Forty-two feet of oak. Every secret in the neighborhood lands on his bar. Except one.
Danny has poured a thousand honest drinks at Rossi’s. He knows every regular by stool number, every tip by denomination, every story by the third glass. He keeps the bar clean because people talk better when the wood feels like church. For three months, a card with no name and no logo has been riding in his apron pocket, wearing a faded patch into the fabric.
The card came from Carl “stool nine, every Thursday, Maker’s Mark neat.” Carl’s hand covered Danny’s once while closing out a tab. Nothing else happened. Nothing needed to. The memory lived in Danny’s hands for six months, and no amount of bar towels could wipe it clean.
His guide, Paolo, doesn’t order a drink. He just sits across the room and waits “the way no customer ever has” for Danny to stop serving and start telling the truth.
FOR/GIVEN is a dark, explicit MM first time romance featuring a straight-to-gay awakening, anonymous guided encounter, and a bartender who spent his whole life behind the bar and never once looked at it from the other side. Book 22 in The Back Room series. Standalone. 18+.
Content Note: Explicit MM scenes, first-time gay experience, institutional setting, and a man who learns that honest pours start with pouring yourself. No fade to black.
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