by H M Shepherd
Nick laughed and picked a bit of chaff out of Sam’s hair. “Yeah, but then you wouldn’t have gotten another square on your Country Boy Bingo card. ‘Lost virginity on a haystack.’”
“Shut up.”
“Hey, do you just carry condoms and lube in your toolbox regularly, or were you planning for this specifically?”
Sam blushed furiously and muttered something about “Well, we weren’t ready last time, and I’ve been hoping….”
Nick had had to drag him back into the barn after that.
The next morning, Sam went looking for Nick and found him in the big house, unboxing and setting out brochures for the various Christkindlmarkt that were going to pop up in the area once Thanksgiving was done.
“We should go to one of these,” Nick said, holding up one of the brochures without really looking at Sam. “Or maybe wait until my brother and sisters get here, and go together as a family. Have you been to this one?”
Sam shook his head and waited until Nick finally gave him his full attention. His eyes flicked down to the flat, round, newspaper-covered bundle Sam held at his hip. “I’ve had it finished for a little while,” he admitted as he handed it over to Nick. “Saving it for Christmas. But I thought you should have it now.” He embraced Nick from behind and rested his chin on Nick’s shoulder so they could both look at it.
Nick tore the paper away and found a hex sign. It had a distelfink, of course, but unlike the one Nick had received from Mrs. Lapp, this was completely white, save for a red strip along the wing. Rather than tulips, it was flanked by two curved branches, one from a hazel tree and one from an olive tree, tied at the bottom with a red, white, and green ribbon. Underneath the distelfink’s feet were a pair of golden keys crossed at the middle. “From the stemma?” he realized, and Sam nodded before pressing a kiss to Nick’s shirt where it covered his tattoo.
“They don’t make Italian hex signs, remember? So I gave it a shot. I wanted something to make you feel like you belonged here too.”
Nick looked at it for another long moment. “Hey, how do you say—?”
“Ich liebe dich,” Sam answered, pressing his lips against Nick’s softly.
Nick smiled. “Ich liebe dich.”
H. M. SHEPHERD is a twentysomething paralegal living in Berks County, Pennsylvania, with both parents, two dogs, a baby sister who should stop growing up, and a brother who similarly failed to launch. Contrary to the Millennial stereotype, however, she does not live in the basement—a blessing considering the size of the spiders down there. She crochets as a hobby, cooks when she can, and reads as though it were her vocation. She is also an amateur genealogist and spends entirely too much time squinting at old census records and church documents. A little spacey, she once managed to forget that her car needed an oil change until it stopped running, and regularly has milk-in-the-cupboard-cereal-in-the-fridge moments. While she is an avid writer, Just for Nice is her first and so far only professional publication.
She is not particularly active on social media, finding it much easier to like people when you don’t know everything about them. Still, she can be reached through a few choice sites.
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/hmshepherd
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By H. M. Shepherd
Just for Nice
Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Published by
DREAMSPINNER PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Just for Nice
© 2018 H. M. Shepherd.
Cover Art
© 2018 Tiferet Design.
http://www.tiferetdesign.com/
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.
Digital ISBN: 978-1-64080-129-5
Digital eBook published February 2018
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America
