Climbing Higher

Name: Climbing Higher
Author: Riley Long

69 pages

I’ve always known exactly who I am: your average, small-town carpenter. My life is steady and predictable, exactly the way I like it. My childhood best friend Micah, on the other hand, has always known exactly who he isn’t—someone who stays put. As a queer reality TV set designer, he drifts from project to project, rarely sticking around anywhere for long.

Except this time.

When Heartland Overhaul brings him back to our hometown to help restore the old post office, we end up working on the project together. And working with Micah should feel easy. Familiar. Safe. Instead it’s… complicated. Especially after my fear of heights sends me crashing into a brutal fall and my injuries are more than I can manage by myself. Suddenly Micah’s moving into my place to help me recover.

What starts as him playing caretaker slowly turns into something else. The lines between friendship and something more blur until one night, without warning, I kiss him, and everything changes. We agree to see where it goes, but only while the show is filming. No promises. No long-distance. No setting ourselves up for heartbreak when Micah inevitably leaves again.

The problem is, everyone else seems to see something we’re pretending not to, and sooner or later, I have to decide if falling for Micah is a risk I’m willing to take, and Micah has to decide if staying put somewhere—if staying with me—is something he can finally do.

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