Jilted Read online

  Carter thinks of sliding his palm up Link’s thigh, right under the drape of the kilt’s fluttering skirt to the snug black briefs beneath, then under those too. He doesn’t, because they’re both too unsettled with the strangeness of the situation, and because the stables haven’t entirely lost the lingering smell of horse. There’s also a hotel to go back to, without the threat of a wedding guest one of them might know walking in.

  Making eye contact with Matthew’s mother as Jamie came down the aisle, for example, was an unpleasant moment Carter wishes they both could have avoided.

  “Is this weird for you?”

  Link’s head tilts. “Making out in a horse stable? Eh, it’s not the first time.” Carter laughs, and Link says more seriously, “It’s… less weird than I thought it would be?”

  “Yeah,” Carter says. “I get that.”

  Jamie called Carter personally before sending him an invitation, insisting that it was only because of Carter that she and Matthew got past the initial turmoil and were still together and getting married, and of course Carter had to come to the wedding. And who else would he bring but Link? Though he was okay with going by himself, if Link needed him to.

  “When Jamie started to walk down the aisle,” Link says, toying with the collar of Carter’s sport coat, “I was back there for second, waiting at the other end. And when it was me, then, I just—I knew something wasn’t right. That the way I felt wasn’t the way you should feel when someone is walking down the aisle to you.” Link’s hands move to fret with Carter’s tie, and Carter covers their hands with his own. “The way Matthew looked at her…”

  “Yeah,” Carter says. “That’s the way you look at someone when you know—”

  “It’s right,” Link fills in, holding Carter’s gaze for a long, meaningful moment, then sighs and says, “So are we gonna make out in this barn or what?”

  “Is there a significant difference, do you think, between a barn and a stable? I’d venture that a stable refers to a building specifically built for livestock, while—”

  “Okay,” Link steps back with a wry grin. “We’re talking about this stable instead. You are so lucky you’re cute.”

  Walking with hands clasped and footsteps echoing on the stone floor, Carter points out interesting architectural details, and Link admires the handcrafted ironwork on the windows and doors, explaining how it was created. The high, pitched roof looks entirely rebuilt, and it’s clear where the stones had to be filled in, and where the dark stains of overgrown vegetation couldn’t be completely washed away. The process of saving and refurbishing the old building must have been tedious and enormously challenging; certainly bulldozing it and starting over would have been an easy call for most contractors.

  Someone must have seen something worth keeping in this forgotten place: a second chance, another chapter, a beginning where others would have seen an ending.

  “We should get married here,” Link says, fingers trailing the bricks of a low window; some old, some new. “It suits us.”

  Carter stops, shakes his head. “No.” Link stops too, surprised. “I mean, I love the mix of old and new, the ironwork and how sturdy the building is and how much sense it makes here, but it’s not us.” Link’s eyebrows pull together; a little crease forms between. Carter goes up on his toes and kisses it, taking a breath in and out with his lips still pressed to Link’s forehead.

  He pulls back enough to see Link’s eyes, and his breath catches at the way Link looks at him, as if Carter is somehow the amazing one. “You and me,” Carter says. “We’re something new.” He and Link needed the past to find each other, but they don’t need the lingering fingerprints of other people’s stories on their hearts as they move forward together. Carter and Link aren’t the castoffs at all.

  They are the meant-to-be.

  Acknowledgments

  Thank you to Annie, Candy, and CB for believing in this story, and in my ability to tell it.

  To my family for their endless patience and support, and my Interlude Press author family for being so incredibly talented and kind; you all inspire me.

  About the Author

  Lilah Suzanne is a queer author of Amazon bestseller Broken Records, part of the Spotlight series along with Burning Tracks and Blended Notes. Lilah also authored Spice, the novellas Pivot & Slip and After the Sunset, and the short story Halfway Home, which was featured in the holiday anthology If the Fates Allow. A writer from a young age, Lilah resides in North Carolina and mostly enjoys staying indoors, though sometimes ventures out for concerts, museum visits, and quiet walks in the woods.

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  INTERLUDE PRESS

  ALSO BY LILAH SUZANNE

  Broken Records

  Spotlight Series, Book One

  Los Angeles-based stylist Nico Takahashi loves his job—or at least, he used to. Feeling fed up and exhausted from the cutthroat, gossip-fueled business of Hollywood, Nico daydreams about packing it all in and leaving for good. So when Grady Dawson—sexy country music star and rumored playboy—asks Nico to style him, Nico is reluctant. But after styling a career-changing photo shoot, Nico follows Grady to Nashville where he finds it increasingly difficult to resist Grady’s charms.

  ISBN (print) 978-1-941530-57-3 | (eBook) 978-1-941530-58-0

  Burning Tracks

  Spotlight Series, Book Two

  In the sequel to Broken Records, Gwen Pasternak has it all: a job she loves as a celebrity stylist and a beautiful wife, Flora. But as her excitement in working with country music superstar Clementine Campbell grows, Gwen second-guesses her quiet domestic bliss. Meanwhile, her business partner, Nico Takahashi and his partner, reformed bad-boy musician Grady Dawson, face uncertainties of their own.

  ISBN (print) 978-1-941530-99-3 | (eBook) 978-1-945053-00-9

  Blended Notes

  Spotlight Series, Book Three

  Grady Dawson is at the top of his music career and planning his wedding with boyfriend Nico when his past shows up, news of his nuptials is leaked, and his record company levels impossible demands. Can he make the ultimate choice between a private life with Nico and the public demands of his career?

  ISBN (print) 978-1-945053-23-8 | (eBook) 978-1-945053-40-5

  “Halfway Home”

  An Interlude Press Short Story featured in If the Fates Allow

  Avery Puckett has begun to wonder if her life has become joyless. One night, fate intervenes in the form of a scraggly dog shivering and alone in a parking lot. Avery takes him to a nearby shelter called Halfway Home where she meets bright and beautiful Grace, who is determined to save the world one stray at a time.

  ISBN (print) 978-1-945053-47-4 | ISBN (eBook) 978-1-945053-48-1

  “After the Sunset”

  An Interlude Press Short Story

  Caleb Harris and Ty Smith-Santos have never crossed paths until they learn that a farm in Sunset Hallow, Washington has been bequeathed to both of them. They prepare to sell the farmhouse, but soon find themselves falling for the charming farm, the lonely man who left it to them, and each other..

  ISBN (eBook) 978-1-945053-49-8

  Spice

  In his Ask Eros advice column, Simon Beck has an answer to every relationship question his readers can throw at him. But in his life, the answers are a little more elusive—until he meets the newest and cutest member of his company’s computer support team. Simon may be charmed, but will Benji help him answer the one relationship question that’s always stumped him: how to know he’s met Mr. Right?

  ISBN (print) 978-1-941530-25-2 | (eBook) 978-1-941530-26-9

  Pivot and Slip

  Former Olympic hopeful Jack Douglas traded competitive swimming for professional yoga and never looked back. When handsome pro boxer Felix Montero mistakenly registers for his yoga for Seniors class, Ja
ck takes an active interest both in Felix’s struggles to manage stress and in his heart and discovers along the way that he may have healing of his own to do.

  ISBN (print) 978-1-941530-03-0 | (eBook) 978-1-941530-12-2