When seventeen-year-old Mark Potts fell from a balcony, he lost both the use of his legs and any faith in heroes. Now twenty-nine, he’s long-since come to terms with his injury. His job provides more opportunities for eye-rolling than for riding to anybody’s rescue, but with two kids to bring up, he barely has time for his husband, much less for heroics. Besides, Starr Bradford is a policeman -- how many heroes does one family need?<br><br>Mark and Starr love each other madly, but stress management is a load-bearing pillar of their happiness. When Mark’s coping skills fail him at exactly the wrong moment, he’s left hanging by a thread of words he should’ve kept in his mouth. He has the power to repair their relationship, but when Starr’s workday suddenly goes south, will he get to wield it? Keeping it together long enough to find out is a job worthy of any superhero!

You Had Me at Hero

“Fine,” Mark said. “But she has to put it in the book. I’m going home.”


“She already did!” Coretta gleefully exclaimed. Mark laughed. “You’re a hero, Bradford.” She kissed his cheeks again. “Have a good night.”


Since his second wedding—the legal one, a little over a year ago—he was “Bradford-Potts” on paper, of course, but Mark wasn’t a big stickler on this point. Everybody Mark knew who wasn’t Coretta and didn’t call him “Daddy” called him “Mark,” for one thing. And he kinda liked being called “Bradford,” proof, as it was, that his love for Starr was a foundational part of his identity. Coretta had never called Mark “Potts” before Starr came along; he’d always rather suspected that with “Bradford,” Coretta was bestowing upon him, as the husband of one and now the father of two, a certain status as an Honorary Black Guy.


Chapter 3