Going Home

At age twenty-four, Evan Parker was on the way to becoming rich, by anyone’s standards. He just didn’t look it, act it, or feel it. He’d left the tiny town of Harmony, Maryland, for William and Mary, and grad school at the UVA, Wharton School of Business. He hadn’t seen Isaac Wells in four years, not since Isaac told him that he didn’t really love him, and probably never had. He’d decided that sex with men wasn’t for him, that it all had been a mistake, a cruel joke, and that he was going to marry Janet Bourne, and live a normal life.
Evan didn’t dislike the little town that grew out of the western bank of the Wicomico River, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, but he never thought he’d move back, not until his father died, and his sister Eve’s husband developed Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. “What’s that?” He regretted the words the minute they spilled out of his mouth. Her sniffles turned to gasping tears, followed by three clear, cold words. “Lou-- Gehrig’s-- Disease.” A chill swept over him. “I can’t take care of both Michael and mother.” Evan didn’t miss the emphasis on the word AND.
Evan settled on the front porch drinking coffee, his first morning back. He felt the air being sucked out of his lungs as an SUV rolled to a stop in the driveway. He felt dizzy and sat down, before he fell down. The driver’s door opened and Isaac stepped onto the river pebble drive, dressed in green, uniform pants and a khaki shirt. He slid his car keys into his black, ballistic nylon gun belt, and walked around the vehicle, never breaking eye contact with Evan. He bounded up the steps and removed his sunglasses. His hazel-green eyes twinkled in the morning sunlight. Evan had dreamed of those eyes almost every night for four years.
“Aren’t you going to say hello to an old friend?”
“Hello, Isaac. What brings you here?”
“The question, Evan, is what brings you here, after four years in New York?” He knew. Eve must have told him. “Are you going to ask me to sit down, maybe offer me a cup of coffee?” Evan felt his face flash hot.
“I told you why I was here. Why are you here, Isaac?” Evan stared straight ahead at Isaac’s SUV. NATURAL RESOURCES POLICE was painted on the door.
“I saw Eve at Southern States. She told me you were coming home.”
“Okay, so why did you come to visit? What will your wife say?”
“I’m not married, Evan. I’m divorced.” Evan tried to keep the cup from shaking as he raised it to his lips, to keep from having to talk.
They say time heals all. Evan Parker can tell you that it doesn’t. Four years older, wiser, and wealthier, he’s still powerless to resist Isaac West. But Evan is tested when Officer Isaac Wells is ambushed and shot, and the overzealous detective on the case, marks Evan as a jealous ex-lover. -- A 17,000 word, adult themed, gay romance novella.