An Open Window

By Rick R. Reed

Two men. One Christmas Eve that changes the courses of both their lives.

Henry’s homeless and only wants a warm place to sleep on the coldest night of the year. A forgotten open window in a darkened house entices him inside with the promise of warmth and comfort. He knows it’s wrong, but he promises himself he’ll be out before the owner wakes on Christmas morning.

Except he oversleeps and the homeowner, Jim, discovers a bearded stranger sawing logs under his dining room table. When the shock and the drama that ensues dies down, Henry and Jim discover they might have found, quite unexpectedly, the Christmas miracle they’d both been longing for -- love and home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Dec 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9781646562275

Rick R. Reed

Rick R. Reed is an award-winning and bestselling author of more than fifty works of published fiction. He is a Lambda Literary Award finalist. Entertainment Weekly has described his work as "heartrending and sensitive." Lambda Literary has called him: "A writer that doesn't disappoint…" Find him at www.rickrreedreality.blogspot.com. Rick lives in Palm Springs, CA, with his husband, Bruce, and their two rescue dogs, Kodi and Joaquin.

Book preview

An Open Window

By Rick R. Reed

Published by JMS Books LLC at Smashwords

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2019 Rick R. Reed

ISBN 9781646562275

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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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An Open Window

By Rick R. Reed

Embers flickered, orange and yellow, in the hearth. Jim and Henry sat in front of the fire, wrapped in two things—a yellow-and-white afghan, worn soft, and each other’s arms.

The heat of the dying flames still gave off a little warmth, and when Jim looked over at his husband, his best friend, his soul mate, his outrageous lover, he saw him again as

Reviews for An Open Window

[schatzi_5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Jim had high hopes of spending the holiday with his boyfriend; instead, he finds himself single on Christmas morning with a homeless man, Henry, sleeping under his table. This was a cute short story of two men meeting and, somehow, forming a relationship with one another, even though it feels more than slightly improbable. Oh well, it's the holidays; I can suspend my disbelief for a moment or two, right?The thing that kept this at three stars for me is that it just felt too darned short. I needed more - we never really get to see how their relationship did develop. Plus I never really felt like I got to "know" Henry - Jim, I felt, was much more fleshed out than Henry, and Henry really has the more interesting backstory, at least to me. It might have worked more for me if this had been a longer story.