Saving Shane (Paranormal Gay Romance) E-Book

Trina Solet

• Herausgeber: Trina Solet
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Shane is hearing and seeing things that can't be real. He's sure no one will understand, and that has turned him into a recluse. Until John comes along.
John, his next door neighbor, is everything Shane isn't. He's positive and outgoing, not to mention tall, blond and muscular. He's also a good, caring guy and that only makes Shane want to avoid him.
But when John notices that his neighbor is in bad shape, he can't just ignore his distress. John isn't lacking in confidence, but he doesn't know how to deal with the strange things happening to Shane or how to handle the strong feelings his troubled neighbor stirs up in him. While John wants to save him, protect him, above all, he wants to make Shane his.

Leseprobe

Saving Shane (Paranormal Gay Romance) By Trina Solet

Copyright © 2021 by Trina Solet

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, locales or actual events is entirely coincidental.

All sexual activity takes place between persons eighteen years of age or older.

This novel contains material intended for mature readers.

Cover image is only for illustrative purposes. Any person depicted is a model.

Saving Shane

Paranormal Gay Romance

Trina Solet

Chapter 1

John was working in his office while his little sister, Katie, was puttering around, making the guest room into her room and generally making herself at home. She was moving in with him so that she could finish middle school with all her friends before she joined their parents in California. They had moved for both Mom and Dad's jobs, and also bought a house that wasn't built yet. That was the other reason they let Katie stay with him.

Since John worked from home, having her constantly popping into his office wasn't ideal. Plus she was always making some kind of noise. At least she would be in school most of the day starting Monday.

But the next noise that made him jump wasn't Katie. It was the sound of glass breaking, like maybe a window. It was followed by a long loud yell of anguish.

The sounds came from outside John's office window. He looked through the blinds he always kept closed because the neighbor's house and his window were right there. Except right now, his neighbor's window was mostly gone. Only jagged pieces of glass remained.

Was someone breaking in next door? No. No one could have climbed in through that window without getting cut up. Whoever was breaking in might have run off though.

John already had his phone in his hand ready to call the police when Katie ran in. "What's going on?" she asked and looked around like she thought the noise came from his office.

"It's next door. I'm..." John trailed off and stopped himself before dialing 911 as he saw his neighbor come out to the side of the house. He was young, mid twenties maybe so about John's age or younger with shaggy, dark brown hair and slim build.

The neighbor was looking at the broken window then he bent down and picked up something from the ground. It looked like a pewter candlestick. Was that what went flying through the window? And what about that yell? What was going on next door?

Now that he had picked up the candlestick, his neighbor was picking up the broken glass too, but he had nowhere to put it.

"OK, the neighbor is out there," he told Katie who was hanging over by his office door, looking scared. "I'm going to see what's going on. You stay in here with the doors locked."

Feeling a little safer, she came over to the window to peer at the neighbor. "He isn't ugly or anything," she said, obviously not as worried and scared any more.

"Yeah, I'm locking the door," John told her.

He went out the front door and came out on his quiet street that was several blocks from the center of town and well away from the sprawl of the suburbs. On this side of the street, the houses were packed pretty close and across the street the brownstones had people crammed even closer together. But even a sociable guy like John still didn't know most of his neighbors, not even the cute ones.

From the corner of his house, John called out to the neighbor so he wouldn't startle him, but he startled him anyway. The guy jumped and started breathing hard. But Katie was right, he wasn't exactly bad looking. His hair was kind of disheveled and he was thin and didn't look too healthy.

"Hi, I'm your neighbor, John McAllister." He helpfully pointed to his house.

"Oh, sorry," the guy said and set down the pieces of glass he had picked up.

"It's everything OK?" John asked, going closer.

"I ...Yes. I just..." He looked from John to the window like he was at a loss to explain what happened.

"Did you throw the candlestick?" John asked him to simplify things.

"Yes. There's no one else in there," he said oddly.

"OK. I'm sure you had a reason," John said, hinting to the guy that he might want to explain himself right about now.

"I... I was sleeping and woke up but not all the way, I guess, and I thought I saw someone breaking in."

"Oh OK. That mistake just cost you a window," John said and hoped he didn't sound too unsympathetic. He then heard knocking on the window to his office and jumped. "I guess my nerves are on edge now too."

It was Katie knocking, pointing and gesturing. From all that John gathered that she wanted to come out. He waved to let her know it was OK.

"That's my little sister," he told the neighbor. John was about to ask him his name as Katie ran over.

"So what was it? What happened?" she had to know.

"Just a false alarm," John told her. "This is my sister, Katie."

"Kate, not Katie," she said. That was new. No one called her Kate. No one.

John now looked at the neighbor to introduce himself. Katie did too but they got nothing.

"What's his name," Katie asked John.

"I don't know," John told her and that finally clued the neighbor in that he needed to introduce himself.

"I'm Shane Meers. Sorry, I..." He trailed off like he wasn't sure what to apologize for. "I'm sorry I disturbed you."

The guy seemed way more freaked out than either he or Katie, so John decided to let him off the hook. "It happens. But it's nice to finally meet you. I've seen you around once or twice. I work from home," John added so he wouldn't sound like a stalker or something, but it probably didn't help.

"What do you do?" Shane asked being polite and clearly not giving a crap.

"I work in marketing. Sports related stuff mostly."

"I believe it," Shane muttered.

"See, he thinks you look like a jock too," Katie said. "He isn't. John is just a boring business guy."

"And I'm a boring tech guy," Shane said.

"I hope I'm not going to be a boring adult like you guys," she said and pouted at both of them.

"She doesn't mince words," John said as Katie went to look at a bush next to his house that had some impressive, colorful dry leaves on it. "You want some help picking up the glass?" he asked looking at it all over the ground, some of the pieces big, jagged and dangerous looking.

"Oh no. I'll get it. Sorry about the disturbance," Shane said.

"Just as long as you're OK," John told him. "Don't cut yourself while you're cleaning up." He seemed like the kind of hapless guy who would totally slice open his hand picking up broken glass.

"Right. I appreciate the concern," he said but he looked like he really didn't and wanted John to stay out of his business. Friendly.

"You want to have lunch with us after you're done. We're eating out in our back courtyard, just some veggie fritters and salad," John said. It was an impulse to invite him, maybe a perverse impulse because he was being so standoffish. The guy looked kind of thin and pale. He could use a good meal.

But Shane was shaking his head even before John told him what was on the menu. "I appreciate the offer. But I can't. Thank you."

"They're good, the fritters. Don't knock them till you tried them," John told him.

Shane smiled weakly and thanked him again before saying he needed to get some newspapers for the broken glass then escaping inside.

Noticing Katie hovering nearby, John turned to her and shrugged.

"It's embarrassing to watch you get shot down so hard," she said mercilessly.

"It was the fritters."

She wasn't buying that. "It wasn't."

~Shane~

As he went to get the newspapers and the trash can so he could get rid of the broken glass, Shane couldn't believe he made himself look like a lunatic to the hunk next door. He couldn't really call it making the wrong impression though. He wasn't sane. He wasn't OK. He was throwing candlesticks through windows and not because of any nightmare.

JC was there again, tormenting him, whispering words he couldn't make out over and over, filling his head with noise. But Shane knew what he wanted to say. "Shame on you, Shane. You have blood on your hands."

He couldn't take it any more. He snapped. And what good did it do. His outburst wouldn't make JC go away. Nothing would.

But his brief talk with John was almost like a moment of normalcy. John even asked him to come over to have lunch with him and his sister. The man felt sorry for him, that had to be why he invited him.

Of course Shane could never say yes. He barely held himself together. Any day now his sanity would slip away from him completely.

Going back inside after cleaning up the mess he made, Shane steeled himself but there was no sign of JC. He would be back though. He always came back.

Chapter 2

His workout that morning was making John hungry, and looking at aisle after aisle of food wasn't helping. He could have had the grocery shopping done by now, but he had Katie with him.

"Are you sure you're almost fourteen? Because this is like shopping with a five year old," John said as Katie pointed at yet one more thing excitedly and wanted him to buy it.

"You think a lot of five year olds like hot sauce?" she asked him like that was some kind of proof of maturity.

"You just like the picture," he accused her since the bottle had a cute, cartoon devil hugging a bright red pepper.

"Pft, I can handle hot sauce," she claimed.

"Not that one," John told her as he put it back on the shelf and substituted something tamer.

But now Katie was pointing excitedly straight ahead. "Neighbor guy!" she gasped. That's who she had spotted.

"I see him," John said and watched Shane flinch at being spotted then look around like he wanted to escape. "We must have made a good impression," he muttered.

Shane was a little less disheveled today, but the circles under his eyes looked worse under the unforgiving florescent lights of the store. By the time they met up with him in the middle of the aisle, Shane seemed to have resigned himself to having to greet them.

"I guess it's shopping day for both of us," John said.

"You sound like an old lady," Katie told him.

"She's just paying me back for calling her a five year old," John said.

"It must be interesting to have a much younger sibling," Shane said.

"Interesting?" Katie said with a frown, like she suspected him of insulting her but she wasn't sure.

"It is," John confirmed with a chuckle. Then he noticed Katie peering into their neighbor's shopping cart.

"Look, he's hardly buying anything," she said.

"Don't snoop in other people's shopping carts," John told her.

"We need to feed him," Katie decided.

John couldn't argue with that. Shane looked like a guy who needed to be fed, but he was still smarting from the decisive way his last invitation was rejected. But since Katie pretty much invited him, he felt he had to ask.

"We are buying a lot, as you can see," John said and pointed at their nearly full cart. "We'll need help eating some of this. What do you say?"

Before Shane could shoot him down again, Katie jumped in to tell him, "You can't say no. You owe us lunch."

"He does?" John asked.

Katie explained. "He turned us down. Now he has to pay us back."

"Your reasoning doesn't track," John informed her.

"It totally does," she said. "Want to know what we're having?" she asked Shane then answered for him. "Yes, you do. Tacos. No one can refuse tacos. If you refuse tacos, it's like saying you hate us."

"Whoa. How did a casual lunch invite turn into this level of emotional blackmail?" John asked her.

"I'm trying not to get you rejected again," Katie said.

"Well, ease off. Sheesh," John said. It was more like she was making sure she maximized his level of embarrassment.

All her emotional blackmail was for nothing though. "I have work to finish, sorry," Shane told them once he was able to get a word in.

"No! You struck out again," Katie said to John, but he waved off that call.

"This one is on you," John told her. "You came on too strong and scared him."

"No, really, I'm just swamped," Shane protested.

"Don't worry about it," John told him. "Thick skin runs in the family. We'll blame each other and get over it."

Shane gave him an uncertain smile, and they went their separate ways to continue shopping. A little later, they ran into each other again just as they finished checking out.

"You don't have your car?" Shane said when he saw they were going on foot just like he was.

"It's exercise and it keeps her from buying the whole store," John said and nodded toward Katie. She made a face at him, but they were mostly lugging stuff she had dropped into the cart. She knew she was guilty.

They walked together and talked a little. Shane wasn't exactly a chatterbox, but he wasn't too closed mouthed when talking about his work. He was a tech guy for a small import and export business and worked from home just like John did.

They were close to Shane's house when Katie stopped and gasped. "Oh no." She was looking at the light blue front door of Shane's house. It had black paint splashed on it.

"Who would do that?" John asked.

"That?" Shane said like he didn't know what John meant.

He pointed out the obvious. "The black paint all over your door."

"Oh, you... It's... It's vandalism," Shane said so strangely, John didn't know what to think.

"Are you going to call the police?" John asked since Shane was just fiddling with his house key like he planned to go right in.

"Of course I am," Shane said too quickly. "I'll do it after I get this stuff in." He held up his meager groceries like they were the priority.

John didn't like that plan. "I think you should call the police from out here and have them check out the place before you go in," he told Shane firmly. "I'll stay with you until they get here."

"No. You don't need to do that. I can take care of this. Thank you," Shane said, making it clear that John's help wasn't welcome.

Unlocking his door, Shane went inside. John didn't like that he was going in just like that, but then Shane came to the front door, waved and told them, "Everything is fine inside."

He went back in, and John left with Katie but stayed alert to anything happening next door. Eventually, a police car did show up, and Shane stepped out to talk to the cops.

That was a relief, but what was going on with that guy? At first it sure seemed like Shane was going to pretend that the black paint splattered on his door wasn't there.

The next day, John went for a run early in the morning. As he passed Shane's house, he saw that he was out there painting his light blue door black. Maybe he thought it would be easier than trying to clean off the black paint, and the black door looked better with the brick façade anyway.

On his way back, Shane was still out there though it looked like he was done painting.

"You didn't do too bad a job for an amateur," John said and startled him. "Sorry. I meant to say hi first."

"Hi. Yeah, I painted it myself," Shane said like he was proud of his handiwork. "But now I can't close the door till it dries."

"Are you worried about leaving it open?" After the vandalism, John wouldn't have blamed him.

"A little, I guess," Shane admitted.

"You should put a camera out here, the door bell one or whatever kind you like," John suggested.

"Maybe," Shane said and looked around like he didn't know what to do with himself. Like most of the houses on the street, his house didn't have a porch or much of a front yard, just a short walkway and the steps leading to the front door. Steps were the only place he could hang out until the door dried, so John made another suggestion.

"Sit on the steps for a while. That's what my granddad does and then he yells at the kids riding their bikes on the sidewalk," John said.

Shane got a funny look on his face and frowned at John as he watched him wipe sweat from his face. "Do you want a water?" he asked. Ah, so he could be neighborly.

"Sure," John said though he was only a few feet from his own house. He didn't want to discourage Shane by refusing his gesture. He had a feeling that Shane wasn't naturally unfriendly, but that something weighed on him, made him hide inside a shell.

When Shane went to get him the bottle of water, he brought out one for himself too so John went to sit on his steps. After a minute Shane sat down next to him, though he did it hesitantly.

"Now we just need some kids on bicycles to go riding by or maybe some skateboarders." John looked up and down the street and sighed. "Nothing. Our impression of two grouchy old men is a failure."

Shane gave him a small smile, and John wondered about himself as an old man for real. Was there going to be an old husband next to him?

"You're taking it hard," Shane said, breaking him out of his reverie.

"My old age?" John said and Shane looked confused. "I was just thinking about my old husband. Trying to picture him." For some reason, he pictured him as an old man version of Shane. Weird.

Shane thought he was being weird too and now he looked even more confused. "Who?" he said.

John chuckled. "Just thinking about my future." He saw Katie come out the front door ready for school and called out to her, "Over here."

"You're not gay, are you?" Shane asked, surprising him. He said it just as Katie came over and she smirked at John, waiting for what he would say.

"Why not?" John asked.

"You just... No. I ..." Shane stammered.

"Aren't you gay too?" Katie asked Shane.

"Katie," John started to warn her.

"I am," Shane said, not bothered by her assumption at all.

"Good," John told him. "Then you shouldn't have a problem with me being gay."

"Did you think I did?" Shane wondered.

"I did consider it." That was one explanation he had considered for why Shane wasn't too friendly with such an awesome guy like him.

"Because you got rejected so hard," Katie said with a snort, getting it exactly right. "But maybe Shane just isn't into muscly jocks."

"Oh please, everyone is into muscly jocks," John informed her and Shane raised an eyebrow, cleared his throat and looked away.

"Ha! Rejected again," Katie crowed.

"Go to school," John told her.

"I'm waiting for my ride," she said.

"She doesn't usually wait out here alone, does she?" Shane asked with a frown.

"Umm, it's a safe street," John said but started to feel like a bad big brother, especially since Shane's door was vandalized in broad daylight.

"I don't want John waiting with me like I'm some kind of toddler," Katie said.