Returning the Runner

Twenty-five years ago, Hanson Swaim broke my heart and left Forestville without looking back.

I stayed. I built a life, a brewery, a reputation as the town’s most reliably single bachelor.

I told myself I was over him. I told myself I deserved more than a man who would always stay in the closet. I told myself a lot of things.

Now I’m forty-six, boarding a gay cruise with a rolling suitcase and what’s left of my optimism—and there he is, looking exactly like the boy who walked away from me, except older and more tired.

He’s out now. He’s single. And when our eyes meet, twenty-five years collapse.

I have one week at sea to decide if I can trust him with my heart again.

I’m forty-six years old. I should know better.

I don’t think I do.

Returning the Runner is a standalone short story in the Forestville Silver Foxes series.