat to try and compose myself. In reality, part of the reason I didn’t want him saying that phrase was because it was liable to start getting me hard, and the last thing I needed was to be hard right now.
Not while I was on the clock, and not because of something my straight best friend had said.
“Still. It’s a dating app, and you’re on it,” he said.
“Well, I guess technically I am on this one. But only because Charlie swiped my phone and secretly made the profile for me while I was busy feeding the beer tanks last night. I woke up to a few messages today.”
Sawyer pursed his lips. “That guy sure seemed interested in you.”
“Not going to happen,” I said. “That guy was ridiculous.”
“What? You don’t like when guys call you a big, sexy, burly bear?” Sawyer teased.
“Shut up.”
My body had gone all molten even hearing Sawyer read the contents of that message. It had sounded so stupid to me over text from a stranger, but in Sawyer’s familiar, comforting voice?
It was a little too hot.
Not that it mattered. Sawyer was straight, and I wasn’t, and that was okay. I was used to it. Long ago, I’d trained myself to ignore my attraction to my best friend. Even if I was never shy about telling him how much I liked him as a person.
Wavy sun-kissed hair, striking blue eyes, and skin that had been tanned from years of working on a farm. I would be stupid not to think my best friend was hot.
“Hey. I’m proud of you,” Sawyer said softly. “Getting back out there into dating again can’t be easy.”
Sawyer knew better than anyone that I’d been through tough times when it came to dating in the past, and that it still wasn’t easy for me now. Eight years ago, my boyfriend Thomas had passed away, and healing from that grief had been a very long process.