RECENT RELEASE
Book Title: Twin Firs
Author: Paul Bright
Publisher: Cascadian Western Press
Cover Artist: Abby Simmons
Release Date: September 1, 2024
Tense/POV: Third person, past tense, alternating POV
Genres: Contemporary MM Rom-Com
Tropes: Lonely train station agent who doesn’t think he’ll fall in love
Themes: New romance after painful breakup
Heat Rating: 3 flames
Length: 91 200 words/366 pages
It is the first book of the series. It does not end on a cliffhanger, but many stories will continue in the next book.
Buy Links - Available in Kindle Unlimited
A lonely train station agent waits for true love to arrive.
Updated Blurb
Train station agent Ethan Tremblay believed he'd never find the perfect man to love. Elementary school teacher Leo Grabowski believed no one would love him if they found out who he really was. When they met at the isolated Twin Firs train depot in an idyllic mountain resort in the Pacific Northwest everything conspired to keep them apart, especially their own insecurities, until they finally learned how to become themselves.
Excerpt
The afternoon lunch crowd at Amélie's diner kept her busy tending to her customers at the gay resort but she made time to talk to her son and his new 'friend.'
“Here's your trout, Leo,” Amélie said as she replaced his uneaten salad. “And here's your lasagna. Do you ever comb your hair?”
Ethan glared at his mother. “I don't want lasagna.”
“Well that's what I brought you.”
“You're not helping me lose weight.”
“Absurde,” she demurred and turned to Leo. “There's nothing wrong with a little meat on the bones. What do you think, Leo?”
“I prefer a guy I can grab a hold of,” he said and cast a devilish glance at Ethan's mother.
“I do too. Ethan's father was very handsome but lean. Part Mohawk. Ohhh, my parents were not pleased when they met him. They were 'Good Catholics' and when they found out I was pregnant they were beside themselves. Calice! It was bad enough I was dating a patient I met during med school residency, la la. But an Indian - that's what they called him...”
“You don't need to tell him your life story, Maman,” Ethan interjected.
“Why not? Leo told me about his mother. Nothing wrong with friendly conversation.”
“I don't want to pry.” Leo attempted to dispel Ethan's discomfort.
“You're not,” Amélie assured him. “I simply want you to know I raised Ethan well despite being a single mother. I also taught him how to use a comb, though lately he seems to have forgotten.”
Leo looked down at his plate, embarrassed for Ethan.
“You also changed my diapers. Want to tell Leo about that?”
Amélie feigned shock. “Let's not go too far.”
“Too late...” slipped out of Leo's mouth before he could stop.
Ethan burst out laughing. He slapped the table and spilled his iced tea. Leo laughed with him.
Amélie chided them, “All right, all right, make fun of me.”
Ethan sobered up and asked, “How're you doing, Maman?”
“Oh, the same old. The young ones complain about the older ones moving too slow. The older ones complain about the young ones slipping away during shift to give blow jobs. I bet they wouldn't bitch if they were on the receiving end. I started rubbing lidocaine on my wrist. It helps. Nothing to complain about.”
“Mama Amélie! Mama Amélie,” a customer shouted from the other side of the diner.
“Oh, I'm needed.” She looked over the tables to see who was calling, then turned to Leo.
“Take good care of him. He's the only son I've got."
She kissed Ethan on both cheeks and limped across the room gleefully shouting, "I'm coming boys!”
Ethan watched her leave, then focused on Leo. “You came looking for me?”
“Yeah,” Leo hesitated, “I wanted to apologize for being so abrupt last night.”
“No, I was totally saying the wrong things. My brain thinks things and they don't come out right.”
“You were right,” Leo said. “I don't know when we'll see each other again.”
“If you keep missing trains I don't know when I'll get rid of you.”
Leo was taken aback. “Oh.”
“I didn't mean it like that,” Ethan blurted out quickly. “I don't want to get rid of you.”
Amélie returned with fresh iced tea for Ethan. “I'm back. They saw your trout and wanted to know why it's not on the menu.”
“Why isn't it?” Leo asked.
“This is a cannibal themed restaurant, la la. Alferd Packer. Donner Trail...'Have Family for Lunch'...”
“That's in California,” Leo interrupted.
Ethan quietly reminded Leo, “Everything at this resort is fake.”
“Creative license, sa coche. Anyway, eating fish has a whole different connotation with gay men.”
“Riiiight...” Leo slowly nodded.
“And I've never told you,” she turned to Ethan, “but I've always wondered where you got the gay. Because your father definitely wasn't. He loved eating fish.”
Leo spit lemonade across the table.
“WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?!” Ethan shrieked.
Amélie continued dreamily, “He used to whisper to me in Iroquois when we were making love.”
“DON'T TELL ME THIS!”
“I often regret never teaching you his language.”
“I don't want to know! I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!” Ethan pushed his chair away from the table. “Don't tell me about your sex life!”
“You told me about yours this morning.”
“NO I DIDN'T. That was autocorrect!”
“I'm simply comparing you to your father. You get the shyness from him.”
“Please stop,” Ethan countered. “You're embarrassing me in front of someone I barely know.”
“The fact that you barely know him isn't my fault,” she declared. “I'll leave you alone so you can remedy that.”
Amélie trudged away and returned to work.
About the Author
Paul Bright wrote/produced/directed twelve feature films that are internationally distributed including Pocket Mouse Protector, Angora Ranch and Altitude Falling.
When he was the Artistic Director of the Gaslight Theater in Austin TX, Paul produced 32 stage plays and directed many of them including Loot, The Master and Margarita, Rhinoceros, Death and the Maiden, and Lazarus Laughed.
He lives in the Columbia River Gorge of the Pacific Northwest in a tiny house with two cats.
He likes trains.
Twin Firs is his first novel.
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