You deserve that.” And he was serious, as this was the only time of year his dad let himself forget the problems that troubled him at work during the rest of it. “Yes, yes, I do love you, which is why I want you to go alone and have fun without me tagging along. That would have offended Erik had his dad not been smiling while he said it. But I’m glad to know you love your old man enough to care and watch just in case he gets trampled by a bull.” You’ve never seemed interested in any of it, so I didn’t imagine you’d have done that. “You’ve been going there every year for the last-what? Twenty years? And you think I’ve never watched the running of the bulls, trying to see you? I’m not that heartless, Dad.”

“How could you know that?” His father sounded surprised Erik actually knew something about his destination. I don’t like crowded places, and you can’t even walk in Pamplona during the festival.” “Come on, Dad, you know I would only drag you down. His idea of fun was simply different from his father’s. Not having a lot of friends didn’t mean he didn’t get to enjoy himself. Erik was pretty sure his dad thought he didn’t know how to have fun. “You could enjoy it, too, if you just forgot about everything else for a while.” For the first time in a long while, Erik feels something for another person, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is only temporary and he needs to go back home, does it? ExcerptĮrik had lost count of how many times his dad had asked. The two of them get to know each other as David shows Erik what’s to love about Pamplona. Faced with the choice of sleeping on the ground or the friendly offer of an extra bed, the decision is an easy one. Until help comes from an unlikely place.ĭavid works in the tourism office, and Erik is surprised but grateful when he offers him his spare room, despite being a complete stranger. No accommodations to be had, he’s resigned to sleeping in a park. Erik hasn’t booked a hotel, and he’s completely unprepared for a city bustling with people. Now his father is gone, and in a spur of the moment decision, Erik finds himself in another country to run with the bulls in his memory. Whenever his father asked Erik to accompany him to Pamplona for the San Fermín festival, he said no.

Genre: Contemporary, LGBT, Spain, bull running, writer, foreign traditions, anxiety attacks, grieving, long distance Add to Goodreads

The Sun Still Rises by Laura Bailo