Books & Short Stories

When your name is Jessie James West, you feel like you have a lot to live up to—A daring outlaw, a life of adventure, a verifiable badass.

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Except when you live in a rainy city like Portland, your whole life starts to feel dreary. You get used to the gray, but can’t help craving color. Maybe that’s why I dyed my hair bright fucking fuchsia and painted myself in tattoos, because that’s where I was in the intersection of my life . . . stopped at a red light, waiting for things to change for the better.

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But I know better than most that when you really want something, you can’t sit around and wait for it to happen. You make shit happen.

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So when the clouds parted and a golden god started as a mechanic at the shop I work at, I took my chance at reclaiming some much-needed fun in the sun. I found myself drawn to Damián's magnetic presence and skilled hands . . . and soon found out just how skilled those hands could be.

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But my relationship history hasn’t exactly been picture-perfect. Or the rest of my life, for that matter. I’ve been running from and chasing down the same demons for the past twenty-five years, which makes me hard to be with. Which makes things with Damián  . . . difficult. Because all I’ve ever known is pain, betrayal, and mistrust. And he’s practically perfect.

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Except for his past . . . and some of his present, some of which we have in common. Something else we share is a ride-or-die mentality for the people we care about. I just hope we both survive when we finally get the chance to prove it to one another . . .

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