Mark Winston is mostly content with his life. He has a home, a job he loves, and a sister who always has his back. So what if the one thing he’s missing is a person to share that life with? Experience has proved he can’t get what he wants and needs out of a relationship. Yet he can’t stop wanting his next door neighbor and wishing there could be more between them.<br><br>Dylan Pomeroy might be young, but knows what he wants: Mark. He continually inserts himself into the older man’s life, determined to show Mark that he’s exactly what Mark needs. But Mark worries that the difference in their ages, and his need to be cared for, are hurdles too big to overcome.<br><br>But Dylan won’t be deterred, and Mark begins to realize his worries are unfounded. Dylan shows Mark he’s the perfect man for him. But years of being rejected for his wants makes it difficult for Mark to hope that things between them will work out. Can Mark let go of his insecurities and let himself fall in love with Dylan?

Love with the Next Door Neighbor

“I’m just me, a one-man landscaping business. And I love it, and it’s great. But I don’t have a whole lot of clients to begin with. Plus, if I piss off some of my bigger clients, who alwaysare the ones to complain, they’ll badmouth me to their friends and acquaintances, and then how do I replace them with other clients if no one will hire me?” I finished my taco, then reached for the tortillas to make another one. “I gently and persistently remind them of the contract they signed, and if it gets to the point where they really won’t pay, then I stop doing their lawn. It is what it is.”


“It’s crap is what it is,” he said, a huffiness to his voice that made me laugh. Dylan cracked a smile at that, then devoured another taco. I finished mine as well, but I’d stuffed it so full that by the time I was done, I was comfortably sated. I drank the rest of my water, then stood with my plate.


“I’ve got it,” Dylan said, hopping up and trying to take the plate from me. But I held firm.


Chapter 3