Never a Hero

Riptide Publishing
    PO Box 6652
    Hillsborough, NJ 08844
    http://www.riptidepublishing.com
    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
    Never a Hero
    Copyright © 2013 by Marie Sexton
    Cover Art by L.C. Chase, http://lcchase.com/design.htm
    Editor: Sarah Frantz
    Layout: L.C. Chase, http://lcchase.com/design.htm
    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher, and where permitted by law. Reviewers may quote brief passages in a review. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Riptide Publishing at the mailing address above, at Riptidepublishing.com , or at [email protected] .
    ISBN: 978-1-937551-94-0
    First edition
    May, 2013
    Also available in paperback:
    ISBN: 978-1-937551-95-7
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Everyone deserves a hero.
    Owen Meade is desperately in need of a hero. Raised by a mother who made him ashamed of his stutter, his sexual orientation, and his congenitally amputated arm, Owen lives like a hermit in his Tucker Springs apartment. But then hunky veterinarian Nick Reynolds moves in downstairs.
    Nick is sexy and confident, and makes Owen comfortable with himself in a way nobody ever has. He also introduces Owen to his firecracker of a little sister, who was born with a similar congenital amputation but never let it stand in her way. When she signs the two of them up for piano lessons—and insists that they play together in a recital—Owen can’t find a way to say no. Especially since it gives him a good excuse to spend more time with Nick.
    Owen knows he’s falling hard for his neighbor, but every time he gets close, Nick inexplicably pulls away. Battling his mother’s scorn and Nick’s secrets, Owen soon realizes that instead of waiting for a hero, it’s time to be one—for himself and for Nick.

To Zoe, who inspired this book,
    even though she’s way too young to be allowed to read it.
    And most importantly, to her mother, Kristin,
    who’s amazing in every way and gives me fabulous material all the time
    whether she knows it or not.
    Love you to pieces!

It took three years for me to convince myself I was in love with my downstairs neighbor. It only took one day for her to move out of my life.
    It wasn’t her fault. Not really. It wasn’t as if I’d ever told her how I felt. In truth, I’d barely spoken to her at all, outside of the general pleasantries between neighbors when we passed on the walk or ran into each other in our shared backyard. But I’d watched her. Not in a stalker kind of way. But some days, when she was out in the garden, I’d sit on my porch and read so I could catch glimpses of her through the flowers as she knelt in the dirt, her fingers sunk into the cold Colorado soil.
    But what had really made me love her was listening to her.
    Her name was Regina, and she was a pianist. Not a concert pianist, or even an aspiring one. She had a day job somewhere in town, doing what, I didn’t know, but for three years, I’d seen her leave at 7:45 and come home at 5:20. For an hour or so, she’d be out of my sight, in her own apartment below mine. But sometime around 6:30 or 7:00, she’d always start to play, and I’d lie on the couch in my living room,