Norwegian Woody

By J.D. Walker

Woodrow “Woody” Anker is an urban legend -- the boy who lived. Orphaned at the age of three due to a car accident that killed his parents, Woody is taken in by the Zumpano family. He becomes best friends with Serge, the youngest boy, and looks up to Rafe, the oldest. As the years go by, Woody’s feelings for Rafe change into something else entirely. Except, Rafe is straight. And in denial about his alcohol abuse.

Rafe Zumpano, now the town Sherriff and Lothario-extraordinaire has been a heavy drinker since his teens, and it’s getting worse. He’s got a secret that he drinks away every night, but when the truth finally comes out, it ruins everything.

It will take a lot for both men to move beyond alcohol-fueled vitriol, self-doubt, and internalized homophobia to get to the part where they stop throwing punches and have their happy ending.

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Mar 11, 2017
• ISBN: 9781634860888

J.D. Walker

J.D. Walker likes to keep her stories short and sweet. A multi-published author, she is also a musician, artist, and lover of all things knit and crochet. For more information, visit lifebyjo.com/jdwalker.

Book preview

Norwegian Woody

By J.D. Walker

Published by JMS Books LLC at Smashwords

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2016 J.D. Walker

ISBN 9781634860888

* * * *

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.

NOTE: This ebook was previously published by Amber Quill Press.

* * * *

Norwegian Woody

By J.D. Walker

I’d always been seen as a tragic figure in this town. I’d learned to deal with the unwanted stigma that followed me wherever I went, but I hated it. To simply be a person who’d grown up here like everyone else would have been nice. A regular Joe, rather than the boy who pity built. I was a living, breathing urban legend.

The boy who lived.

Yup, I was Woodrow Anker—the kid who’d witnessed his parents’ death at the age of three and survived. I’d hung upside down in the car as they bled to death in front of me. The person who’d caused the accident was never found, and I could still remember the smell of gasoline and my parents screaming in pain until they stopped, forever. I’d felt like I was floating. It had taken a long time for help to arrive, and not once did I cry or make a sound. In fact, I didn’t speak again until I was ten years old.

Lucky for me, lifelong friends of my parents, the Zumpanos, took me in and I became part of their family. I was as different from them as night from day. I had pale gray eyes and white-blond hair—my Norwegian ancestry was front and center—whereas the members of my foster family were dark-haired and brown-eyed Italian Americans going back four generations.

The youngest boy, Serge, was the same age as me and became my best friend. Rafe Zumpano, who was eight years older than us, became our self-appointed protector in all things. There was a sister, Helen, who was two years older than Rafe and ended up marrying and moving to Florida later on. She had three kids now.

I attended many therapy sessions growing up, and we, as a family, learned sign language to help me communicate and feel confident while I was speech impaired. Mila and Peter Zumpano got me into a school an hour up the coast that would cater to my needs, a place where I now worked as a teacher.

The return of my ability to speak had been abrupt. It happened when Rafe turned eighteen and announced to all of us at dinner that he’d been accepted to a university many miles away. I didn’t want him to go, and the anguish I felt at his upcoming departure made me cry out, No!

My first word in seven years, and it was bittersweet. I had Rafe, painful as it was, to thank for my return to speech, but it wasn’t until my teenage years that I understood why I’d reacted that way.

Rafe returned home a few years later after graduating with a criminal science degree.