Mabry's Minor Mistake: M/M Holiday Romance, page 1
Mabry’s Minor Mistake
M/M Holiday Romance
Sam E. Kraemer
Contents
A Few Words of Thanks
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Epilogue
About the Author
Books by Sam E. Kraemer
This book is an original work of fiction. Names, characters, places, incidents, and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2022 by Sam E. Kraemer
Cover Designer and Formatter: Arden O’Keefe, KSL Designs
Editor: Sue Laybourn, No Stone Unturned Editing
Proofreader: Mildred Jordan, I Love Books Proofreading
Published by Kaye Klub Publishing 2022
These characters are the author’s original creations, and the events herein are the author’s sole property. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any form, printed or electronic, without the express permission of the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
All products/brand names mentioned in this work of fiction are registered trademarks owned by their respective holders/corporations/owners. No trademark infringement intended.
Their Story
Mabry Caldor meets the devil in the form of a computer genius who turns his world upside down in college. Now, ten-years later, Satan’s back. Will Mabry survive his second run in with his Minor Mistake?
Mabry Caldor has a life many would envy. The glamour of a successful professional basketball career that leads to him owning a car dealership in Illinois after an injury that took him out of the game. He has his parents nearby in Indiana, and he’s resigned to living a quiet life after surviving a scorned college hacker and a relationship blunder, ending with his ex-boyfriend’s attempt at pawning his NBA championship ring.
JJ Lewis is a genius—certified. He’s also the owner of a lucrative gaming business in Los Angeles that specializes in sports-related video games. The whale he’s never been able to convince to work with him is three-time NBA MVP Mabry Caldor, a man with whom JJ has a checkered past.
Can Mabry ever forgive JJ for the hellacious senior year of college that JJ caused after he obliterated Mabry’s life on campus? Can JJ convince the man of his dreams to give him a chance to make up for a mistake seventeen-year-old Jimmy made after believing he’d been rejected by the ball handler? Will a second run-in with the geek leave the jock’s head spinning like a basketball?
It’s a fun holiday romance where a geek goes in search of the jock he’s loved for ten years after making a minor mistake, in hopes of proving to the jock that he’s the man Mabry never imagined he’d be?
This work of fiction is approximately 74,000 words in length and ends with an H-E-A. It is a standalone M/M holiday romance. Enjoy!
A Few Words of Thanks
I’d like to take a moment to thank my team—Arden, the new kid on the block, Sue, and Mildred. Without these lovely people, I would never be able to tell my stories. I appreciate all of the work that goes into bringing these books to life, and I am indebted to you for your dedication and hard work on my behalf.
I’d like to thank my patrons on Patreon for their interest in what I publish and “how the sausage gets made!” I offer future book ideas, exclusive excerpts, and first-look cover reveals. If you’d like to become a patron, go to Sam's Patreon and choose your level.
Finally, I’d like to thank my family for their support and listening ears. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that I have you in my corner.
I truly hope you enjoy “Mabry’s Minor Mistake!”
Prologue
Mabry Caldor
August 2022
I saw Grayson March pacing in front of my building while walking across the parking lot behind my residence hall. He was tough to miss because the guy was damn handsome—not that I really looked. He was a man on a mission to have sex with every woman at school, and I wished him well with it, knowing I’d never be on his list.
“Oh, dude, I was just coming to see if your shitty car was on the lot. Greek parties are tonight, and you’ve got a ride. You gotta come with me,” Grayson insisted.
I slammed the trunk of my old beater to head to Schuster Residence Hall. It was my senior year, and I’d taken a position as a Resident Assistant instead of sharing an off-campus apartment with Grayson and another guy on the basketball team, Quincy Thompson.
I’d turned down Grayson’s invitation to live rent-free and split costs three ways when he’d called me over the summer to extend it, but as an RA, I was getting free housing and a meal program, along with discounted tuition that was covered by my folks, so why not? I knew he wasn’t exactly thrilled at my decision, but it was the best option for me at the time.
My campus job allowed me to defer my athletic scholarship my senior year to recover from a meniscus tear I’d suffered at the end of my junior year. I’d had surgery over the summer when I’d been home in Iowa, and had been going for physical therapy there. I was set to start it at school under the training staff for the basketball team. I’d be sitting out my senior year, but I could get my MBA and enter the NBA draft with a better placement the next year. Win-win!
“Can’t. I’ve got freshman dorm orientation, and after that, I gotta pick up my books from the bookstore. I also gotta have someone come fix the damn Wi-Fi in my suite. I put in a call to Campus IT, but I haven’t heard back yet. Anyway, I gotta get going, March. I’ll see you at Cox-McFerrin in the morning for weight training,” I said as I carried a grocery bag with food to my dorm room.
I’d inherited the small fridge from the RA before me, so my choices for having healthy food on hand had expanded this year. The previous year I’d had to share a bigger suite with two other guys, and space was at a premium—which probably explained why we’d never become friends. They were two of the dirtiest guys I’d ever met, and I wanted nothing to do with either of them. In my opinion, the girls they bedded in our dorm room had questionable taste in what they wanted in a relationship if they thought those two assholes were the cream of the crop.
“If I can find someone to help with your computer issue, will you be our designated driver and go out with us? Quincy really wants to go, and I want to start the year off with a bang or two, ya know, bro?” Grayson requested—smarmy frat-boy speak included.
There was no way Grayson March knew anyone who could fix my computer issues. There had been an invasion of mice in Schuster Hall over the summer when the dorm was empty and it was hot as fuck in Texas. They’d chewed through wires while enjoying the cooler temps in the dorm. The wires had been replaced and the Wi-Fi was back up, or so they claimed. I hadn’t been able to get my laptop to connect to it, getting a “network not found” message every time I tried that pissed me off.
The college superintendent had been making the rounds of the residence halls to welcome the staff the previous week as I was moving in and had promised they’d get someone on the Wi-Fi issue as soon as possible. I’d been spending my time using the Wi-Fi in the cafeteria, which was okay because the place wasn’t busy—yet. Once the school year started, traffic would definitely pick up, and it would be difficult for me to concentrate with the scraping sounds of forks on plates, and the clatter of dropped trays competing for brain space with my business law class. I wasn’t a breakout student athlete like March, and I damn well wasn’t going to find peace in a crowded cafeteria.
“You got someone who can fix my problems, send ‘em over, and I’ll go with you guys to the party and introduce you around. Come get me at eight—if you can get someone to get my Wi-Fi up and running,” I tempted him. No way could he live up to that challenge.
After I settled my freshmen students in that night, I’d be settling in with the textbook for my taxation class. At least I wouldn’t have a headache the next day—not from alcohol, anyway.
Later that afternoon, I was busy tucking the sheets around the hard mattress on my double bed, which was about a foot too short for my tall frame. There was a quick knock on the door before it opened and Grayson stepped inside with a cute guy trailing behind. “You should’ve taken me up on the apartment. You can’t bring chicks here, you know. You’ll get demerits, big guy,” Grayson laughed as he glanced around my sparse room. There wasn’t space for much, but it was all mine.
His companion, who seemed to be very shy and absolutely adorable—based on the glowing pink cheeks upon which tortoise shell frames rested—kept glancing up at me through his dark brown lashes, which brushed the lenses when he studied me surreptitiously. His ha
“Hi. Excuse March for his poor manners,” I greeted. “Mabry Caldor,” I stated as I waited for him to shake my hand.
He was slender, probably about five-eight if I was guessing. Before he reached out to shake my hand, he wiped his palm on his khaki pants.
“Jimmy. Uh, Jimmy Lewis,” he introduced before he jerked his soft hand from mine and rested both palms on the strap of his cross-body bag.
I glanced down to see he had on a pair of Vans with the checkerboard top so popular with skateboarders. “You like to skateboard?” I asked, trying to make small talk as Grayson rooted through my miniscule closet. Jimmy looked at me as though I was dumb as a rock for my observation.
I glanced behind my back where March held up a blue plaid button-down. “Are you stealing my clothes while this guy offers a distraction?”
Grayson chuckled. “You’ve got one long fucking torso, Caldor. How damn tall are you?” March asked. He was shorter than me, but my height was what made me a good swingman on the court, or so every coach I’d ever had had told me.
“Taller than you. So, Jimmy Uh Jimmy Lewis, what brings you by? March hire you as a personal assistant to manage his dating calendar?” I joked.
A small smile appeared on Jimmy’s face, and his neck flushed a nice pink. “I don’t have that kind of time between my job with IT and my studies,” Jimmy Lewis joked, which made me crack up. Cute and a sense of humor…
Jimmy didn’t seem to be a man of many words, which I could appreciate. He took in the room before walking over to my desk, kneeling down without a word. I turned my attention to March. “What’s he doing?”
Grayson March offered a smile I was certain charmed the panties off many a woman. “He works the help desk in Campus IT. There are about a billion other students who are on the list for some sort of technical shit, but Jimmy, here, was kind enough to move you to the top of the list and personally take the work order to get you ready to go,” Grayson explained.
I glanced over to see the kid sitting on his feet, engrossed in whatever was happening under my desk, so I stepped closer to March. “And what was he promised to get him to perform such a selfless act,” I guessed.
Nobody was that nice at the beginning of the semester when everyone was trying to settle in and get organized for the start of classes—especially not a freshman who was probably away from home for the first time and scared shitless at the mere size of the campus.
“He’s going to the party with us tonight. He’s from California and doesn’t know anyone, so I’m taking him under my wing,” Grayson admitted, confirming my suspicions the kid had been promised something.
“Fake ID.” We both heard him from the corner of the room.
“What? What’s that?” I asked as I stepped closer to him.
“He’s hooking me up to get a—”
“Shh! We keep some things to ourselves, Jimmy,” Grayson chastised, glancing my way.
“Jimmy, how old are you?” I asked. It reasoned he was eighteen if he was at college, or so I believed, but he damn well didn’t appear to be.
The kid crawled out from under the desk and stared at me, his brow furrowed. “Seventeen. I finished high school at sixteen, but my parents wouldn’t let me come in person until I turned seventeen, so I took classes online for a year,” the kid—who I now knew was a kid—answered.
I heard Grayson hiss next to me, so I turned to look at him, not hiding my disappointment. “You’re corrupting a minor.” I sighed, not surprised March would do something of the sort, which was confirmed by his shrug.
“I’m just helpin’ the kid get the lay of the land, ‘s all. Come on, Caldor. Hit the showers. We’re pregaming at my place in an hour, and then we’ll head out for the night. Quincy’s already got a sure thing, so he’s decided not to come along. I’m counting on you to know where all of the best parties are and take us to them where you’ll introduce us as your friends and then sit quietly in a corner with a nice pop,” Grayson said as he pulled out a pair of jeans from the shelf in my closet and handed them to me, along with the blue shirt.
“It’s too damn hot for pants,” I complained as I went to the dresser and grabbed a pair of navy shorts before I went into my ensuite—which was a perk a lot of RAs didn’t get.
I took the world’s fastest shower and got out, brushing my teeth and doing a touch-up shave before I combed my hair and pulled it up into a bun. It was long from the summer break. I hadn’t taken the time to get it cut before I got to campus, so I’d need to find somewhere tomorrow morning before Coach Maw saw me and threatened to cut it himself, as I’d heard him say more than once during my college career.
I dressed hurriedly in my briefs and shorts before stepping out of the bathroom to see March flipping through his phone as he sprawled all over my clean bed—the dickhead. I hung my damp towel on the closet door and tossed my dirty clothes into the hamper in the corner of my room before I removed my shirt from the hanger and hung it on the bar in my closet.
I damn sure wasn’t thrilled about going to a party, especially if I was slated to be the DD. However, if the kid was going, I felt it was my responsibility to see that he didn’t get into any trouble.
“Eep!”
I turned to see where the squeak came from, worried it might be a damn mouse. What I saw was Jimmy Lewis, face as red as a tomato and eyes as large as Oreo cookies.
I glanced down to see I was still without my shirt, so I turned my back and pulled it on, buttoning it as I considered what to do about young Jimmy. The kid was seventeen. He was quiet. He shied away from looking me in the eye, and I was thirst-trapping him without even knowing it. Not a position I ever thought I’d be in.
Suddenly, something struck me about the young man… the very young man. “When did you turn seventeen, Jimmy?” I asked, dreading his answer somewhat.
“Last Thursday,” the kid replied. My heart dropped at his words.
March spoke up quickly to change the subject, I was guessing. “Do you surf, Caldor?” I turned to see him giving me the up and down, which was unexpected.
“In landlocked Iowa? Sure. Every weekend.” For an instant, I almost asked if he wanted to teach me personally—and let me teach him a few things while we were at it, but I thought better of it.
Grayson March was very handsome in a boy-next-door kind of way. He had brown hair and green eyes, and he was muscular in all the right places. I wasn’t fat, but I wasn’t as firm as I’d been before my injury. I couldn’t do cardio because of my knee, and while I did as much exercise as the doctor would allow, I’d put on a few pounds. My mother showed her love with food, and she loved me a lot. She was also a great cook, and as an only child, I enjoyed being spoiled.
I turned to the kid, seeing he was back under my desk with a laptop doing something. I turned back to March. “Do you surf, March?” I asked him.
“Yeah. My dad’s… A friend of the family taught me and my little brother to surf over the summer. I’m not very good at it, but I like to go out when I’m home,” March explained.
“Done.” The announcement rang of triumph.
I turned my eyes to the right to see the kid slide out from under the desk and easily drop into my desk chair. He glanced my way, offering a shy smile. “Can you log into your account so I can check the connection?”
I did as he asked, and then his fingers, which were short and slender, flew over the keys. Screens were popping up and moving off so fast, I couldn’t keep it all straight.
