Oliver Stoll’s life has gone up in smoke. Literally. Escaping an apartment fire, he’s made it out with little more than the clothes on his back and his best friend and downstairs neighbor, Mia. With few other options, he agrees to stay with David Elliston, Mia’s older brother. David was Oliver’s first crush, first kiss, first everything. That is, until the day they broke up five years before. It hadn’t been pretty.<br><br>David Elliston is back in town. Offered the chance to oversee the Kellmen Group’s newest magazine acquisition, he isn’t going to let a years old heartbreak stop him. But being thrown together with Oliver is harder than expected. And the flicker of hope he’s long tried to bury becomes even more difficult to contain.<br><br>Ex-lovers, best friends, and angry parents don’t make the best backdrop for rekindling a romance. But it’s the lies from the past that might just extinguish any chance they have of starting over.

Big Flames and Small

“So?” David turned around, catching Oliver studying his backside. If it had been Mia, she would have called him on it, but her brother was kinder. “What did you need to talk about?”


“Um…” He took the offered bottle, twisting off the plastic cap and reminded himself his time was limited. “How did you tell your parents?”


“Oh.” The light flickered on in David’s attic. “Shit. Are you…”


“Going to tell my dad? Yeah.” That was the plan anyway.


Oliver followed him into the family room, as he weighed his answer.


He dropped on the couch, patted the seat next to him, and handed Oliver a controller, before firing up his PlayStation.


“I, well, I told my mom first. And she helped me tell my dad.”


“How did they take it?” Oliver shook his head. “I know it doesn’t mean it’ll be the same for me, but I just—”


“Want to know it’s not always hateful?”


“Yeah.” Oliver’s laugh sounded anything but joyful.


Chapter 10