Leap Year at Black Point

A Thursday teaser from the latest romance

By A.J. Llewellyn and D.J. Manly

The spicy warmth of toasted sesame oil filled the kitchen. Ah. Just the right amount of brown to the chicken. Matt had to take the stir-fried pieces off the stove. Now. Any longer and they would be overcooked.

“Hey everybody! You like jjajangmyeon noodles? You see them all the time on Korean drama and TV shows!” The adorable YouTube chef, Maangchi, waved at the camera.

“Ye!” Matt’s seven-year-old daughter, Rose shouted. “I love black bean noodles!”

Matt couldn’t help laughing. “Put it on pause, sweetie.” He was trying to follow Maanchi’s directions for the popular Korean dish. It had been a bit of an ordeal scouting Korean grocery stores in Honolulu for things he normally didn’t buy such as potato starch powder, daikon radish, and jjajangmyeon noodles.

He’d assembled all the ingredients for the black bean sauce. As he removed the chicken from the stove and prepared to stir fry the sliced radish, zucchini and chopped potatoes, he glanced over at Rose.

She either hadn’t heard him or she was too gaga over Maangchi to pause the video.

“I already posted the recipe, but today is a very upgraded version.” Maangchi held her hand up high.

“Ye!” Rose hollered again. Matt’s gorgeous little girl was the love of his life. Ye, Korean for yes, was her new favorite word. Except when she was saying aniyo, no, to things like “Go to bed.” Or “Brush your teeth.”

She stared intently at the video on Daddy Thomas’s laptop. She wrote something in her new Hello Kitty journal, showing it to him.

But Thomas sat rigid, arms folded, staring into the distance. At the age of seven, Rose’s dream was to be a tightrope walker, Internet cook, champion hula dancer, or a vet. Maybe all four. He was usually so encouraging, so active in all the things Rose loved.

“Daddy?” She switched her focus to Matt. “We have the right noodles, don’t we?”

Thomas snapped back to attention. “Didn’t you go to three different markets to find them? What’s taking so long anyway?”

Rose gazed at him, obviously surprised by his surly tone.

Matt stared at Thomas, the other great love of his life. He turned off the stove and moved closer to the kitchen table, pausing the video himself. “Rosie, darling, can you give me a minute alone with your father?”

“Can I watch Racket Boys on the TV in your room?”

Matt hesitated. He’d vowed never to become the kind of parent who used the boob tube as a babysitter, but Thomas had been a jerk all day and Matt needed to get to the bottom of it. “Sure, sweetie. You have fifteen minutes.”

“Way cool!” She zoomed off, sliding across the kitchen floor in her bright pink socks. The base of them read, “Cancer, you messed with the wrong girl!” They’d been a gift from Matt’s twin brother, Ryan, in celebration of Rose getting a clean bill of health from her oncologist.

This was supposed to be a celebratory meal. It was supposed to be a happy evening, the sun setting beyond their Black Point home and settling on the majestic slopes of Diamond Head so clear and sparkling outside their living room windows.

It had been six years since Rose had received a bone marrow transplant to help cure a rare blood cancer. For Matt and Thomas, the every-two-year mark when their daughter was tested was always harrowing.

The fact that Rose was healthy, happy, and hungry, was a beautiful thing.

“You okay?” he asked Thomas.

To his astonishment, Thomas shook his head.

“What’s wrong?” Matt prayed it wasn’t his health. He couldn’t handle another bad thing happening to either one of his loves.

Thomas looked frightened. “Babe. I’m in big trouble.”

Matt gripped the edge of the table. “What kind of trouble? Are you sick?”

“I wish. No.”

“Don’t wish trouble on yourself!”

Thomas closed his eyes. “I screwed up. I’m in trouble with Homeland Security. They want to deport me.”

Matt pulled out a chair and plunked himself into it. “What the hell are you talking about? You’ve got a green card!”

“Yeah. I got one. But it had the wrong info on it.”

“What?”

“I returned it to Immigration like they said I should.”

“What are you talking about?”

Thomas blew out a breath.

“You got that thing five years ago and you’re just telling me now? And what kind of wrong info was on it?”

Thomas didn’t seem to be listening. “I sent it back.” His voice cracked. “I never heard from them again.”

Matt was trying hard not to freak out. They had been married for more than ten years. He tried to keep calm as he asked again, “What was the wrong info on it?”

Thomas sighed and got up from the table. He was still the hottest mofo Matt knew. Thomas opened his messenger bag and slid a folded piece of paper across the table to him. “I took a photocopy of the green card before I returned it.”

Matt opened the page and stared at the image before him. The card read Thomas Carter and had their street address in Honolulu as well as his global ID number. But the photo was of an elderly, gap-toothed Asian man.

“But that’s not you.”

“Exactly.”

Leap Year at Black Point

Is it true Leap Year is bad luck for lovers? Or is romantic magic possible?

It’s been seven years since we’ve seen filmmakers Thomas and Matt and their lovable family members. Living full-time in Black Point, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, they are thriving in their sun-kissed lifestyle with their healthy, happy, young daughter, Rose. But tragedy soon strikes when Canadian-born Thomas, who thought his immigration process was assured, is stunned to receive a deportation order from Homeland Security. Leave the United States within sixty days. Or else.

Matt is shocked to learn that Thomas kept silent about his legal problems. Will he be forced to leave the life he and Matt created? Or can he prove to the government that they really are in love, that their marriage is genuine, and all of this is a terrible mistake.

Get it now at Extasy Books.

A.J. Llewellyn

Bestselling author A.J. Llewellyn

lives in California, but dreams of living in Hawaii. Frequent trips to all the islands, bags of Kona coffee in the fridge and a healthy collection of Hawaiian records keep this writer refueled.

A.J’s passion for the islands led to writing a play about the overthrow of Queen Lili’uokalani’s kingdom.

A.J. never lacks inspiration for writing erotic romances but has many other passions: collecting books on Hawaiiana, surfing and spending time with family, friends and animal companions.

A.J. Llewellyn believes that love is a song best sung out loud.

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