Catching feelings for my friend with benefits? Surely there’s a song about that...

When my musical mentor asked me to help his old buddy put on a music festival in Vermont, I thought it’d be a nice break from my regular life. Not that my life has been regular lately. My twin left to go be an actor, and I’m not on tour for the first time since I was a kid. Working on a project like this is just what I needed.

But I’d barely arrived in Maplewood when I almost ran over a teenager, heard about a local cryptid, and got shouted at by a fanny-pack wearing, floppy-haired, thirty-something veterinarian named Finn. Who was adorable. When he wasn’t yelling, of course.

This being a small town, I keep running into Finn no matter how I try to avoid him. Only, as much as he rubs me the wrong way, I wouldn’t mind him rubbing me the right way, if you know what I mean.

Turns out he feels the same, so we agree to stop bickering and start lick...er-ing. Whatever. You get my drift. It’s all just casual, friends-with-benefits fun, a physical release. And that’s all it can be, because I’m only in town until the festival is over. Then it’s back to my regular life.

But someone should’ve warned me that Finn’s actually sweet. He’s always doing thoughtful little things for me, and he’s so supportive of his teenager. How can I keep things casual in the face of all that? But it’s way too soon for either of us to be having “feelings”. Maybe I can find an excuse to stick around a little longer....

Can You Feel the Maple Tonight is a low-angst, small town contemporary MM romance with an age gap, a single parent, musical interludes, something strange in the woods, a giant tortoise, hats for every occasion, and a murder chicken.