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

Riding with him in the elevator up to the roof to marry Starr the first time, Mark’s sister had asked him, “Are you sure about this?”


Mark, who felt like Starr upended a bucket full of awesome over his head every morning, was floored by this question. Which his face must have shown. “I mean, the whole ‘cop’ thing,” Clare hastened to add. “Starr’s an amazing guy, that part I get. And a big part of me wishes Ray had lived to see this.”


“He could never have lived to see his grandson marry a black man,” Mark said, laughing along with her at the idea of horrifying his mother’s rigid and racist father. “That’s an oxymoron—living to see this would have killed him.”


“But what about the whole cop thing?” Clare pressed. “I mean, you work for the police department, you talk to this city full of crazy people every day. You know what goes on out there. Aren’t you worried something’s going to happen to him?”


Chapter 28