Shooting for the Moon

By Gareth Vaughn

With winter holidays approaching, it's supposed to be a time for romance and togetherness for Colton and Ben. Except climate change has erased the chance for a white Christmas, their rent is going up, and neither of them have energy after working all day and barely getting to see each other. As their frustrations mount and finances dwindle, it almost seems more likely they'll be single for the new year rather than doing anything special for each other.

Colton isn't willing to give up without a fight, though. He might not be able to give Ben his dream of visiting the moon, but he can bring a bit of the moon to Earth. Rekindling some of his own hope and romance, he decides to put his skills as a chef to good use and go all out in preparing Ben a meal -- and a night -- not to be forgotten. The world might be a grim place, but if he shoots for the moon, maybe he can hit a bit of holiday magic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Nov 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781646562008

Gareth Vaughn

Things Gareth Vaughn is terrible at: Whistling. Card games. Writing bios. Not adopting cats. Things Gareth Vaughn is okay at: Snow shoveling. Star Trek trivia. Writing stories. Fishing cat toys from under the couch.

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Shooting for the Moon

By Gareth Vaughn

Published by JMS Books LLC

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2019 Gareth Vaughn

ISBN 9781646562008

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.

No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission from the publisher, with the exception of 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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Shooting for the Moon

By Gareth Vaughn

Colton had only been asleep a couple hours before Ben’s alarm woke him. Normally the alarm pissed him off, but today he roused, rolled over, tossed an arm over his half-asleep boyfriend. Ben slept in boxers only and Colton ran a hand down his chest, slipped fingertips under the band of Ben’s pants. He kissed the back of Ben’s shoulder, sleepy still but turned on by their closeness. There’d be enough time for something quick—they’d done it before.

But Ben elbowed him away and turned off the alarm.

Go back to sleep, he said. He didn’t sound pissed, but he didn’t sound gentle either.

Colton rolled over, disappointed, and fell back asleep. When he woke again, he couldn’t remember if Ben had come back in to kiss him before he left for work, like he used to. Not knowing gnawed at him until he dragged himself out of bed and set on distracting himself from it.

It was already nearly noon and despite the sleep Colton yawned as he drew the curtains, revealing the parking lot and other apartment building across from where he stood. The tenant opposite had a little dog that sat on the back of the couch in the window, attentive to the world passing by. A couple of people smoked, leaned up against their cars, one of them gesticulating sharply.

He probably shouldn’t check the news today. He recognized the gesturing person as someone who got heated whenever more shit happened. And right now, Colton didn’t want to deal with any more shit. Bad enough it was a Midwest December with temperatures in the 50s and 60s; he’d already gotten used to people complaining about not having snow for Christmas this year and would rather hear about that than an outbreak of something deadly or another restrictive law signed in. He couldn’t wait for 2077 to be over, though 2078 didn’t promise much better.

He returned the dishes Ben had cleaned to the cupboard and checked his bank account, displeased with how little he’d managed to set aside since the last time he’d had to raid his savings for an emergency. It wasn’t like he and Ben ever did anything this time of year,