The Festivus Miracle

By Kim Fielding

It's finals week during Tony McNeil's second year in law school, and he's struggling to keep up. Frankly, he'd rather be cooking. Then he meets first-year student Eddie Cohen-Fernandez, who's heartsick over missing his family's annual Festivus celebration. Tony can use his culinary skills to lift Eddie's spirits, but finding long-term happiness? That just might require a Festivus miracle.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tin Box Press
• Release date: Dec 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223149224

Kim Fielding

Kim Fielding is pleased every time someone calls her eclectic. Her books span a variety of genres, but all include authentic voices and unconventional heroes. She’s a Rainbow Award and SARA Emma Merritt winner, a LAMBDA finalist, and a two-time Foreword INDIE finalist. She has migrated back and forth across the western two-thirds of the United States and currently lives in California, where she long ago ran out of bookshelf space. A university professor who dreams of being able to travel and write full-time, she also dreams of having two daughters who occasionally get off their phones, a husband who isn’t obsessed with football, and a cat who doesn’t wake her up at 4:00 a.m. Some dreams are more easily obtained than others. Blogs: kfieldingwrites.com and www.goodreads.com/author/show/4105707.Kim_Fielding/blog Facebook: www.facebook.com/KFieldingWrites Email: [e-mail] Twitter: @KFieldingWrites

Book preview

The Festivus Miracle

The Festivus Miracle

KIM FIELDING

Tin Box Press

Copyright © 2023 by Kim Fielding

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Chapter 1

The Festivus Miracle

Kim Fielding

The guy three tables over looked like he was about to cry. Finals week had just begun, and the guy was a first-year law student—a 1L—so high levels of angst and anxiety were to be expected. But Tony was pretty sure the guy’s current misery had more to do with the phone call he’d just finished than the terrors of law school. It had been a loud conversation, something about repair bills. Everyone else in the student lounge had been trying to study, fueled by coffee and unhealthy snacks, but the guy had ignored their collective glare as he yelled into his phone. Now, though, the phone sat on the table as its owner stared blankly into the distance.

Everyone else had returned to their notes and canned briefs, but Tony continued to glare. The 1L had disturbed his concentration; that was bad enough, but what was worse, Tony was now truly noticing him.

He’d seen the guy around, of course. They weren’t in any classes together because Tony was a year ahead of him, but they’d passed in the hallways and the library and the lounge. He was cute, in a geeky sort of way. Looked like he’d be more at home cosplaying at a con than poring over property cases. He was on the small side, sort of thin, with a penchant for skinny jeans and T-shirts sporting ironic comments about pop culture, which Tony rarely understood. He had floppy brown hair, Harry Potter glasses, and a wide mouth that seemed perpetually curled in a grin—except right now.

Tony, with a snarl aimed more at himself than the unhappy 1L, wrenched his attention back to his course outline. Like-kind exchanges and their relationship to nonrecognition provisions. Tony was willing to bet that his parents would find the topic both relevant and fascinating, but he… he kept raising his gaze to the guy three tables over. Who still looked like he was on the verge of tears.

After a while, the lounge emptied out. Most people had either gone home to dinner or decamped to the study carrels in the library. The only remaining holdouts were Tony, the miserable 1L, and three people in the corner who were comparing their torts notes.

Tony gathered his papers, books, and laptop and stuffed them into his messenger bag. He shrugged into his coat. He hated studying in his big lonely house, but he wasn’t getting much accomplished here. As he stood and crossed the room, he