TURNABOUT BY LAUREL GREEr
I don’t have time for an unplanned visit home to help out in my father’s struggling letterpress shop. My stint in Vermont will have to be short, for a couple of reasons:
One, I’m a busy executive trying to climb the corporate ladder.
Two, my ex is still my dad’s right-hand man in the shop. And I am not over him.
Nothing has changed at the Burlington shop. Auden still has his infuriatingly sexy Scottish accent. He’s still hot, and still stubborn. Between operating the antique press with his shirtsleeves rolled up, and moonlighting at Burlington’s hottest inclusive wine bar, he pushes every one of my attraction buttons.
My falling-in-love-again buttons, too. Except I’m his polar opposite. I love change, and taking chances. Everything he avoids in life.
So why am I trying to convince him to reach for more than we’ve ever dreamed of—the possibility of forever?
Turnabout is a second-chance romance with interfering family, groveling, and a large helping of artisan stationery geekery.
He lifts a dark eyebrow. “I said, I want to work with someone willing to wallow with paper and design. Tease out the one-of-a-kind magic.”
His voice is quiet, soothing. It demands I take a deep breath and get out of my feelings.
“I’ve been reminded of how much of an art it is,” I say. “And that I can get by, but you—you have a gift.”
Rosy splotches bloom on his cheeks. “You know what you’re doing, too.”
“I don’t have the rhythm of it like you do. The innate… mastery, I guess. The relationship.”
Auden tilts his head and looks out the front window.
“What?” I ask. “He’s not coming back.”
“I know, but hearing the words rhythm and mastery and relationship when it comes to using a press... I'm looking for locusts, frogs, horsemen—any sign of the apocalypse.”
“Fuck off,” I mutter.
Rhythm, mastery.
When he repeats the words like that, I’m not thinking of cast iron machines—I’m thinking about sex.
I can’t believe he didn’t call me on how filthy that sounded.
He’s biting his lip, still a little pink in the face.
Okay, maybe he’s thinking it, at least.
“I could show you,” he says.
Meeting his gaze is like swimming in a lake, when you dive down, down on a bright day, and you have the dark depths below, and the streams of light from above, and it blends around you like you’re wearing a crown of green water and sunlight.
Holy fuck. He’s too much sometimes.
“Come here.” He crooks a finger for me to meet him at the Chandler and Price.
Definitely too much.
I join him anyway.
He takes my left hand and places it on the small shelf on the front of the press where we’d normally collect the cards during a run. The wood is smooth. And it would feel exactly like palming a flat piece of wood always does, except his big hand covers mine.
“Artisanry demands that relationship.” His voice is insanely low, but he’s only inches from me, so I don’t miss a syllable.
“I’m not an—”
“You have the artistic talent. You just need a little patience.” He puts his other hand on my right hip and positions me square to the press. He taps his toe against my heel, a silent command to put my foot on the treadle.
“We’re missing some parts.” Paper. Ink. The frame. Everything that actually turns into a product.
“We’re not making anything.” He’s at an angle to me. If he leaned forward three inches, his dick would be pressed into my hip. His left hand is still holding mine to the shelf. The other is a heavy weight just below my waist.
“I don’t understand,” I say.
“Just watch it, Carter.” He sounds amused. “You want to know every quirk. And not to try to learn when you’re rushing through eight jobs at once. When you have time to go easy.”
“Really.”
“Really,” he says. “Grip the wood with your other hand, too.”
“Grip the wood? You’re fucking with me.”
“A little.” I can’t see his face from where he is behind me, but I hear his smirk.
A little? A lot. I grab hold of the shelf anyway.
“Just work the treadle,” he says.
I press my toe into the pedal, making the flywheel whir.
“And listen,” he says. “Watch.”
I do that, too.
I’ve been so damn busy since I got here—paper in, paper out, paper in, paper out—I haven’t actually watched anything I’ve done.
The rollers, mesmerizing as they glide over the circular, iron platen.
“What color’s the ink?” Auden’s hand tightens on my hip. His breath tickles the side of my neck.
There is no ink.
“Green,” I say. I can’t get that sunlit lake off my mind.
(I don’t want to. Ever.)
My tie… Why am I wearing something meant to restrict my airflow? I want to loosen it, but Auden told me to keep my hands on the shelf, so I’m keeping my hands on the goddamn shelf.
“Hear anything in the flywheel?” he says.
Just the whir and clicks and whuffs it normally makes. “Should I be?”
“Nothing unusual, but the more you know the sounds of it, the more you know exactly when to feed the paper.” He taps the top of my hand once. Twice. Again. Matching it up to some sensory memory that’s so ingrained in him, he probably dreams in that rhythm.
Anchored by his touch, I’m the one who leans in the three inches. My shoulder, touching his chest. His breath, much more than a tickle. A caress.
“It’s a pulse,” he murmurs, so gruff, the consonants and vowels mix together. His fingers brush the hollow above my shirt collar. My knees wobble.
“A pulse.” I tilt my head to the side, exposing my neck.
“Aye.” Bending his head, his lips land on the same sensitive spot.
My head’s turning faster than the flywheel.
“Auden.”
“See? You know the rhythm.”
Oh god, I don’t know anything right now.
4 stars for Turnabout!
I really liked this addition to the Vino & Verita’s series. It’s so great seeing so many different characters from all walks of life come together in one place.
This was a sweet and sometimes spicy second chance M/M romance! I liked the book more as I continued to read and see more of the story come to life.
Carter and Auden were a couple during college but after college came to an end and they had to pick their work life, their opposite ideas and ideals drove them apart. Auden wanted to stay and work for Carter’s father in the printing shop while Carter moved to Canada to pursue his dreams of big success after his father disapproved of his ideas for the family business.
Carter comes back to town to help his dad out and work in the store while his dad chases his mother to save their relationship and that’s where Carter comes face to face with his ex-boyfriend again.
After the years apart, it’s like nothing has changed with their feelings and both Carter and Auden are still practically in love with each other however they are both still hurting after how they left things. Working together doesn’t start off easy as Carter has to relearn things and Auden has to accept some changes but being forced to work in such close proximity to each other might just be what they needed after all.
One thing thing that was a bit sad for me was that the blame seemed to be all on Carter and how he left to pursue his dream of being big and successful and didn’t want to stay in the little printing shop and not expanding. It didn’t seem fair to me that Carter was the one to blame for everything that happened in the past and that his dreams didn’t matter as much as everyone else.
Auden and Carter had great chemistry and you could tell that they really loved each other. I loved that this was a real life problem that drove them apart but in the end they still found their way back to each other. They both understood their flaws and qualities and loved each other despite those things.
I should also mention that Auden is a Scottish and Carter speaks French! So what more could you want?
This was a nice and quick read that is perfect if you’re in the mood for a sweet and spicy second chance romance.
*ARC kindly provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own*
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