GENRE: Gay Erotic Romance
LENGTH: 56,520 words
RATING:

Living in downtown Toronto can be expensive and frustrating, but Leo is willing to deal with the traffic and working the overtime in order to experience everything else the city has to offer. Or would be, if he had any energy left to do so. The fact that his upstairs neighbour is making more noise that a herd of elephants isn't helping things either. Tired, irritated, and on the verge of losing his patience, Leo knows that things have got to change.

Gordy is one of the most attractive young men that Leo has ever met, and Leo has no doubt in his mind that Gordy has been using those good looks to get whatever he wants for a very long time. So when Gordy starts turning on the charm, Leo can't help but wonder if it's actual interest or merely appeasement.

Together they're going to try and figure out just what can be done with Gordy's new roommate -- an energetic, excitable, and very noisy young goat whose visit comes with a deathbed promise and a tight family bond. What Leo doesn't realise is that she also comes with an ability to make him understand more about himself than he could have ever imagined he needed to learn.

EXCERPT:
Note: may contain sexually explicit scenes of a homoerotic nature.

Gordy looked up and directly into Leo's eyes. His eyes were the bluest things Leo had ever seen before, and quite possibly the prettiest. It wasn't a word he normally used for men, mostly because they tended to balk at such a 'feminine' term, but for Gordy, none of the rest of the terms -- handsome, sexy, or even cute -- seemed right. They were either not nearly enough of a term, or their edges were too hard.

"Is that what you want?" Leo asked, needing to hear it after what Jeff had put in his head. "Like, I don't know if you're interested ... you kind of made it sound like maybe you might be ... I mean, you said I was good looking ..." He cleared his throat and pulled his hand away when Gordy didn't say anything. "It's okay if you were just saying that to get me to not report you or whatever. I don't really care. Honestly, I will not hold it against you, or --"

"I would like that," Gordy whispered.

A whole lungful of oxygen came rushing out of Leo before he could get his breathing under control. His shoulders dropped. A smile crept onto his face even though he was telling himself to act cool. "All right then. Awesome." He thumbed at the door. "So, I'm going to go. Before this moment gets really awkward and I do something ridiculous. I'll come back tomorrow though, okay? I'll figure something out."

He stood and walked over to the door. A warm rush of excitement was growing in his stomach and he wanted to get down to his apartment and do something foolish to celebrate it -- a happy dance, or a toast to the gods. After all, it wasn't every day that he fell into the path of a gorgeous, interested young man who needed his help.

"Hey, Leo?"

Gordy's voice was directly behind him and Leo startled. He spun, suddenly worried that he'd been standing there with the doorknob in his hand and a big, goofy grin on his face. "I --"

Gordy stood on his toes, leaned into him, and Leo met Gordy's kiss with wide-eyed surprise. It wasn't a long kiss, or even a deep one, but it still had Leo chasing it when Gordy pulled away. In a heartbeat the warmth inside him was heating up to something much stronger than mere excitement.

"Thank you for wanting to help me," Gordy told him. "And for being patient, and being nice, and just, I guess, being here."

Although he'd pulled away to talk, the rest of Gordy's body was still so very close to Leo's. It would be nothing for Leo to wrap his arms around Gordy's waist, lift him up, and carry him back to the couch. To lie him down and kiss the clothing off of him. But as much as Leo wanted to, he really didn't think sex was the right way to help someone grieve. Especially when they barely knew each other. It might be a great way to get Gordy to not think about anything for a while, but it would also be a great way to get remembered as the douche who took advantage of him the day his mother died.

"You're welcome," Leo said. His voice sounded much stronger than the rest of him felt. He gently pressed Gordy away. Before he could change his mind, Leo again reached for the door. This time he stopped himself before turning the knob. "Hey, Gordy?" He nodded at the goat. "You said Belinda was the second miracle. What was the first? There's not another one of her around here is there?"

For a second a real smile brightened Gordy's face. "Oh." He lightly touched his chest and dragged his fingertips over his heart, in what seemed to be a subconscious thing. "I was."

Leo tilted his head. He smiled. "Oh?"

"My mom always said she and Dad wanted a bunch of kids. Like, a lot. That's why they bought the farmhouse in the first place. Lots of bedrooms. Lots of places to play. It just never worked for them. And they couldn't afford IVF or anything, so they decided it was never going to happen. All those years with no birth control and nothing ever happened. My mom was fifty-four when she found out she was pregnant with me. She didn't even think she was. She just figured it was the change of life when things stopped doing what they do. But nope." He looked up at Gordy and forced another smile. "It was me. When other women were having grandkids, she was getting ready for her first and only baby. She used to tell me the angels were waiting to send one until they had perfected the recipe."

Leo grinned. "Not just a miracle, but a perfect one."

"So I hear." Gordy shifted on his feet and crossed his arms, as if suddenly uncomfortable. "You can see how I can't really let her down, right? She waited her whole life for me, and then gave me the years when she should have been doing all those things that every other retiree does - travelling, or golfing, or boating. Whatever. The two of them were hosting birthday parties with bouncy castles and going out to baseball games in their sixties, Leo; they were getting me a tux for prom in their seventies and figuring out how to pick iPads and smart phones and gaming laptops when the rest of their friends were shaking their fists at 'kids and their tech,'" He finger quoted the last part. "Can you imagine that? And the whole time, they never once made me feel like that was weird or strange. They didn't ever seem too tired or out of touch with what I was going through. It wasn't until I hit my twenties that I realised how tough it must have been for them."

"I hear you," Leo said. "Don't worry. We're going to make sure their first miracle finds their second miracle a miracle."

Gordy sighed. "That's a tall order."

"Not at all." Leo opened the door and stepped into the hallway. "I told you -- I can fix anything." He winked, hoping it came across as cheesily-cute as he intended it and not just cheesy. "That's my miracle."