Iced

By Jon Keys

Keith Walker, a mall bookstore employee, is struggling to get through another miserable holiday season while trying to preserve a crumbling long-term relationship. One of his few comforts is his morning coffee made by a good-looking, younger barista. Austin Novak felt an attraction when Keith started frequenting the coffee shop, but he doesn’t think the older man has any interest in him or his graphic novel collection.

A Christmas week snowstorm buries the city and locks Keith’s car into its parking spot. Keith decides to show Austin his gratitude for helping free the car from the ice with a dinner invitation. The meal becomes complicated when Austin meets Keith’s boyfriend, Shawn, and things go downhill from there when Shawn announces he’s heading to Cancún with his coworkers. Keith is caught between keeping his boyfriend happy and keeping his job. But Keith might not need a plane ticket to find the happiness that’s been missing from his life.

A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2016 Advent Calendar "Bah Humbug."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
• Release date: Dec 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781635331837

Jon Keys

Jon Keys’ earliest memories revolve around books; with the first ones he can recall reading himself being “The Warlord of Mars” and anything with Tarzan. (The local library wasn’t particularly up to date.) But as puberty set in, he started sneaking his mother’s romance magazines and added the world of romance and erotica to his mix of science fiction, fantasy, Native American, westerns and comic books. A voracious reader for almost half a century, Jon has only recently begun creating his own flights of fiction for the entertainment of others. Born in the Southwest and now living in the Midwest, Jon has worked as a ranch hand, teacher, computer tech, roughneck, designer, retail clerk, welder, artist, and, yes, pool boy; with interests ranging from kayaking and hunting to painting and cooking, he draws from a wide range of life experiences to create written works that draw the reader in and wrap them in a good story.

Book preview

Iced

By Jon Keys

Keith Walker, a mall bookstore employee, is struggling to get through another miserable holiday season while trying to preserve a crumbling long-term relationship. One of his few comforts is his morning coffee made by a good-looking, younger barista. Austin Novak felt an attraction when Keith started frequenting the coffee shop, but he doesn’t think the older man has any interest in him or his graphic novel collection.

A Christmas week snowstorm buries the city and locks Keith’s car into its parking spot. Keith decides to show Austin his gratitude for helping free the car from the ice with a dinner invitation. The meal becomes complicated when Austin meets Keith’s boyfriend, Shawn, and things go downhill from there when Shawn announces he’s heading to Cancún with his coworkers. Keith is caught between keeping his boyfriend happy and keeping his job. But Keith might not need a plane ticket to find the happiness that’s been missing from his life.

Table of Contents

Blurb

Chapter ONE

Chapter TWO

Chapter THREE

Chapter FOUR

Chapter FIVE

Chapter SIX

About the Author

By John Keys

Visit Dreamspinner Press

Copyright

Chapter ONE

KEITH WANTED to throw the tire iron through the window of the piece-of-shit car that was all he could afford, but dropped it into the trunk instead. The fucking vehicle was rusted through in a dozen places, and now had a flat. Even worse, he had left a long day of work to discover the snowplows had buried his car in a coffin of gray-and-brown slush that had refrozen into frigid granite. Merry fucking Christmas. It was always something. He hated the holidays.

Glaring at the latest insult from the season of ice and bitchy children, he was swimming in anger and deep sadness. There was no way he could change the ice-encased tire. Money was tight. A wrecker wasn’t in his budget. Thirty-year-olds should have plans beyond working at the mall bookstore and being too short on cash to have someone change their damn tire.

He glared at the car as if that would correct the problem. Oddly enough it didn’t seem to give a shit.

You need help?

Keith glanced up to find the twentysomething who worked at the coffee place looking at him. Coffee was Keith’s drug of choice, and the kid was a frequent customer of the graphic novels in Keith’s bookstore—a favorite section for Keith too. Dammit, what is his name? Owen? Oliver? Open? No, Austin.

Hey, Austin. Yeah. I have a fucking flat and the plows buried the car. Now it’s frozen solid. The wind picked up and cut through Keith’s clothing like a chef’s new knife.

Austin moved closer, not seeming as affected by the cold, and kicked at the blocks of ice wedged against the tires. I’ve got a shovel and tow strap in my Jeep. We can pull you out.

A wave of relief washed over Keith as Austin trotted to a late-model Jeep Wrangler, dug through a back compartment, and came back shortly with a few pieces of equipment. He used a small shovel to chip away the ice from the tire. He looked like a champion ice-eating beaver from the way the chips and bits flew. After a minute Keith felt guilty he was letting a relative stranger do all the work.

Hey, do you want me to dig awhile?

Nah, man. I got it. Austin chuckled a little. Well, I got it until I get tired. Then I’ll swap with you.

Austin moved the snow and ice at a speed that would have left Keith gasping for air. The few years working at the bookstore hadn’t sculpted him into an Adonis, and he hadn’t darkened the doorway of a gym in years in spite of Shawn’s constant badgering. His boyfriend went enough for both of them.

Okay, we’re almost there. Let me catch my breath. It’s tough to stay in shape during the winter.

Keith chuckled to himself that their thoughts appeared to echo each other but stepped forward and held out a hand. Here, catch your breath and I’ll see what I can dig out.

Austin nodded, handed Keith the shovel, and stepped out of the way. After a few whacks at the ice, his estimation of Austin changed even more. He was a lot stronger than Keith gave him credit for. Keith couldn’t make the chips fly with anything close to the same intensity Austin managed. To make it even worse, he’d only hit it a dozen times and was already gulping frigid air, causing his chest to burn from the cold. There was no question about it. He was out of shape and needed to get

Reviews for Iced

[serenayates · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Falling into a routine, followed by complacency, is a death sentence for any relationship. And unless both partners want to change things and are willing to do the work – on themselves – that may be needed, there is no chance to salvage anything. That is what Keith faces after twenty years with his partner, Shawn. They have developed in different ways since they got together in college and it is evident to me (and to Keith’s new friend, Austin), that Shawn is not interested in saving what he used to have with Keith. In fact, the man has become emotionally abusive, and Keith - in my humble opinion – has hung on much too long. This is the story of Keith’s awakening to the truth and his path toward change and a new happiness.

Keith works at a bookstore in a mall, is settled in his routine, and desperately wants to save his relationship. The problem is that he is the only one, and with Shawn not interested in the least, Keith ends up appeasing him by trying to do everything Shawn’s way. Keith’s self-confidence is gone, and it takes a flat tire for him to get to know Austin, the young barista at Keith’s favorite coffee shop. Austin is like a breath of fresh air in Keith’s life, and while they don’t immediately fall into bed, Austin is one of the impulses Keith needs to see the truth – Shawn is an a**hole who is no longer interested in Keith and there is no point in trying to rescue a relationship that has ended quite a while ago. But it’s Shawn’s ultimate act of betrayal that ends it for Keith – and it had me shaking my head (I had expected it after his previous behavior) and I was upset on Keith’s behalf at the same time.

Austin, as an outsider, can see Keith and Shawn’s issues much more clearly than Keith can. He is attracted to Keith, but he bites his tongue, at least at first, not wanting to be a homewrecker. Instead he offers support to Keith when he deals with his “holiday misery”, including the awful annual letter from his religious mother. I respected Austin for that, and I liked how he waited for Keith to be ready for a change. After all he is Keith’s friend at that point, and even though he feels slightly selfish because he is interested in more than friendship, in the end, it is Keith’s happiness that matters to him more than anything else.

If you like your Christmas stories with a few complications, if you enjoy reading about troubled relationships that result in life-changing situations, and if you’re looking for a read that goes from depressing and dismal to hopeful, then you will probably like this novella.


NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review.