Love's Chances

By Thomas Grant Bruso

T.J. Alton is shy and reticent, living alone with a rescue cat after his parents' death a year earlier. He rarely strays from his usual daily routine of work and home and back again.

Then he meets Devon Ryder, an outgoing, colorful, and ruggedly handsome man, with his own long list of emotional baggage. After a month of chatting online, the two men decide to meet in real life, and their first date is at a local Great Escape theme park in upstate New York.

As they discover more about each other through conversation and food, a connection is made. But will T.J.'s fears of large crowds and intimacy drive him back to isolation, away from the social circle of life, and the idea of starting a new relationship with someone special?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Sep 3, 2016
• ISBN: 9781634862097

Thomas Grant Bruso

Thomas Grant Bruso graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh in 2004 with a Bachelor’s in theatre performance and English writing. He knew at an early age he wanted to be a writer. He has been a voracious reader of genre fiction since he was a kid. His literary inspirations are Dean Koontz, Karin Fossum, Jeffery Deaver, Joyce Carol Oates, and John Connolly. He loves animals, book-reading, writing fiction, and prefers Sudoku to crossword puzzles. He writes book reviews for his hometown newspaper, The Press Republican. He lives in Plattsburgh with his husband, Paul, and their miniature pincher diva, Riley. For more information, please visit facebook.com/thomasgrantbruso.

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Love’s Chances

By Thomas Grant Bruso

Published by JMS Books LLC at Smashwords

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2016 Thomas Grant Bruso

ISBN 9781634862097

Cover Design: Written Ink Designs | written-ink.com

Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.

All rights reserved.

WARNING: This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If it is sold, shared, or given away, it is an infringement of the copyright of this work and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.

This book is for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It may contain sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which might be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published in the United States of America.

* * * *

For Mom. You will be missed.

* * * *

Love’s Chances

By Thomas Grant Bruso

We met in the parking lot of Great Escape in Queensbury, New York, an hour before sunset. The hot air was the consistency of creamy soup, and my polo shirt clung to me like glue; I ran my hand through my short hair, and my fingers came away, sticky and damp.

Under the boiling heat of a late August sun, I felt twitchy, waiting for Devon Ryder, the man I had been chatting with for a month from behind the safety of my computer screen. I checked my watch for the third time. I had only been waiting for ten minutes after receiving Devon’s IM to meet him in the parking lot.

Packing my sweaty hands into my shorts pockets, I leaned against my old car, a 2010 blue Civic, my heart pulsing.

Fifteen minutes later, when his light brown Volkswagen pulled into the congested parking lot, I popped a stick of Juicy Fruit into my mouth and mopped my brow with the back of my hand.

I watched Devon reversing the car, driving it forward, and trying to fit it into a narrow spot between a large SUV and the monstrosity of a bumblebee yellow hummer.

I stared at him with a commiserating look. He glanced over his shoulder and into the rearview mirror for any wandering pedestrians or other slow-moving vehicles. Two old-schooled dudes on a date, I thought, my mind scrambled from the heat and tension of the moment.

Devon approached me, his skintight tee taut against his broad shoulders, his armpits stained, sweat glistening along his buff arms and I could hardly speak when he reached out to shake my hand.

I envisioned his handshake to be as weak as his dry humor when we exchanged IMs: His deadpan delivery was oftentimes lifeless. I want to walk around the world one day, but I don’t own a comfortable pair of shoes.

It was hard to judge someone from talking to them behind a computer.

We shook hands. Surprisingly, his grip was firm. It’s finally nice to meet the T.J. Alton I’ve been talking to online, he said.

* * * *

The line for the Ferris wheel ride was growing around the hot dog and helium balloon stands as we waited to get on.

What are you afraid of, T.J.? Devon asked, noticing my hand trembling when he reached for it with his.

Heights, I said.

Are you sure you want to ride a Ferris wheel? he said, biting off a chunk of his blue snow cone.

I held my half-eaten cotton candy in one hand as I handed my ticket to the Ferris wheel operator.

"Let me lift