Happy Easter, everyone, and thank you Ally for letting me drop by. I’m in the middle of re-publishing a number of old stories. And two days ago, The Egg Hunt was released.
The Egg Hunt is an Easter story that takes place in Nortown. The thing with Nortown is that almost everyone there is a lumberjack. When I first started writing these stories, it was to make fun of all the clichés. Don’t get me wrong, I care for my characters and their hardships, but I played a lot on stereotypes.
The Egg Hunt was first released in 2016, and the M/M genre has developed since. There weren’t a lot of vampire daddies or Mpreg stories back then – they existed, but not to the extent they do now. And this was before the Amazon top lists were overflowing with the ‘I shagged my step daddy’ stories. And, to each their own, but I want to say thank heavens because I could never write those kinds of books. So instead, I wrote grumpy, toppy lumberjacks with ‘oh, so responsive’ bottoms.
Now, The Egg Hunt isn’t as stereotypical as the other stories taking place in Nortown, but it has the attributes. Tom is a closeted lumberjack, and Jason is a bartender from ‘the city’.
Jason is in Nortown to visit a friend, but their dogs fight, so he gets to stay with Tom instead. At first, Tom isn’t pleased, but soon he realises it’s quite nice to not have to spend the holiday on his own.
Do you have any special Easter traditions? When I was a kid, Mum always boiled a crazy number of eggs on the morning of Easter Eve – in Sweden you celebrate all holidays on the eve. On Christmas, we open the gifts on Christmas eve. Anyway, Mum made eggs, and the entire family gathered and painted them. Then we ate them.
I remember being a little sad when I had to destroy an egg I was especially pleased with.
Mum had also hidden carton eggs filled with candy all over the house. And she had, and still has, lots of small porcelain eggs she filled with sweets of different kinds. The entire Easter weekend, we were on a constant sugar high LOL.
In Nortown, the inhabitants of the town get together for an egg hunt in the forest.
Excerpt:
Jason hurried past Tom between the trees. Even though he’d helped hide the eggs, it was hard to find any now. He stopped by a fallen, moss-covered trunk, where he was almost certain he’d hidden three small chocolate eggs, but he couldn’t spot a single one. Someone might have made it there before him, he guessed, but he didn’t think so. Everyone had started at the same time.
He heard Tom snigger behind him.
“Did you take them?” Jason gave him a mock glare, which quickly morphed into a smile. It was almost as if he were being pulled towards him.
“I might have hidden them elsewhere, but then again, so might Jen.”
“You moved my eggs?”
“Of course! I couldn’t let you win.” Tom reached for him but stopped himself and stepped back. Jason fought a sigh. He wanted Tom to touch him. It was stupid, but he wanted to be close to Tom, wanted to smell him, to laugh with him.
“Oh, lookie here.” Tom stretched up between two branches and took down a real egg that had been coloured purple. “Now if you find one, we can have that egg tapping.”
Jason huffed and continued farther into the woods. He would find an egg, and he would win the egg-tapping thing. An unguarded feeling of freedom shot through him as he searched both on the ground and up in the trees for colourful eggs. He didn’t really care if he won—the insight should’ve been shocking; Jason always wanted to win. He still wanted to find an egg and play the stupid game with Tom, but only to see his warm eyes sparkle.
“A-ha! Got one!” He picked up a red egg and ran towards Tom. As he dashed between the tree trunks to where he’d last seen him, he almost ran into a little girl who was trying to reach a large plastic egg filled with sweets that hung too high in the tree for her. “Here you go, darling.” He took it down for her and hurried along. Where the fuck had Tom gone? He’d been right behind him mere minutes ago.
He could hear voices and laughter everywhere, but not Tom’s.
The Egg Hunt
Jason has one rule when it comes to holidays — work his shift behind the bar and then find a willing body to distract himself with. One night is long enough to satisfy his needs and still walk away with his heart intact. It has worked out fine for most of his adult life, but this Easter, he’s trying something new. He’s leaving the city to visit his friend Aiden, who recently moved in with his boyfriend in the middle of nowhere, but one unfortunate incident leaves Jason without a place to sleep.
Tom doesn’t just not do relationships, he rarely does hook-ups, either, and never too close to home. Living on his own without attachments is easier than having the whole town knowing about him. As the holiday approaches, his lonely house grows even quieter than normal — at least until his friend Tristan dumps an arrogant bartender in his lap.
As soon as Jason lays eyes on the gruff lumberjack whose home he’ll be sharing, he knows who’ll warm his bed for the weekend and help chase away any pending holiday gloom. Too bad Tom doesn’t want to get with the program. As much as he wants to let Jason close, he won’t risk outing himself for a weekend fling. Will Jason trust Tom not to break his heart if he stays longer than a couple of days? Will Tom value their relationship higher than the town gossip?
Contemporary M/M Romance: 34.031 words
Buy The egg hunt:
About Ofelia
Ofelia Gränd is Swedish, which often shines through in her stories. She likes to write about everyday people ending up in not-so-everyday situations, and hopefully also getting out of them. She writes romance, contemporary, paranormal, Sci-Fi and whatever else catches her fancy.
Her books are written for readers who want to take a break from their everyday life for an hour or two.
When Ofelia manages to tear herself from the screen and sneak away from her husband and children, she likes to take walks in the woods…if she’s lucky she finds her way back home again.
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