Love Bytes welcomes Ken Harrison to their blog. Ken talks to us about new release “Linear Park”, He also shares an excerpt from chapter 2.

Welcome Ken 🙂

Linear Park is about second chances and the depth of love between two men who have been together since childhood. Relationships often go through challenges that test the strength of the bond between two people. For Nick and Sean, that challenge is Sean’s addiction to alcohol.
Addiction is like a bulldozer, it will destroy everything in its path. It doesn’t care about love, truth or commitment. When it takes hold, it fights long and hard to keep its victim in a state of denial, destroying his/her reputation and livelihood until they have nothing. For most people, the only way out is down. If you’ve seen a loved one go through addiction—or experienced it yourself—then you know the toll it can take.
I focused Linear Park on the recovery aspect of addiction to show Sean working through it and growing from it. It’s also a time when Sean truly understands that his addiction caused him to lose something much more precious than his job or money, he might have also lost his husband.
Recovery is very introspective, so the reader gets to experience Sean’s life with Nick, what brought them together and what tore them apart. The reader also gets to experience how far Nick goes to save his husband.

Like I said, Linear Park deals with difficult choices and the true nature of love.

Blurb:

Here is an excerpt from Chapter Two of Linear Park.

2
THE NEXT day Sean ate breakfast and took the bus to Blackstone Boulevard. He crossed Hope Street and went to the park where kids played on swings while their parents watched from benches, then on to the grassy walking path that ran down the boulevard between north and south bound traffic. He and Nick had enjoyed strolling down the path when the weather was nice, sometimes running into friends who were jogging or walking.
The street where he and Nick once lived was three blocks away, in a small section where the houses were less stately than the ones directly on the boulevard.
At 9:58 in the morning on a weekday, chances were good that Nick wouldn’t be home. He made his way down the street until he came to the white ranch house he and Nick had shared. The garage door on the left was closed, and the lush green lawn led the eye to the bed of irises, their deep purple bloom rising up to the bay window. He and Nick had planted the flowers to add a splash of color to the front of the house.
The house had been a bit of a mess when they’d first looked at it; the lawn was overgrown and the exterior full of peeling paint. Nick had been afraid to look inside, but Sean had coaxed him into it.
“A little bit of a fixer-upper will save us some cash,” Sean said.
“Little being the operative word.”
The house did need some work, but even Nick knew it wasn’t anything Sean couldn’t fix with help from his father, so they put in an offer, which was quickly accepted.
They’d spent their first night in the new house the day they closed. All their furniture was still in the apartment, so they bought an air mattress, a bottle of Moët & Chandon champagne, and plastic champagne glasses. They dimmed the overhead lights and had a pizza delivered, then ate off paper plates while sitting on the living room floor and listening to soft vocals on their portable Bluetooth speaker.
When they’d finished eating, Nick stood and put his hand out for Sean, who took it as he stood. Nick pulled him in close, and they began a slow dance.
The sun had set and they didn’t have any curtains on the picture window. “The neighbors can see right in,” Sean said.
“Good, they won’t have to wonder if we’re gay.”
Sean put his head on Nick’s shoulder and lost himself in the moment.
They danced and kissed, then Nick led Sean into the candlelit bedroom. In the flickering yellow glow, they slowly undressed each other, then relaxed on the queen-size air mattress. Sean caressed every smooth curve of Nick’s body, the hardness of his sex, the roundness of his buttocks, and the warmth between. They explored each other’s bodies, tasting the salt of their skin and feeling the depth of their desire.
Aroused and grinning from the memory, he stopped himself from peeking in the windows. The last thing he needed was to be suspected of burglary, especially for a house he still owned. He wondered if Nick had replaced the locks. If not, then he still had a working key for the front door. But what would he get out of going inside? Nothing, really.
He had so many good memories of his life with Nick, he didn’t need to think about the bad ones. But they were a part of his past; he had to find a way to accept them, get past them. He had to find forgiveness not just from the people he’d hurt, but also himself.
“Sometimes I think there are two of you,” Nick had said one morning while Sean nursed a hangover.
“Please,” Sean said, “I’m sorry.”
“I would like you to stop doing this to yourself.”
“I know,” Sean said to shut him up. He didn’t want to be lectured on his drinking.
He had been drinking heavily for a little over a year at the time. He was still working, despite his constant tardiness being a problem. His work had also begun to get sloppy. And although he knew that hangovers were not conducive to work, he continued to drink.
Sean was shocked when they’d canned him.
“Did they give a reason for firing you?” Nick asked.
Sean pulled a purple T-shirt over his head, then marched barefoot out of the bedroom. He knew what Nick was getting at, but he didn’t want to go there. He needed a drink to deal with it.
Nick followed Sean into the living room. “Sean, did they tell you why they fired you?”
“You know that they don’t have to give a reason,” Sean said, his voice loud and harsh. “They’ve been after me for a while with their petty complaints.”
“Do you think—”
“Do I think what, that I’m the problem?”
Nick sighed, then calmed himself. “No, it’s not that.” His voice was soothing, his eyes soft. He gave Sean a gentle kiss on the lips. “I love you so much.”
That was all it took to quell the hostility roiling up inside Sean. He followed Nick to the sofa, where they discussed updating his resume and job possibilities. Nick also asked Sean to cut back on his drinking, that it wasn’t helping him. Sean agreed, then waited for Nick to fall asleep before going into the kitchen and pouring himself a drink.
He turned away from the house. He had to meet up with Todd at City Roasters for coffee in twenty minutes, which meant he had to get moving if he was going to be there in time.
He took a few side streets and briskly made his way to the coffee shop. As he crossed the three-street intersection in the center of Wayland Square, he saw Todd standing in front of City Roasters dressed in his usual jeans and an old T-shirt. Todd spotted him and started waving, for what reason he didn’t know. At six feet five inches and 220 pounds, he was a hard man to miss.
“How are you holding up?” he asked, keeping the door open for Sean.
“I’m dwelling too much.”
“Only good memories, I hope.”
Sean grunted.
The rich scent of fresh coffee and pastries filled the interior. As they waited in line, Sean scanned the coffee shop for an open table and couldn’t find one. Nothing but college kids working on their laptops or staring at their phones.
“There might be an open table outside,” Todd said.
They ordered coffees, then took them outside. Only one of the three small sidewalk tables wasn’t occupied, so they sat at that one.
“It’s not easy to remember the happy moments when you’re trying to acknowledge the reasons you drink.”
“Character defects,” Todd said.
Sean wrapped his fingers around the coffee cup, feeling the heat as he rolled his eyes.
“Accept them, then give them up. Do not dwell on them.”
Sean shrugged. “I’m trying to remember life before the drinking became a real problem.”
“Whatever helps.”
“Yeah.” Sean glanced at the shop across the street, where two college-age women were looking in the window of the high-end women’s fashion shop. “I saw Nick last night.”
Todd raised his eyebrows. “Did you say hello?”
“He didn’t see me. I was catching a bus after the meeting. If I had seen him three months ago, I would have wanted to drink.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No, thankfully. I need to apologize to him; I was so awful.”
“Hey, one step at a time.”
Sean nodded. “Sure.”
“You guys still married?”
Sadness rose in his chest. “Until he asks for a divorce.”
Todd shrugged. “Maybe it won’t come to that, but if it does, you’ll be able to deal with it responsibly.”
“You’ll probably be getting a call from me if it does. Expect me to sound crazed.”
“At least you’ll be sober.”
“I hope so.”
“You will.”
“I’m glad you have faith in me.”
“You’re determined.” Todd tapped his index finger on the table. “When my wife divorced me, I was still a daily drinker. Arrived in court three sheets to the wind. Lost everything.”
“Sounds awful.”
“It was, but it was also the best day of my life. I didn’t know it at the time, but it’s what it took for me to get sober.”
Cars began to line up at the traffic light as Sean sat back and let out a sigh. “Maybe that’s why Nick left me, to force me to get sober.”
“Maybe.”
“I always thought it was because he couldn’t take it anymore.”
“You need to talk to him.”
“I know,” Sean said. “I’m just not sure I can do that right now.”

Buy links:
Amazon

Kobo

Dreamspinner Press