Cane23

This is a magnificent work - emotionally complex, rich with multi-layered characters, and truly monumental in scope. It contains a staggering 337,427 words, spread across substantial chapters - because let’s face it, nothing about @JJQuinn's writing is ever "little"! If we go by the Gay Authors average of around 4,500 words per chapter, this story would span the equivalent of roughly 75 chapters. Incredible, isn’t it?

A fantasy (kissing Brad) turned nightmare (used for a cheap joke). A forced kiss, public humiliation, and emotional betrayal disguised as “college fun.” It’s the flashback where Lyn’s secret longing collides violently with the world’s casual cruelty and Brad’s obliviousness. Brad is not malicious - but he is dangerously clueless. His performative “progressive” claim is a drunken dare without the alcohol - a “sure, I can kiss a dude, I’m cool like that,” with no concept of how loaded that is for Lyn. He initiates the kiss, makes it transactional (“we’ll see boobs”), turns something sacred for Lyn into a frat-boy stunt. Even worse, he calls Lyn “babe” in a sugary joke voice - mocking tenderness, which for Lyn is real, not funny. The kiss itself - “wet and unpleasant” - is the death of fantasy... the boy he loves does kiss him, but as a dare, without tenderness, under mocking eyes. The last scene is about Lyn’s inward collapse and how trauma leaks into relationships not directly responsible for it. It shows how shame closes doors, how care can be misread as threat, and how a single bad night can quietly warp multiple bonds at once. Both Brad and Lyn are clueless - Lyn about Alexander, Brad about Lyn. Both relationships are misaligned, but in opposite directions. Lyn doesn’t understand what’s moving underneath Alexander’s cold, aristocratic shell any more than Brad understands what’s behind Lyn’s steady, witty composure. None of them is seeing the full picture at the same time. Each is acting on partial information, filtered through fear, pride, or habit. It turns the love triangle into a hall of mirrors. Lyn is to Brad what Alexander is to Lyn - both loving without being understood, both watching someone chase someone else while they are standing right there, invisible in the wrong way.

Nooo, not now - just when the tension has reached its peak! It is different but it is a great story, I love psychological thrillers! 🙂

Am I the only one who thought that was an ugly kiss? 🤮

I agree! I was really intrigued by the word @akascrubber used - offer! I don’t think anything like that will actually happen between them… but still, will Brad offer? 😉

“Actually, he’s the town supervisor where we’ll be living from now on,” Danny said, “so we’re not pressed for money.” He had no idea how to explain what Ryder was without giving something important away. “I am the alpha of my pack,” Ryder said, throwing all caution to the wind. I just love your sense of humor, @Laura S. Fox! Not mayor or sheriff... but “town supervisor”-absolutely brilliant. Cutie Danny simply can't lie, and since he can't tell the truth either, he comes up with this! Rayder definitely doesn’t sound too thrilled with the title! 😂

I've been thinking about this... and I'm not so sure. A drunk Brad might offer him the whole world - let alone just sex.

For a start, he might try not to overthink everything - it's torturous, after all.

With the seemingly casual words, “Roman can cook,” Max’s subconscious has already made a decision before his conscious mind catches up. He isn’t just noting a skill - he’s acknowledging the man he trusts, admires, and wants to be with. In that moment, he’s bypassed social expectations, distractions (like Carter’s obvious affection), and even his own guarded reasoning. That single line crystallizes a turning point... Max’s subconscious has already chosen Roman as the man he wants, and every subsequent internal hesitation is just his protective mind catching up to the truth! I’m really impressed by the honesty of their conversation. With Tara guiding the discussion, Max and Roman leave nothing unsaid - every “elephant in the room” is brought to light. Max’s lingering feelings for Sam are fully acknowledged, yet at the same time, the undeniable attraction between Max and Roman shines through. I especially love the ending, where Roman says he doesn’t agree with Max’s conditions. Up until that point, it’s mostly been Max declaring his own rules - but this moment shows that Roman isn’t trying to dictate the relationship. He’s ready to create new rules together, something that works for both of them. It’s a subtle but powerful sign of trust, growth, and mutual commitment.

You’ve completely muddled my head with this whole pizza story… but this is absolutely priceless: 🤣😂🤣😂😂

Oh no, this was just reaction to @FanLit's comment... 🙂 I needed some time to read the chapter... you know... ❤️

I really enjoyed your comment. I would just add one thing - Ben, too. Ben is part of the family, and as the old wounds heal and new love is embraced, Max will come to accept Ben as a new brother as well.

Oh Lyn, his blindness is chosen. It’s a psychological fortress built from old love (Brad), old rivalry (Alexander), and a deep fear of losing the control he built over years of emotional repression. The tragedy (and the beauty) is that Alexander is offering him the one thing Lyn actually wants - but to take it, Lyn has to dismantle a part of himself. He chooses to interpret everything Alexander does through a safe lens. By reframing tenderness as arrogance or manipulation, Lyn can keep his own heart walled off. If Alexander is just “the arrogant surgeon,” then any warmth, any accidental chemistry, is meaningless - no risk, no pain. The cigarette - a pivot from sex to intimacy (just one little remark - in my native language, phrase for blow job is smoking )! That small gesture - Lyn ripping the cigarette away and destroying it - is incredibly telling. It’s the first unplanned, protective act Lyn has done for Alexander. Not a calculated remark. Not a flirt. Not a chess move. It’s pure care - angry, impulsive, protective. And Alexander reacts by pressing against his back, mocking it, but also acknowledging it. The mocking “Wow, Lynton, I’m impressed” is actually a tell - he felt it. It’s almost a reverse kiss - no lips, but it communicates concern and desire simultaneously. And it makes Alexander advance emotionally. Sex means nothing to you” - this is Alexander, the character who usually observes from behind walls of arrogance and disdain, actually interpreting Lyn. He nails a fundamental truth... Lyn uses sex as function, release, distraction, confirmation... but not as a place of surrender or transformation. The realization hurts Lyn, because it’s accurate. He’s been playing in emotional shadows for years - career, body, flings, strategy - and Alexander sees through it like glass. So, Alexander isn’t trying to get laid. He’s trying to reach Lyn on the level of truth. And that’s what makes him dangerous, irresistible, and narratively magnetic. “Until you make your choice, I’ll be here.” “Then I will know. And I’ll finally stop torturing myself.” - it’s probably the most touching part of the chapter because it’s the moment the walls drop. Everything before was tension, subtext, maneuvering. Here, in just a few words, we finally see what was underneath all of it: care, longing, and a desire for peace. This is the first time in the story where the tone between them is neither sarcastic nor defensive. It’s soft. Vulnerable. Scary. The kind of silence-after-words that feels like the air has changed. Brad...what does Brad want? Mixed signals confuse readers as much as Lyn himself. He wants to stay the center of Lyn’s world, even as he marries someone else. He wants assurance that no matter what else changes, Lyn will still orbit around him. That’s the tragedy in it... Brad wants to keep both - the safe marriage and the emotional intimacy - without admitting how unfair that is to Lyn or to Bella. Eight years passed. Life moved on, but emotional files stayed open. Brad got engaged, built a “normal” life, but that doesn’t mean he ever closed the Lyn file. It’s very common for people to carry a kind of nostalgic attachment - the person who “got them,” the person tied to their formative years - even when they don’t act on it. And so we circle back to the same question we’ve been asking all along - what truly drove Brad to arrange this reunion? Alexander’s intentions are clear: with a new strategy, he’s finally reaching for what he’s always wanted - Lyn. Lyn himself longs for closure, for a quiet, harmless gathering of old friends. But little did he know…nothing about this reunion was ever meant to stay simple.

Brad is "shaking the raft"!

It was manipulative, yes - but not in the sense of some grand mastermind at work. It came from a boy who saw their relationship as transactional: Lyn helps him with school, and in return, Brad offers friendship, a gateway to college life, the "big brother" vibe, and, well… his own dazzling presence. Sure, it doesn’t sound like a fair deal - but it’s all Brad really had to give. To his credit, he never hid it; he always openly acknowledged Lyn’s help.

No, this is all Bella. "You don't have to be jealous," she says - come on, she's the one pulling the strings here. She’s the one who connects all the dots...manipulating Lyn into bringing Alexander, then conveniently pushing him backstage to babysit her brother. What she didn’t anticipate is that Alexander follows where Lyn goes. And she definitely didn’t expect Brad to rebel. Though, anyone who really knows him would remember just how spontaneous he can be.

I know what you're thinking, naughty Chris - but to me, it looks like it's going to be a fight between Athos and Porthos, while poor Aramis tries to break it up, and d’Artagnan is cheering them on. Meanwhile, Queen Isabella is waiting on the beach… with an axe! All of this, of course, assuming Aramis has learned to swim in the meantime. 😜

Although, on most occasions, Lyn wasn’t wrong when interpreting how people looked at him – how they saw him. I just couldn't resist... Now, back to the reading!

@vanalas @Seraph28 Sorry, guys - I can't help it, he's just so annoying!

Really?! How, with abstinence...?! My love, I love you, I miss you...blah, blah, blah 🤪

A win? More like a Pyrrhic victory!

They had tea instead of meals - there was no food, but Lyn seemed to think that was just how things were.

Well, there might be a background story, but I’ve always thought Sam is the real soldier - disciplined, with the attitude of a warrior, the son the Colonel always wanted. Max, for all his success and proven worth, has always been a free spirit - maybe too free for his own father. Not an excuse for the Colonel, just the way it is.

Yea...Ben, a telenovela lover! Oh, Dios mio -mi hijo, mi hijo!!! 🤣😂🤣 I know you but I couldn't resist!

Oh my God… don’t tell me the Colonel is actually the twins’ biological father?! 😱