Sanctuary Found (Pelican Bay)

"Coming home should be the easiest thing in the world, but I've never felt more lost ... When his stellar military career comes to an abrupt and terrible end, thirty-two-year-old Maddox Kent returns to the town he never planned to step foot into again, hoping to mend the rift he himself caused with the brother he left behind. But coming home means facing some hard truths about himself and his actions. When he has the chance to star making amends by helping his brother with the wildlife sanctuary he runs, Maddox is thrown another curveball when a stranger appears ... As long as wee keep moving, everything will be okay. That's what I keep telling myself, anyway ... For twenty-one-year-old Isaac, Pelican Bay is only supposed to be a stopping point on the trek from San Francisco to New York. With his little brother, Newt, in tow, Isaac is just looking to make things right by returning something of value to a person he wronged. But 'getting lost' in the next big city proves to be a problem when the brutal Minnesota winter claims Isaac's car and strands him and Newt at the animal sanctuary. When the owners of the place offer him a job, a desperate Isaac agrees, despite the presence of a man Isaac instinctively knows could be his downfall ... It should be so easy to let him go, but I can't. And not just because I want to protect him ... Nothing about Isaac makes sense to Maddox. Not his piercings or makeup or flashy clothes. And most certainly not the snarky mouth that doesn't match the vulnerability Maddox sees in the younger man's eyes. But one thing does make sense to the hardened former soldier. Isaac is running from something, and Maddox's gut is telling him not to let Isaac and little Newt go until he can ferret out the truth. But having Isaac around means trying to make sense of something else Maddox isn't expecting ... his own body's response to the beautiful younger man. Aside from their explosive chemistry, nothing about the straitlaced soldier and the secretive misfit works. But maybe that's exactly why it does ..."--Cover page [4]