Shutter Angel

By Dawn Sister

Gideon is facing the Christmas period alone and finds the prospect not too unpleasant. When he meets Luca, however, he sees an opportunity to spend at least some of the holiday weekend in the company of someone he finds extremely attractive, as long as he can overcome a couple of hurdles along the way.
Angels come in all shapes and sizes.

Story contains intimate scenes between two men. Some drunkenness and a lot of falling over. Drink responsibly and don't drink pink marshmallow flavoured gin alone, folks.

This has been written as part of the Rainbow Advent Calendar on Facebook.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dawn Sister
• Release date: Dec 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463378441

Dawn Sister

Dawn is from the North East of England. Her life is spent juggling. The juggling balls are: children, husband, work (occasionally), voluntary work, professional knitting (notice she doesn't class this as work), and writing. When she has time she actually sleeps.The whole point of writing for Dawn is just to get it all off her chest and out of her head. If she doesn't write it down then she ends up having long conversations with the characters out loud and her husband thinks she's crazy."I like chocolate, coffee and donuts, sometimes all at the same time. I love evenings around a campfire singing in the company of good friends. I like listening to the dawn chorus even if I've been awake all night. I like reading stories with characters that are filled with hope even in their darkest hours. I like happy endings."

Book preview

Shutter Angel

By

Dawn Sister

Copyright © 2019 Dawn Sister

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the author, nor be otherwise circulated without the author’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher. The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

Cover Design: Philip Rose

Picture: courtesy of Canva and Francesco Paggiaro, Pexels

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Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank the usual people for helping me with this story, especially Aryl, who has been amazing, and Karen, who offered to beta my madness.

To Phil, the hubby who feeds me and makes me endless cups of coffee when I’m in deadline hell. Everyone should have a Phil, but not my Phil, because I’m not sharing him.

Also, thank you to Alex, who runs the Rainbow Advent Calendar for which this story was written.

Thank you. You are all awesome.

Your mystery man is watching you again, Agnes pointed out as Gideon placed the second table alongside the first outside the community hall’s front door.

Who is? Gideon asked, trying to sound nonchalant but not quite managing it, because he knew who she meant, and he couldn’t help a quick glance across the square.

Sure enough, there he was, sitting, as he had been every day for almost three months, at a table in the bay window of the restaurant attached to the hotel that sat opposite the community centre. Agnes, convinced that the man was lovelorn and lonely, had nicknamed him Gideon’s mystery man. Gideon refused to claim any possession, but his curiosity was piqued. Who was this man? And if he was so interested in the church and community centre why didn’t he just come over?

Gideon glanced away, shaking his head. He isn’t my Mystery Man, and besides, he isn’t watching me, why would he be watching me?

Because you’re so pretty. Agnes leaned in and pinched his cheek, grinning impishly.

Gideon ducked away from her, an easy thing to achieve because at six foot four, she was a whole foot taller than him. He managed to escape under her arm and evade any more pinched cheeks or other such indignities.

Give over, Ag. He huffed. Let’s decide where we’re putting our tables for the market.

Brr, it’s freezing. Agnes shivered, despite having the thickest scarf and longest wool coat Gideon had ever seen, she was still cold. I opt to put the tables inside the hall.

Gideon shook his head, running his fingers through it to straighten his dark fringe. We did that two years ago, remember, and no one came in, even though it was freezing. They didn’t know we were doing hot drinks because the sign had blown away. Besides, the council have been nice enough to provide us with shelters this year, and posh barrel tables, like a real cafe area, even if we do have to share it with the German Sausage stall and the Crepes and Waffles van. We’ll put the tables alongside the kitchen window, and then we can bring the boiler out on an extension. That way, we can have hot drinks on the go all through the evening.

Yes sir. Agnes gave him a jaunty salute. You’re in charge after all.

No, I’m not. Gideon screwed up his nose. You’re the choir leader.

Yes, but it’s your church hall that we use.

It doesn’t belong to me personally, Ag, it belongs to the church.

Yes, but because you’re the church warden here, we get to use the space for free, you special little angel. Agnes leaned over and ruffled his hair, laughing when he scowled at her.

Ag, I just straightened it out again. Don’t make it frizz up. Gideon ducked away again with a roll of his eyes. Anyone else doing that would have irritated him. Reference to his short stature also earned her a scowl, but he and Agnes had been friends for a long time, so she was allowed. Less of the little as well, although to you, everyone is little I suppose.

Agnes laughed out loud. Tall people were never as sensitive about references to their height, in Gideon’s experience anyway.

Let’s get these tables set up. He huffed, unfolding the legs on the first one and setting it along the wall ready for everything they needed for a hot drinks and cake stall. The market stalls are already set up.

The annual town Christmas market had grown over the last few years into a proper Winter Festival and the council had adorned every tree in the square with fairy lights and glittering garlands. The effect was magical, and Gideon loved every part of it. He especially loved how, over the last three years, his choir had been asked to open the festival with a performance of festive songs. Their performance had quickly become a tradition. It did mean that afterwards, their hot drinks stall was often