Margins
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Second Chance
Series · 3 books · 2013-2014

Books in series

Second Chance book cover
#1

Second Chance

2013

In this first novella of the Second Chance series, an older gay man who has lived a closeted life for ninety-two years is presented with choices one last time. Who hasn't wondered how things might have turned out if only they'd made one or two different choices in their lives? Who hasn't contemplated what it would be like for the chance to do things all over again a different way, if only that were possible? When ninety-two year old Andy Walker shuffles out to his beloved vegetable garden one morning in June, he gets the surprise of his life. He winds up in the last place he could ever imagine, with the man of his dreams telling him there's still time for a second chance and there's still time for him to choose a different path than the one he's already followed...but only if he's willing to take the risk and revisit one of the most pivotal and painful moments of his life. There are no guarantees or promises of happily-ever-after, and no one can make Andy's choices for him. And if he agrees to return to the year 1950 when he was still young and strong and handsome, only he will know whether or not it's possible to alter the course of his entire life thanks to one unusual encounter with a stranger named Chip. Second Chance Even though Andy Walker would be turning ninety-three years old in a couple of weeks he wasn't the kind of old man who could sit in a chair and stare out a window all day. In spite of numerous requests to move into one of those assisted living facilities from his only living relative, a seventy year old niece who lived in Chicago and visited two or three times a year, Andy planned to die at the ranch in Montana where he'd lived most of his life. He still had decent eyesight, his hearing wasn't that bad on a good day, and he only needed a cane on days when his hip really bothered him. He had a cleaning woman twice a week who did laundry, prepared meals, and went over the entire house. And a caretaker who mowed, weeded, white-washed, and handled what Andy didn't feel safe doing anymore. He even drove into town two or three times a week in the same Jeep Cherokee he'd had for over twenty-five years. Andy wasn't a profound or deeply religious man. The one thing he'd noticed as he'd passed through life was the way he kept losing things that seemed so insignificant when he'd been younger, but continued to grow more important as he'd aged. He'd started out noticing he'd lost a cheap tie clip, or a pair of cufflinks, or a page of sheet music he'd once enjoyed playing. Then one day he noticed he was losing his hair at the temples. By the time he noticed he'd lost the tight skin tone on his thighs and everything sagged and creased, he decided to hold on to the things over which he had control for as long as possible. One of those things was his small vegetable garden next to the barn where Andy and his late wife had once boarded and trained horses. When Andy and Sarah June Walker had purchased the working ranch in western Montana many years earlier thanks to a cash wedding gift from his in-laws, Andy had always found time to plant a small vegetable garden in a long narrow section near the barn he'd surrounded with a white picket fence and chicken wire. The garden became his sanity sometimes. He would go there to forget about all he'd missed in life and all he'd sacrificed to do the right thing. In his case, doing the right thing had been marrying a nice girl he'd gotten into trouble one night when he'd been too drunk to remember what he'd been doing. When the baby that had changed the entire course of his life was delivered still born he was already married and there wasn't much to do but settle into the life he'd chosen.
Second Chance book cover
#2

Second Chance

The Littlest Christmas Tree

2013

In this bonus novella from the "Second Chance" series titled, The Littlest Christmas Tree, an unhappy man trapped in a relationship so bad he isn't even allowed a small Christmas tree is granted a second chance to go back in time and rethink the most pivotal choice he ever made. In doing this, he becomes one of the lucky few who can alter the outcome of his entire life. But there's a catch. Although he's offered the chance to return to his college days and make a different choice, when he actually does go back he's not consciously aware of this and there are no guarantees he won't make the same bad choice twice. Will he choose a stable life with a handsome, aggressive young law student? Or will he choose the scruffy young theater student who drives a motorcycle and works in an auto body shop?
Second Chance book cover
#3

Second Chance

His Only Choice

2014

In this third installment of the Second Chance series by Ryan Field, His Only Choice, Lance has to figure out a way to deal with the fact that his partner, Davis, of twenty years will be traveling extensively in Asia and leaving him alone for long stretches at a time. So Lance plunges into making important changes to the small brick and mortar bookshop he owns in New York's Hudson River Valley to keep it competitive with the rising popularity in e-books. He's also trying to deal with turning forty years old and it's not working out well. In order to fill the lonely hours when he's not working, Lance joins a gym and meets a very young personal trainer named Sergio who makes him feel so young and desirable again he starts lying about his age and telling Sergio he's only thirty-five years old. Like other books in the Second Chance series the story bounces from present to past a few times and the choice Lance has to make to get his second chance isn't clear until the story is in full swing. But there are more than a few sexy gay surprises to keep m/m readers wondering what will happen next, which include whether Lance will ultimately choose his safe, quiet life with Davis. Or will he choose to go another round with dark, sexy Sergio with the weight lifter's body and scruffy rough beard?

Author

Ryan Field
Ryan Field
Author · 80 books
Ryan @ryanfield Hybrid author of over 100 published modern romance novels and stories, including AN OFFICER AND HIS GENTLEMAN, FANGSTERS, and THE RAINBOW DETECTIVE AGENCY. He is a Lambda Award-winner with a short story and he's always more than thankful for reader reviews. In fact, he cherishes reviews from real readers, and that means good or bad reviews.
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Second Chance