by Rob Cornell
“Dating? Me? I’m too old for that.”
Dylan rolled his eyes. “You’re only three years older than me.”
“My soul is old. I’m ancient inside.”
“You deserve to be happy.”
Harrison studied his brother a minute. The crinkle of his smiling eyes. The healthy flush in his cheeks. The straighter set to his spine. “Seeing you happy makes me happy, Dylan. I am exactly where I want to be right now.”
Dylan’s eyes watered. He looked away and wiped his nose with the back of his wrist. “Stop it. You’re embarrassing me.”
Harrison grasped Dylan’s shoulder and squeezed.
Dylan reached across himself and put his hand on Harrison’s.
They sat that way for a while.
The feel of the sun on the back of Harrison’s neck filled him with a comfortable warmth. The sound of kids screaming as they chased each other around the play structure across the open field between them made him smile. The park looked a lot different these days, but he remembered coming here as kids, the smell of summer in the air, a sense of freedom as he and Dylan played on the swings or threw a Frisbee around or saw how high they could let their kites soar above them.
The wave of nostalgia took him by surprise.
As it happened now and then, the loss of his parents hit him as if for the first time. He would never get used to not having them around anymore. Especially now that he was living at home again, where places like Dodge Park could trigger memories with a painful vividness.
Despite all of that, he meant what he’d said to Dylan. He was right where he wanted to be.
He gave Dylan’s shoulder another squeeze. “Let’s go home.”
Dylan smiled, nodded. “No place like it.”
No. No there wasn’t.
Also by Rob Cornell
Red Run
* * *
Ridley Brone Mysteries
Last Call
The Hustle
Saving Sasha Brown
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Harrison Hart Novels
The Quiet Edge
About the Author
Rob Cornell grew up in Detroit, Michigan. In college, he fell in love with the works of Lawrence Block and decided then and there that he wanted to write his own mystery novels. A graduate of the fiction writing program at Columbia College Chicago, he now lives and works in Southeast Michigan with an army of cats by his side.
