For Better or For Worse

By Emery C. Walters

It was just going to be a simple Spanish fabada bean and chorizo soup from his grandmother’s favorite recipe. Jake hoped for a nice meal and a better time with his widower father. His dad didn’t seem homophobic, but he just didn’t get that Jake was gay. A quiet dinner might clear the air.

But the trip to the supermarket was a disaster involving a bear and some sausage. Then his dad showed up accompanied by a health aide who isn’t quite what she seems. And the bear shows up, too.

Stress and rum piles up. Will Jake’s father get a new grandson? Does Jake have a bear in the kitchen and in the bedroom, too? Is this meal one big happy family gathering, or an even bigger disaster?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Sep 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781634864626

Emery C. Walters

Emery C. Walters was born Carol Forde, a name he soon knew didn’t fit the boy he was inside. Transition was unknown back then, so he married and then bore and raised four children. When his youngest child, his gay son, left home, Emery told Carol that she had to step aside, and he fully transitioned from female to male in 2001.

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For Better or For Worse

By Emery C. Walters

Published by JMS Books LLC

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2017 Emery C. Walters

ISBN 9781634864626

Cover Design: Written Ink Designs | written-ink.com

Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.

All rights reserved.

WARNING: This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If it is sold, shared, or given away, it is an infringement of the copyright of this work and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.

This book is for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It may contain sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which might be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published in the United States of America.

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For Better or For Worse

By Emery C. Walters

It started at Budget Buy. I was in there buying my groceries for the month like I usually do, on the last Sunday of the month, middle of the afternoon, after the post-church crowd had lunched off the free samples and the dollar hot dogs.

I pushed one of their huge carts, the only kind they have, but I’m a big man. Well, okay, I’m five ten, but I’m built. Well, I’m decent-looking, okay? You can’t miss me, though, because my hair is bright blue.

Why is my hair blue? I have nieces, that’s why. Spoiled little princesses who turned their big baby blues on me and asked if they could do my hair. When they got to the Please, Uncle Jake, I had to give in.

I had no idea. My brother is still laughing at me, but my sister-in-law thinks I’m wonderful.

I hate cooking, but my father is coming over, so this evening I will cook up huge vats full of what I call Grandma’s White Trash Hillbilly Beans. I’ll serve some and freeze what’s left. Voilà! I’ll be all set for whenever I can’t go out to Lenny’s or Roy’s Diner. It’s really a type of fabada, to be honest, but that sounds so gay.

It’s not even really white.

When my nieces come over, they ask for Crap on Crullers. My specialty, though we tell their parents it’s really creamed fish on toast. It’s cream, butter, flour, a drop of—

What’s this? A Channel Six camera crew filming some guy in a suit and tie. The Real People’s Cooking Show with Pierre de la Rhubarb? Never heard of it, or him.

"Now this braised hogget with buffalo milk cheese and crushed artichoke thistle puree over whipped crème de crushed cobnuts saupoudré is…"

Thanks to me, they had to stop the cameras and start over. He lisped and flipped his ascot, batted his eyelashes and then rolled his eyes when he saw me. Wait, was that eye liner? Yes! I burst out laughing, a sort of blue-hair laugh. All right, it’s an elephant-sized guffaw.

The director said cut, and everyone turned and stared at me.

Some lumberjack, who looked familiar, probably just in from the woods for his monthly fill-up, glared at me, his mouth twitching. I recognized him from Gillie’s, the gay bar one town over. He caught my eyes and started giggling. His lip quit twitching, and he roared. It was