About You Can Go Home Again

by Drew Zachary
40 pages / 8700 words
Ebook zipped file contains - html, lit, Adobe and Sony optimized pdf, prc, epub

Veterinarian Peter Rawley has returned to his prairie home of Claremont after a six year absence to care for his ailing parents. While out at the local watering hole, he runs into his old friend Harlan Brant. Lan is number one on the list of people Pete wants to catch up with now that he's back, and it looks like the feeling is mutual.

When a couple of drinks leads to an invitation to spend an off day out at Lan's ranch, Pete wonders if an old friendship can become something more and if it's true that you can go home again.

Sample

Peter Rawley walked into The Watering Hole and looked around. It didn't matter that he'd been gone for a few years, some things just never changed and Claremont's favorite -- and only -- drinking spot was one of them.

There was something a little reassuring about that. Like, no matter where he went or how long he was gone, or how much he changed, home would always be here.

He'd left Claremont just shy of six years ago, left his prairie home for the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph. Now, after four years of schooling and two years working as a vet in rural Ontario, he was home. He'd grown up while he was away. He'd come into his own. Now he knew who he was and what he wanted out of life. It was a cliché, but he'd left a boy and was back a man.

Old-time country music filled Pete's ears as his eyes travelled over the same signs he remembered from having his first legal beer at nineteen. Jeans, denim shirts, cowboy boots, and hats were the dress code, and he was glad he'd taken the time to change before coming out. The lighting ranged from bright at the front to dim toward the back, the small dance floor currently empty.

Pete made his way over to the bar and sat down next to a cowboy. He asked for a glass of whatever was on tap and nodded to his neighbor. The guy turned, and Pete felt his mouth drop open. Harlan Brant. It looked like he wasn't the only one who was all grown up.

"Lan? Is that you?" Man, they'd been best friends when they were younger. Time and space had kept them from keeping up, but Lan was number one on the list of folks he wanted to catch up with now that he was back.

Blue eyes peered at him, and Lan nodded slowly. "Yep. S'me." He leaned way back and looked Pete up and down. "Well, I'll be a son of a bitch. What the fuck did you do to your hair, man?" Grinning broadly, Lan swung an arm around and pulled Pete into a tight, back-slapping hug.

Laughing, Pete hugged back. He couldn't help noticing all the new muscles Lan had, no doubt the by-product of working his family's ranch. "I let it grow out." His hair wasn't that long, but it curled around his forehead and ears and the back of his neck, and he supposed it looked pretty different when compared to the buzzcut he'd always sported. His father would come at him with the shaver once every six weeks, whether he needed the cut or not.

"I like it." Lan ruffled the curls and waved down the bar, calling for two more glasses. "When did you blow back into town? Staying awhile or just visiting?"