Something New Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Epilogue

  Checked Out - Chapter One

  Something New

  Sean Ashcroft

  Copyright © 2018 by Sean Ashcroft

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Chapter One

  “Look, Declan, you’re a smart guy. Talented, even. You’re just not a good culture fit.”

  The words rang in Declan’s ears. He knew what they meant, despite this being the first time he’d heard something like it directly. He’d heard it second-hand plenty of times from guys who were good at their jobs and deserved better than to have to tiptoe around their bosses’ overly-sensitive son.

  You’re fired.

  That was what this meant.

  His stomach bottomed out as he forced himself to make eye contact with his boss, his jaw tightening even as his heart pounded in his chest.

  “This is about that hashtag campaign, huh?” Declan asked, trying to sound casual. He knew what he’d done, but he’d briefly forgotten that acting in the interest of the client ahead of the golden boy was forbidden.

  Well, no, he hadn’t forgotten.

  He just hadn’t been willing to put his name to a marketing campaign that he could see was going to go down in flames from a mile away.

  “You’re what they call a black hat thinker,” his boss said. “Always seeing the problems with everything. This is a positive company.”

  Declan rolled his eyes so hard it strained the muscles. “You were gonna pour a quarter of a million of the clients’ dollars down the drain for a slogan that has the word shit in the middle of it when you write it down without any spaces. It’s like you’ve never been outside if you don’t know how the internet’s gonna run with that. You hired me in the first place to know these things.”

  “And now I’m offering you the chance to either apologize for it and keep your mouth shut over the next proposal, or to clear out your desk.”

  Declan bit down on his tongue to stop himself from blurting out something like stick your entire company up your ass, which he knew would only make his situation worse.

  He took a deep, calming breath, let it out slowly, and then faced his boss again.

  He hated this job.

  That was a revelation he’d needed to come to for a while. It was the most miserable, soul-sucking version he could imagine of the career he’d studied for, which was on the cynical side to start with. Declan was good at marketing, but he hated the way it was done on a corporate scale.

  Why would he want to stay here? Anything would be better than this.

  “Stick your entire company up your ass,” Declan said, standing up from the desk. His hands were trembling, but he knew he was doing the right thing.

  He’d given enough. Enough of himself, enough of his life to this place. It was time to stop.

  “And don’t you think for a second that I’m gonna work a single minute of notice to mop up after you. You don’t get to fire me. I quit.”

  Declan turned and stormed out of the office, his pulse racing in his ears. He’d never done anything like that before. He’d endured years of bullshit in this place for the sake of job security, too scared to rock the boat. He’d spent years doing lackluster work that he hated.

  This was terrifying, and his legs were trembling under him as he swung by his desk to grab the few personal things he had there, but he felt like a weight had just been lifted off his shoulders.

  He hated this job. He didn’t want to spend his entire life miserable and overworked. He was staring down the barrel of thirty and he had nothing to show for it while other people had celebrated careers, or beautiful families, or both.

  Screw everyone in the entire office. They’d made his life hell for the past six years, and he wasn’t about to take it anymore.

  There was more to life than working himself to death in a job he hated for no thanks. It was time he went out and found it.

  As Declan walked out into the cool January air, he breathed a sigh of relief that had been a long time coming. He never had to go back there again.

  He didn’t care what he ended up doing next, as long as it was anything but this.

  Chapter Two

  Ash perked up the moment he heard keys in the front door, looking over at eagerly. The only other person who had keys was Declan, and he was just the man Ash wanted to see.

  This was Declan’s apartment, after all.

  He hated to be miserable alone. That was why he’d come here.

  Declan stepped through the door, laptop bag slung over his shoulder and dark circles under his eyes.

  He had dark circles a lot these days, which made Ash’s heart hurt.

  He hated to see Declan tired and overworked. If anyone deserved better than that, it was him.

  “Ash?” Declan looked over at him, raising an eyebrow. Then his eyes went to the tub of ice cream Ash was guarding jealously, and understanding dawned over his features.

  They’d been here before.

  “Oh. Breakup?” he asked.

  Ash sighed, digging his spoon into the tub again. He wasn’t heartbroken, exactly. Troy had been fine. Fun, even. But… he’d never expected to end up marrying the guy.

  It was more the way he’d been broken up with that bothered him.

  “Yeah,” Ash said. “Apparently I spend too much time with you. Which is a stupid thing to say, because you’re my best friend and I’m allowed to have friends. I don’t have time for controlling assholes. Is it weird that I have a key to your apartment?”

  Declan shrugged. “I have a key to your apartment.”

  “Right? It’s not weird,” Ash said, remembering the surprisingly long lecture Troy had given him.

  In front of customers, just as he was finishing his shift at the bookstore.

  That had made him angry. Breaking up with people in public like that was unfair.

  Well, he was angry now. And hurt. And confused. But at the time, he’d just been scared. Scared and humiliated.

  It hadn’t been a good day for positive feelings, so he’d decided to replace emotions with ice cream. Enough of it, and there wouldn’t be room for anything else.

  “If it helps at all, I quit my job today,” Declan said.

  “Why?” Ash asked.

  He’d begged Declan to find something else a half-dozen times after watching what his job was doing to his previously cheerful, warm best friend. It’d turned him into a constantly tired, sad man who never wanted to go anywhere other than work and home these days.

  Not that Ash minded hanging out with him in his apartment, but it wasn’t good for Declan to only have work in his life. He wasn’t sad at all to hear Declan had quit.

  “Well, I was in the middle of getting fired, so I figure
d I’d beat them to it,” Declan said, heading into the kitchen. “Which was probably childish, but I don’t really care.”

  Declan extracted a spoon from the cutlery drawer and came to sit next to Ash. Without a second thought, Ash pushed the ice cream over to him.

  It was probably better not to eat the whole pint, anyway. He’d make himself sick, and then he’d be sick and sad, which was a terrible combination.

  Besides, Declan’s presence was already making him feel better. Even if Declan was miserable too, being around him was soothing.

  “So this hasn’t been a great Friday afternoon for either of us,” Ash said.

  “No,” Declan said around a mouthful of ice cream.

  “I’m not sorry you quit your job,” Ash continued. “I hated to see how it was sucking the life out of you.”

  “Yeah, well… I didn’t like Troy, so I guess we’re even.”

  Ash snorted. In hindsight, he hadn’t really liked Troy, either.

  He’d liked a very specific part of his anatomy, but if the guy was going to start dictating who he could and couldn’t be friends with, well, there were other fish in the sea. Ash wasn’t so hopeless that he had to settle for one that was sub-par at best.

  Declan would have said they were all sub-par. He had said that, even. But this one had been especially so, and Ash didn’t anticipate moping about it for too long.

  He was mostly here as an excuse to see Declan. Seeing Declan always cheered him up.

  “Sleepover?” Ash suggested. They hadn’t done that in a while, but there was nothing that made him feel better than falling asleep in front of the TV with Declan when the rest of the world exhausted him.

  He was pretty sure Declan felt the same way. He hoped so, anyway.

  “Sounds good,” Declan said, working his way through the remainder of the ice cream steadily, a strand of dark hair flopping over his forehead. Declan’s hair was rarely out of place, but it was a good look on him. “I’m starving.”

  Ash laughed at that. It was so easy to forget all his problems when he was here. Declan had always had a way of making him feel better, even back when they’d first met in college. Hell, even on the first day they met.

  Declan had always looked after him.

  “I’ll order pizza if I can liberate the bourbon from your liquor cabinet,” Ash said, standing do so before he’d gotten permission.

  He’d never really needed permission. He and Declan were good at sharing.

  “You could pour me one, too,” Declan said. “Or six.”

  “Start with one and work your way up,” Ash suggested, though he wasn’t about to stop Declan from whatever he needed to do to get over his day. As long as it meant he was done with that job.

  Ash never wanted to see him that miserable again. He was hoping he’d get the old Declan back now. The soft, warm Declan he’d fallen hard for all those years ago.

  “Look at us,” Declan said. “First week of the new year and we’re drowning our sorrows in junk food.”

  “Hey, new year, new me,” Ash said. “This year I’m planning on eating more ice cream and dealing with less men. Present company excepted.”

  “I’m honored,” Declan responded, scraping the bottom of the tub of ice cream to get the last mouthful out. “I don’t wanna do marketing anymore. I hate it.”

  That was a surprise, but Ash understood. He’d watched Declan’s passion fade over the last few years, and he could understand wanting something different now.

  “Well, we’re always in need of reliable retail assistants at the store. And the manager already likes you, so…”

  Declan smiled at that. “The manager seems to be a good guy, so I might take him up on that. In a week or two, though. I need a break first.”

  Ash nodded. Managing a bookstore might not have been the most exciting career, but he liked it. If it meant he could help his friend out when he needed it, that was a bonus.

  “Well, offer’s open,” Ash said. “At least, until they decide to sell it off and not give anyone any notice, like they did with the other two in the area.”

  Worries that they were going to snatch his job from under him aside, Ash would secretly have loved to work with Declan. He wasn’t about to push, though. Not right after Declan had quit a nightmarish job.

  Retail was soul-sucking in its own way, but he got to walk away when his shift ended and not care about it until he got back in. Declan hadn’t had that luxury.

  He’d been working nights and weekends for years, unpaid and unthanked. Ash wanted to see him take a break.

  “Thanks, man. What would I do without you, huh?”

  “Buy your own ice cream,” Ash said as he unscrewed the cap on the bourbon.

  “Sounds awful. I’d rather keep you around.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Ash promised. “From now on, you’re the only man I need.”

  Declan was the best man Ash had ever known, and getting to spend more time with him was his number-one priority for the year.

  Anyone who didn’t like that didn’t belong in his life. Declan was his best friend, and no one got to take that away.

  No matter how nice their dick was.

  “Yeah, well, you’ve always been the only man I need,” Declan said. “I’ll think about that job offer. Thanks.”

  Ash took his phone out to order pizza, scrolling through the app until he came to their regular order. “You want anything else tonight?”

  Declan shook his head. “Just company.”

  “Company it is,” Ash said, hitting order. “Pizza in forty.”

  Pizza would solve everything for now. For the rest, well…

  Ash would be there for Declan, and Declan would be there for Ash. That was how it’d always been.

  Chapter Three

  Declan re-read the strange letter he’d found in his mailbox this morning, sure he was misunderstanding something, or that it was a scam or a mistake.

  He did have a great uncle called Marvin, and the guy was probably dead by now, but…

  Why would he leave anything to Declan? Declan remembered him from his teenage years as aloof, distant, kind of the black sheep of the family.

  He’d lived out in the middle of nowhere.

  Apparently, the middle of nowhere was actually called Hope Springs, which was part of what was making this feel like a scam. Nowhere could possibly be called Hope Springs. It was too cute.

  On the other hand, if he really did have an inheritance waiting for him, he kind of needed to know about it. What if it was millions of dollars? What if it was the life change he’d been looking for?

  What if, for once, this was the universe taking care of him?

  That would have been a nice change.

  A quick Google told Declan that the law firm the letter was supposed to be from did exist. It was small, with a one-page website that had a few phone numbers and a map to the office.

  Which appeared to be located in Hope Springs, a small town four hours away.

  So it was a real place?

  It sure as hell sounded made up.

  All the same, if the law firm was real, then it’d only take a phone call to verify whether or not this was a mistake. And it wasn’t as if Declan had anything better to do with his day, now that he was gainfully unemployed.

  He pulled his phone out of his pocket and tapped the number in, hesitating with his thumb over the call button.

  What if it was real, and his entire life was about to change?

  There was really only one way to find out.

  He hit call and held the phone up to his ear, suddenly hyper-aware of his heartbeat. He couldn’t put his finger on what was making him nervous, exactly, but his stomach was tied up in knots.

  “Fletcher and Williams Legal Services, Sue Fletcher speaking,” a woman’s voice answered.

  A woman apparently called Sue Fletcher, which was the same person who’d signed the letter.

  Crap.

  Maybe this was real.

 
“Uh, hi,” Declan said, unprepared for this. “I, uh… I’ve got a letter here from you. Umm. My name’s Declan Cooper…”

  “Oh, yes, I remember sending it! You’re Marv’s nephew.”

  “Great nephew,” Declan corrected. “So, uh… it’s not a mistake?”

  “You didn’t know he was gone?” Sue asked, her voice soft.

  Declan hadn’t, but he wasn’t as sad about it as she seemed to think he would be. He’d barely known the guy. He could only remember having a handful of conversations with him at big family events.

  “I didn’t, know. We weren’t, uh, close,” Declan said. “So I was kinda surprised to hear from you.”

  “Well, part of what he’s left you includes a letter. Maybe there’s an explanation in there.”

  “Is the letter… it?” Declan asked.

  He wasn’t making a four-hour trip for a letter from a guy he hadn’t spoken to in almost ten years.

  “Oh no, of course not. If it was just a letter, I would have mailed that to you. No, your uncle left you his bookstore.”

  For a few moments, all Declan could hear was the rush of blood in his ears.

  He’d been left a bookstore?

  What the hell was he going to do with that?

  “Are you still there?” Sue asked after probably thirty seconds of silence on Declan’s part.

  “Oh, yeah, I just… wow. I was not expecting to hear that.”

  “I can call you back if you need a moment,” Sue said. “I understand this is a surprise for you.”

  “No, I’m… fine.”

  This was it.

  The new start Declan had wanted. That he needed.

  And it’d just fallen in his lap.

  That had to mean there was a catch coming.

  “All right. Can I ask if you’re married, Mr. Cooper?”

  “Uh, no,” Declan said. “Never married.”

  “Oh. Well, that could be a problem. The, uh… the will stipulates that you must have been married for at least thirty days to take full possession of the store. Until then, it’s to be held in trust.”

  And there was the catch, right where Declan had expected it to be.

  Not only was he not married, but he wasn’t getting married anytime soon. There was no one in his life, no one who’d be willing to marry him, even for half a bookstore.