The Last Gift

By Chrissy Munder

What do you do when the right man walks into your life at the wrong time?

College student Nathan Reed is so close to graduation he can taste it. So can his parents who have two more kids in the academic pipeline. Nathan looks forward to leaving his night shift at the convenience store for a job he can be proud of and a relationship with someone other than his two guinea pigs.

But Nathan’s careful five-year plan didn’t include lawyer and hunk in need, Adrian Hampton, who walks into his life at 5:25 each weekday morning. Adrian’s plea for help with an office gift leads to a friendship built on shared humor, a charity fun run, and Adrian’s ongoing battle with his PA. It’s the best part of Nathan’s day, until he realizes he wants more.

Does Adrian feel the same? Time is running out and Nathan is about to change to another shift. What will happen if he takes a leap of faith and adjusts his plans to include Adrian?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Dec 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781646569731

Chrissy Munder

Chrissy Munder writes LGBTQ+ romance filled with everyday people and extraordinary passion to transport readers into their personal world of love, laughter, and desireShe is an avid reader, a wanderer of Michigan’s wilderness, and, while not in any particular order, a lover of lists, legally blind, and a certified crazy cat lady. There are those who might tell you she started writing as a way to justify her office supply addiction, but shhhhh! don’t listen to them.After too many jobs in too many states she’s waiting for her chance to become a full-time Lake Michigan beachcomber. Until then, she’s excited to share her love of romance, laughter, and happy-ever-afters.Come along and share the magic.

Book preview

The Last Gift

By Chrissy Munder

Published by JMS Books LLC at Smashwords

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2021 Chrissy Munder

ISBN 9781646569731

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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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With appreciation to Aimée and Karen for keeping me going and Clare, for reminding me not only I can, but I should.

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The Last Gift

By Chrissy Munder

Chapter 1

Nathan Reed’s first week on the new shift couldn’t be called bad, but he needed to call it something. Different? Sure. He’d go there. An entire collection of tiny differences that when totaled? They made for a huge, uncomfortable change. He hated change. It was a sure sign his life had fallen into a mind-numbing rut.

Which wasn’t hard to do when said life consisted of nothing but his shifts here at the convenience store, a max load of classes, his on-campus job at the computer lab, and—surprise—more studying because he also took classes online to make sure he graduated and was employed in a life-sustaining field before his brother finished high school. Money was tight, and even with Nathan’s outrageous amount of student loan debt, his parents couldn’t afford two kids in college. Three, if you counted his little sister in the pipeline.

Whenever he had the time to think about things, which, thankfully, he usually didn’t, Nathan didn’t mind his rut. Or routine, as he preferred to call it. Routines meant planning and predictability. Predictability meant safety. And since emerging neuroscience told us our brains were hard-wired for safety, he simply lived up to his brain’s potential. Or, as his mother insisted on recounting at every single family gathering, Nathan loved plans so much he wouldn’t make the walk to school as a child without a map. Thanks, Ma.

The most irritating difference on this particular morning? Why the store never seemed to get warm on this shift. A cold Nathan was a grumpy Nathan. He’d added another layer under his long-sleeved work polo, and he still felt the late November chill. Nathan blamed the increase in customers letting in the elements. Not to mention the slush tracked in from the post-Thanksgiving snowstorm. Floor mats, people. Use them.

Nathan mopped floors more in the hours between four and eight A.M. than his entire previous shift. Add in the staggering amount of peppermint mocha coffee he needed to keep brewed, and the time spent refilling the fresh baked donut and bagel displays, and the downtime Nathan usually used to catch up on his homework vanished.

Turned out being near the freeway on and off ramps took on a whole new meaning during peak commuting hours compared to his usual vampire o’clock. No wonder his friend, Blaine, had swapped with such enthusiasm. This shift sucked.

He shouldn’t complain. Learning his Bio instructor had gone out on maternity leave a month early and her replacement had changed the required open lab hours had not only sent Nathan into a panic, but threatened to derail his graduation plans. So much for the time he and his father had spent arranging his academic schedule and getting special permission to take most of his advanced, only offered once a year courses in his first couple of years, and the more accessible, intro courses here at the end.

Change is hard, Blaine mocked when he clocked out at four A.M. Friday morning,