The school year came to an end about the time the boys and I had been living at the lake for almost a month. The transition had been mostly smooth, and Cam and I found we worked very well as a team. For the first couple weeks, I treated our living there as if we were guests. But, Cam sat me down for the first of many chats.

“Kade, this isn’t a bed and breakfast and you aren’t a guest in my home. No more asking if it’s okay if the boys take a bath or if they can have a snack. This is our home. I want you and the boys to be comfortable.” Cam’s words weren’t harsh, but I knew he’d meant what he said.

“Okay, I appreciate that. It’s hard, I don’t want to overstep,” I’d begun. When Cam had started to protest, I held up my hand. “Just let me know if I ever cross the line.”

“Deal.” Cam had agreed.

The boys and I settled in much more after that discussion, and I had to admit our whole arrangement seemed to be going well.

I hadn’t heard from Steph or my attorney, although I knew from a visit to the house that she had taken all of her remaining items. I had the locks changed and started preparations to rent the house. What I wished I had prepared for a little more was the reaction of local friends to my new living arrangement.

Either I hadn’t been listening or the rumor mill kept itself pretty hush-hush. But, the night of Cam’s annual “Welcome to Summer” bonfire, I heard more than I cared to.

After checking on the boys and the local neighborhood kids to make sure they weren’t at the water by themselves or they had a trusted adult with them, I grabbed a beer and headed toward the bonfire to shoot the shit with some long-time buddies.

“He found himself a fuck buddy pretty quickly.” Craig’s words and the resulting laughs echoed in my ears.

“Yeah, husband’s barely cold in the ground before he’s getting his hands on another dick. Guess he couldn’t stand not having a hard one to ride.” A man I barely recognized agreed and more laughter abounded.

“Never thought I’d see Kaden Ramsey turnin’ gay. Must be why that wife of his left. Needed to find a real man, not a butt-fucker.” Craig’s words registered and sent hot anger straight through my core. I downed my beer as the next comment was made, but I’d already made up my mind what I was going to do.

“I mean, I ain’t gonna judge. If Ramsey wants to pack some fudge, it aint’s hurtin’ me none,” Jared, a man I’d considered a decent friend and golf partner, chimed in. “I’m just sayin’, the whole gay thing ain’t my thing, man. Why can’t they just be friends? And what’s it doing to their boys? Don’t seem right to me.”

“Gentlemen,” I spoke from behind them and felt a satisfied spark travel through me when they all turned to face me, their faces pale with fear. “You know what I don’t think is right?” I spoke, using Jared’s words. “I don’t think it’s right that a man would lose the love of his life to cancer. I don’t think it’s right that two young boys would lose their father. I don’t think it’s right that a woman would cheat on her husband and leave her two sons without so much as a second thought.

”I had stepped closer and closer while I spoke. Lowering my voice so as not to call attention to myself, I continued, “I also don’t think it’s right that local friends and neighbors, those who have offered their support through a rough time, would speak ill of men who are supposedly their buddies.” I spit on the ground before running my hand along my jaw as if I was thinking. “In fact, I’d call it downright rude that any man worth his salt would show up for free food and free drinks and sit around a fire spreading more gossip than any quilting bee ever hoped to have.”

None of the men spoke, all of them had found something very interesting to study on the ground. I wasn’t wasting my time, or the evening’s celebrations, on the idiots any longer than I had to.

“I’ll leave you boys with one more thought. Any person, man or woman, would be lucky to have Cam in their life. What’s more, I consider myself damn lucky that Cam and I are friends and work so well together as a team. We’re there for each other and, most importantly, we’re there for our sons. If you all can’t accept that, maybe you should keep your homophobic asses home.”

I shook my head in disgust before walking away. I stopped abruptly when I almost ran over Cam. I glanced at his face to see how much he had heard. Cam’s features were guarded, closed off, so I simply nodded and continued on my way.

Kade & Cameron is the 6th book in the Something About Him series but it’s a standalone story. The books are connected by theme, not location or characters. All of the stories are great and I highly recommend them.

The blurb pretty much tells you everything you need to know about this book except how it made me feel. The story summoned all kinds of emotions in me: sadness and tears for the loss that Cameron suffers when his husband dies; anger for what Kade’s wife does; laughter when the two men and four boys are having fun together and many other feelings, too.

Every one of the books in this series has been a five-star read for me. Ms. Ellis’s writing has the ability to make me feel what her characters are feeling and put me right in the middle of the story. Once I started this book I didn’t want to put it down.

Kade and Cameron suffer greatly due to the things Kade’s wife does but they do get an HEA. I especially appreciated the epilogue which gave us another glimpse of the family’s life together a few years down the road.

I don’t know if additional books are planned in this series or not but I really hope that more are coming.

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Ms. Ellis is the award-winning author of A Torey Hope Novel Series (four books) and her spin-off series is Torey Hope: The Later Years.

Ellis’ debut novel For Nicky was voted #3 on the Top 50 Indie Books of 2014 by readers on ReadFree.ly. Loving Josie, which is the fourth book in A Torey Hope Novel Series, was awarded the bronze medal for contemporary romance in the prestigious Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards.

A.D.’s newest series is titled Something About Him. This is a male/male romance series, and will consist of at least five standalone titles. Bryan & Jase, Nick & Brody, Barrett & Ivan, Braeton & Drew are all released at this point. Ryker & Gavin will round out the series in January 2017. A novella of Kyle & Adam is in the works for a special project.

A.D. Ellis is an independent author. She is also a wife, a mother of two, and an inner city alternative education teacher.

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