Simple Gifts

By L.B. Gregg

A Cornwall Novella

A former ward of the state, Jason Ferris is fiercely protective of his carefully guarded private life. When he's felled by a rogue lawn ornament at a Christmas party, Jason finds himself in the care of his first and most devastating love-- dark, dangerous, and equally damaged Lt. Robb Sharpe.

Newly returned from years away in the military, Robb's homecoming isn't exactly the stuff of fairytales. Now thrust together after a ten year hiatus, Jason and Robb discover that perhaps some things are worth waiting for.

• Language: English
• Publisher: L.B. Gregg
• Release date: Aug 23, 2015
• ISBN: 9780986313226

Book preview

Simple Gifts

A Cornwall Novella

Copyright (c) 2015 by L.B. Gregg, LLC

Cover Art by L.C. Chase

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from L.B. Gregg, LLC.

ISBN: 978-0-9863132-2-6

Printed in the United States of America

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

A former ward of the state, Jason Ferris is fiercely protective of his carefully guarded private life. When he’s felled by a rogue lawn ornament at a Christmas party, Jason finds himself in the care of his first and most devastating love—dark, dangerous, and equally damaged Lt. Robb Sharpe. Newly returned from years away in the military, Robb’s homecoming isn’t exactly the stuff of fairytales. Now thrust together after a ten-year hiatus, Jason and Robb discover that perhaps some things are worth waiting for.

Simple Gifts

A Cornwall Novella

By L.B. Gregg

To my darling Rosie

Chapter One

I fled the Sharpe family’s unbearably merry Christmas with my coat undone and my head bare. A battalion of inflatable snow globes hovered on the front lawn, and here on the lakeside of the house, a wicked wind blew shrapnel of ice across the shore. Tiny shards flayed my cheeks, but I still chose frostbite over that stifling scene inside the house. Easily.

From the moment Sunny pried me from her idiotically small car, I knew I shouldn’t have come. We’d pulled into the vast circled drive under a ring of oak trees, and I’d gaped at the Sharpes’ stately new second home like the orphan I was. "Isn’t this where they filmed Home Alone?"

It’s a little much, I know, but my Dad thinks it’s necessary for the election.

I can see why. The brick fortress epitomized Members Only, much as the senator did. I smoothed my tie and checked the buttons on my wool overcoat.

My mom’s expecting us. Sunny smiled weakly. I don’t want to upset her. She’s got her hands full with all this.

I swiveled, trying to take ‘all this’ in at once. A mammoth choo-choo train spun its flashing wheels on an imaginary track beside the front walk. Santa grinned from the engine. Eight spherical snow scenes stood in formation by the hedgerow, wobbling in the wind. When we passed a pair of mechanical reindeer genuflecting to the grass, I couldn’t keep quiet. Jesus.

Sunny waved a mitten at the side yard. Asleep in the manger.

She stopped at the front door and took a steadying breath. Mascara made her eyelashes a mile long tonight, and those deep, dark eyes were Anne Hathaway huge, but the line of her mouth gave her away. I’d known Sunny Sharpe since we were dorky outsiders together in the eleventh grade, and I knew this look.

Fear.

Hey. I tucked my hand into her mitten-covered one and gave her fingers a squeeze. Everything’s going to be all right, Sun.

I hope so. Sunny squeezed back. The wind gusted across the lawn, and her shoulders shook.

Ready?

"No. Wait. I have something to tell you. Please don’t be mad. I should have told you as soon as I knew, but I was afraid you wouldn’t come tonight, and I thought you should be here. You belong here."

Dread’s icy finger touched my heart. She took a deep breath. Robb’s home.

The bombshell hit me hard enough that I dropped her traitorous hand and took a step back. "Are you kidding me?"

I know! I should have warned you. I’m sorry! I knew you’d cancel, and I couldn’t stand for you to miss out. I don’t want you to be alone.

I’ve been alone since I was six. I like being alone. What the hell, Sun? Way to blindside a friend on Christmas.

Robb Sharpe. I’d carried a torch for Sunny’s tall, dark, and handsome older brother since the day I arrived in Cornwall as a bumbling sixteen-year-old. Having come from one disastrous foster situation, I landed smack into my last equally disastrous placement. I’d had a bad haircut and cheap sneakers, and on the day Robb and I met, tongue-tied and painfully self-conscious in the presence of Sunny’s God-like big brother—swim team captain, student body treasurer, mathlete—I’d fallen down a flight of stairs and landed literally on top of his feet.

Oh my God. He’s home.

At least he wasn’t dead. Although, at that moment, I sort of wished I was.

Robb’s here? His name tasted of longing and shame. I choked that shit right back down where my feelings belonged. Buried. Now? Tonight?

Yes. I’m so sorry!

"Shit." What was I doing at the Sharpes’ Christmas party anyway? I knew better. I’d never come before, why change my plans this year?

Reviews for Simple Gifts

[gigi9988776 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a book I read two Christmas' ago and had forgotten about. Heartbreaking but sweet, it is a lovely tale of two lost souls who need time and distance before they can come together and be any good for one another. A perfect Christmas story for a M/M romance/angst lover, like me.

[kaetrin_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3.5 starsThis was a short sweet story about a lonely man who has had a crush on his best friend's older brother for ages. There is history and when he comes home from the war in Afghanistan for good at Christmas, they meet again. I've a feeling I would have enjoyed it even more if it had been longer and I'd had more detail about the history between the two. There is also origami.