Krista

I don't know how many times I've worried over and backspaced comments throughout this whole thing trying not to be spoiler-y. I know I failed a couple of times and went too far.. and was like.. woops. I mean when I notice it like ten minutes later and it's already been quoted and reacted to, I can't be like... ahahahaha tricked you... because the very thing I said fell right in line the next chapter posted. But yeah... as fun and rewarding and nice all of this has been, it's also been a trainwreck and I have fought with my sanity at times. I say that with so much appreciation though, I never expected this. I will be sad when it goes after the next two chapters are posted.

If I explore those dynamics, I would have to break Davin and Joel up, wouldn't I? If Roy is in the story for that sort of exploration still, there can't be a Joel/Davin. Nothing to Hide, would be a good title then. Because Learned to Lie was sort of a mis-direction sort of title. Joel never lied, since his lie was his sexuality, he wasn't all that good at being a liar, he always gave himself away. But yeah. I don't think I have the heart to do Davin like that, not anymore.

Damn that was chaos and poetic all in the same breath. Why those women would go back to him, I don't know.. but if he got away with it, I guess all I can do is shrug. At least he found the one for him later.

Bethany's self-sabotage of the relationship is her doing, I'm going to say. She can't be surprised after what we learned from Five in the coming to terms conversation they had. So, despite being drunk for two days straight, being very physical and in silenced denial they finally talked about something. It was a nice conversation that Percy was going to try to bulldoze himself through, because he was already preparing for the worst possible outcome. That he was going to hurt Bethany, push away Five, and lose him to California and life and Five to Florida. And Five surprised him by pushing him to admit all that. They still don't know what the hell they're going to do. But they're talking about slowing down to figure it all in the next two weeks. In their minds distance and time is an issue and they're still living this sort of vacation double-life. It's not going to work. Bringing up Phone sex is like putting a band-aid on a crack in a dam. Maybe they'll realize that. It may break them either way, but at least their heads will be all the more clear for it. Dreams are meant to be something you love and push for, it isn't supposed to be something you hide yourself in. Percy loves baseball, I think. Five loves swimming. They both love their lives outside of one another. Although Five has a reckoning when it comes to Bethany, he can't have his cake and love Percy too. Especially since Bethany seems to be more than willing to ruin her relationship before it has a chance to ruin her. I'm getting that mindset from her at least. It isn't a healthy place to be, but I get it. People who have been hurt want to distance themselves from that again, and if Five admitting feelings put up that roadblock, and that mindset is true to her character, then yeah, she would have drove him up to Percy herself... They seem to be teetering on uneven ground. As far as the mines go, I do fear for all of them. Michael is out to prove something and he's going to do that... but the continued thought that the mines aren't safe has me thinking... yikes. There are innocent people along for that ride and Michael seems to be a "hell or high water.." sort of person. Especially if his program is something that's going to make him a lot of money.

Yeah, there's been a distinct pace change with the last two chapters, I've noticed. But I'll leave the rest of my comments for the next chapter.

I liked the interactions with the parents. The father coming in all bullish, then finding out he didn't have all the information. The Mom taking control of the conversation, because Dad was saying things in anger that he'd regret. When he cooled off more sensible thoughts began. They will still need to discuss everything, but the phone conversation was what it should've been. Both topics are better discussed sitting across from everyone involved with a coffee table in between them or something. Not over the phone. Grandpa is going to hear it though, harboring a fugitive really. They left that conversation without a lot of ill feelings. Unresolved issues, sure, but they let it rest for later. So yeah, it was really well done. I guess I either missed or forgot where Percy was out to his parents. It might have been early in the reading and I'm forgetful/oblivious. Sometimes I read too fast and I'm like.. wait what? 😮 This story is fast paced, chaotic, it hits surface level feelings, because the characters are living mostly in surface level feelings. There has always been this underlying feeling of them all being liars to themselves, what they want, how they're really thinking. In the last three to four chapters it started to get deeper, and the characters did too. I like the chaos, the game, the mental agility they've held on to throughout the writing. There's a lot of it to enjoy. Percy has been the most bogged down inside his own head since the beginning. But now we're seeing that Five has began to wake up to the realization that he has been too. This is all a nice packaged story. Be happy with it.

Aww. This has me so teary-eyed. I understand though. If my husband was to decide tomorrow that he no longer loved me, it would be over for me too, I'm thinking. He picked me up a little bit and held me, protected me. And I've fiercely protected him. We work. So it will break me. He was not my first love though, I have been in love three times. One broke me. The second time I broke him, and I still regret that I ever fell in love with him, because I knew he was all-in on me and it didn't work out. That's why I like HEA stories. Life breaks us... I don't need to continue to break things in writing. It may be something I will one day feel like doing with a story or character, but it isn't something I look forward to at the moment. So rest easy with that, I guess. Thank you for sharing this though, I know it probably took a lot.

The grocery store trip was cute, until the prostitution thing. Percy should be in law enforcement for how aware he is of his surroundings. Icky thing to do in a dang shopping store of all places. People need rescuers not stuck in their phones to notice such things more often... we've become a people of oblivious people or worse, viral-hog bystanders that would rather post it all over our social medias instead of actually help. But anywho... the rest of the chapter. Five can cook... damn does it sound like he can cook. He can also do other things. I'm too much of a lady to say, but they definitely crossed a lot of lines in their drunk states. I do wonder who is feeding the parents all this information though. To come out with it out of the blue on both counts. Homosexuality and quitting school. Either they've decided to pay attention to his sexuality and knew all along, or someone is slipping information. They didn't know he had quit until then, that anger was more raw... The best sex ever though... whilst shit-faced drunk off their asses? I think the liquor might be wrecking that judgement or recollection a little bit? I've seen drunk people thinking they're Kelly Clarkson on Karaoke night. But who is to say they could power through all that and still perform at the best of their feral and filthy abilities...

Yeah, I suspect the guest bedroom will be renovated quickly for Davin... or they'd enforce the rule the twins must sleep in the upstairs guestroom together. Either way, all parties involved would be horrified... absolutely horrified. Y'all do not know how close I've been to breaking Davin and Joel up on occasion. That is why Roy is in this story still, to be honest. *whistles* I was still of the mind that I was either going to have them never become a thing aside from that kiss in the field... or break them up because Joel and Roy just had more chemistry than Davin and Joel. I was almost ready to open that door, but I was somewhat talked out of it. I've done "first loves" are the only "loves" all over the place. Every pairing I've ever had... stayed that way aside from one, but all they really did was kiss before the dude was found out to be a liar... Other than though, every. single. one. Romances lean on first loves being the only loves... but that's not realistic either. People start and end relationships, even when they were once deeply involved. But anywho, food for another day.

Final book.

Agriscience for his required electives. Colt also took that class though. I know what Colt's plans are. Colt seems rather set on leaving the ranching to Lacey, Trace, and attempting to get Joel wrangled into some of his upcoming chores. The last one will likely backfire on him something big, I'm thinking. He still has a year of school and then the summer to settle his mind on the idea of living the ranch life a little longer. He can't be slacking.

Oh... damn, I didn't notice this chapter being posted. 😮 Oblivious Krista strikes again.

Bless him. He better we can't have Lacey thinking she's a failure. Or Davin for that matter...

Colt was also teaching him to relax and open his hips, mind you. Don't know what his objectives were though.

Lol.. aww these are cute. And cheeky, definitely. tsk tsk tsk. "Can't Divide by Zero..." interesting...

Where I live there's going to be a 40 degree temperature swing... in the frigid direction. So, it's 'bout to happen. It's about to happen rather quick and unapologetically too. I blame you and your bragging ways. If your goal is to start 2026 on my 'list' you're well on your way my dear.

Goodness me, 100k for a chapter? That's a whole novel. 24k is a big fella for a chapter, but some of the chapters that I broke up into parts were hovering around 20k at one time. The last chapter does have a singular theme so I can't split it... but yeah, it is my average of around 3 - 5 chapters... less with this story since none of the chapters hit 5k with this story... but still. It will be an undertaking at 24k, I'm a little worried about the size of it.

A five part Epilogue worked for, "The Best Year..." Or rather no one called me out for it and let me get away with it anyway. But come on now, you can't call them epilogues if there's half a dozen epilogues, surely.

Shew... y'all are making me tread dangerously right now. LOL I can't say much in the off-chance I spoil about 30k worth of writing. Behave yourselves. You know I like to ramble. I backspaced the response to this comment three times.

Montages. I struggle with those. I want to live bogged down in a lot of retrospective writing trying to account for all the lost time. That's why I don't do massive time jumps either. I'm a very linear writer... that's why we're only a month into the timeline. Mind you, I could and probably should've sped up the pace a bit... this story moved backwards, well documented. *whistles innocently* I guess I could force myself to stay within themes with the montages and just have you guys realize that Joel is alive and kicking and nothing traumatizing happened... since he's wherever I take him in the montages. Not sure if I'd do it well enough to bother though.

The last chapter is 24k words, which if I went by my 5k chapter count... mind you I don't think I did much of that during this story.. that's a lot. The second to last chapter is just under 7400 words I think. No loooong epilogue with this one though.

Nope. There's about a.. four day time jump. I tend to not do long time jumps in my writing.

There are only two more chapters... written. That is a true statement to make. Yes. I reread the last chapter tonight after I finished the second to last chapter. I had to delete some, rework the wording in other spots, etc. The ending pulled on me so hard it wasn't funny. I didn't expect it to, because I've read the ending chapter multiple times, it isn't new to me. I honestly don't know. It is 24k words though, there's that. I trimmed about 1200 words off it too.