What do you do when your head says no but your heart says hell yes?
Marathon. Just thinking the word is torture to bartender Jesse Greenglass. Why’d he sign up? For the sake of the boyfriend he loved. Of course, that was before the boyfriend cheated and became the ex Jesse wants to forget. The marathon date sits in his calendar as a painful reminder but there’s no way Jesse’s going to run it now. Even if a super handsome - and super straight - stranger is leaning over his bar, telling Jesse he’ll run with him. Even if that stranger has a smile that makes him melt.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to go and fall in love with you.â€
26.2 miles is nothing to army veteran Mark Riordan. Haunted by his past and struggling with PTSD, Mark moved to bucolic Rosebridge, New Hampshire to clear his head - not to fill it with thoughts of a wise-cracking bartender. But there’s something about Jesse that’s drawing Mark in, making him wonder if he might not be quite so super straight after all. Maybe it’s crazy to train for a marathon with a guy he just met, but helping Jesse get some confidence back actually sounds like fun - and it’ll be nice to focus on someone else’s problems for a change.
“I want this. But only if it’s real. It has to be real, with you.â€
But when a caught-in-the-moment kiss turns just friends into something miles more complicated, is either man ready for the consequences? Jesse can’t deny that he’s attracted to Mark, but if Mark changes his mind about dating men, he could end up breaking Jesse’s heart instead of healing it. And for Mark, being with Jesse means more than just exploring what he really wants - it means opening up about parts of his past that he’s not sure he’s ready to share. Will fear keep this pair on the starting line, or will they follow their runaway hearts?
Runaway Heart is a 55,000 word steamy, standalone contemporary m/m romance. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.