acceptance - Stories

Two enemies wake in the ashes of Jerusalem—one a deserter drowning in guilt, the other an amnesiac who remembers only how to kill. Hunted across the desert by a vengeful lord, they must disguise themselves as a Crusader knight and his squire to survive. But in the war-torn port of Jaffa, masks slip. Secrets surface. And a feral German street rat with a talent for trouble forces them to confront an impossible question: in a holy war that devours everything, can two broken boys build a family from the ruins?

The Montana sky is wide, coffee strong, and wounded souls are never turned away from Two Spirits Horse Ranch. When Jake finds a young stranger left for dead at the north gate, his promise to protect him draws the whole ranch into a fight against fear, memory, and the men who may return to finish what they started. Warm, funny, tender, and suspenseful, In the Barb is a Western romance about found family, survival, and the kind of love that begins as rescue but grows into home.

Owen has been hiding his whole life. Closeted in a Catholic funeral home family, fake-dating his best friend Margot for three years, headed to a college he doesn't want. Then Ryder messages him on a dating app and everything shifts. Ryder is rough, honest, reckless, and completely unwilling to be someone's secret. As their connection deepens over one Ohio summer, Owen finds himself caught between the safe lie he's been living and the terrifying truth Ryder keeps pushing him toward. Something has to break. And Ryder's determined to take him on the ride of his life before it does.

A forbidden, slow-burn wedding saga about a mouthy younger brother and the man he was never supposed to want.

Life is filled with surprises. We are constantly reminded that we are at the mercy of the universe; from the people we meet, to the events that shape us, to the places we find ourselves in. If we are among the lucky ones we will find our place in the world, and someone to share it with, and life will be sweet. But even then, everything is subject to change, and we either roll with the flow, or find ourselves fighting against the tide, because you just never know what might come at you from out of the blue.

A washed-up captain steals an alien saucer, crashes it into a pre-spaceflight civilization, and accidentally abducts a terrified teenage local. Now he's stranded with a hostile hostage, a sarcastic AI, and a teleporter that turns livestock inside out. To make things worse, his estranged husband is tracking him across the galaxy—and the real owners of the ship want everyone dead. A chaotic sci-fi romp about bad decisions, found family, and learning that running from your problems just creates bigger ones.

Martin is still feeling the effects of an acrimonious divorce and more recently the death of his mother.

He receives an email that could be a scam. It triggers events that upend just about everything Martin believes about himself. His path forward is not going to be smooth. Can he navigate this new life to make friends, find love and reestablish a family?

Yet another collection of poetry, added to as the mood or fancy strikes me. I hope you enjoy at least some of it.

One week after their first encounter Leo meets up with the two brothers Sam and Kenny to escape to the lake in Hadley Woods. Leaving behind suburbia, and in a quiet secluded spot, they pass the day together sunbathing. The shared intimacy and shared secrets solidify what has become a "secret society of three."

Some choices are within our control, while some are not. Life is about acceptance and balance... and living with consequences as we look forward and back.