Free Too Soon For Love by Kimberly Gardner

going to a hockey game?” Alan’s brother sniggered as his fingers flew over the laptop’s keyboard. “Dude, you’ve never watched a hockey game in your life, have you? You aren’t even that much of a sports fan.”
    “I like sports.” Since Tommy was sitting in the only chair, Alan wandered idly around his brother’s home office. “Remember the time we went to that Phillies game?”
    “That was in high school. And you only went then because you were crushing on that kid who worked down at the stadium.”
    Tommy leaned in, his nose nearly pressed to the laptop screen.
    “Need me to read the screen?” Alan made the offer casually.
    Though his brother had lost a good deal of his eye sight as a result of the histoplasmosis that had nearly killed him fifteen years earlier, he didn’t always take kindly to the offer of help.
    “I’m okay.” Tommy’s answer was clipped, to the point.
    Alan let the subject drop. If Tommy didn’t want help then Tommy didn’t want help, no matter if he could see the screen or not.
    “Son of a bitch.” Tommy slapped the enter key. “Ha, gotcha, you little mother.” Leaning back, he swiveled in his desk chair, a wide grin lighting his face. “Okay, you’re all set. I reset the password to password. Tell your friend to change it the first time he logs on. Tell him do not leave it as password, even though he probably will anyway.”
    “I’ll tell him.”
    Tommy ran a hand through his spiky bottle blond hair.
    Except for the hair, the two of them looked exactly alike. Same turquoise eyes fringed with red-gold lashes, same straight nose though Tommy’s sported a bump thanks to a break back in tenth grade, same wide mouth with a dimple at the left corner.
    “Do you want to know what the password was?”

    58 Kimberly Gardner
    “You can see that?”
    Tommy nodded. “In addition to allowing me to reset the password, this software also tells me what the old password was.
    Not that it’s really all that useful, but if there are passwords on other stuff, the dead guy might have used the same one.”
    “Sure.”
    “It was Mexico.”
    “Mexico? That’s a weird password. I’ll tell him though. What are you doing now?”
    Tommy had turned back around and was typing again.
    “Nothing. Just looking. Man, dude’s got a lot of pictures on here.”
    “Tom, you can’t just go rummaging through his laptop. What if there’s personal stuff on there?”
    “Relax. I’m not going to do anything. I’m just looking at his pics.” Tommy let out a low whistle. “Ooo, baby, will you look at him? Come to daddy, sweetheart.”
    Alan went over to the desk and peered over Tommy’s shoulder.
    On the screen was a picture of an insanely good-looking blond, maybe in his early twenties. Sun-streaked hair fell in tousled waves just past his shoulders and wide amber eyes gazed into the camera with a look that said butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.
    He was bare foot and bare chested and wore only a pair of jeans, unzipped and unbuttoned that looked like they might slide off his slim hips at any moment. He leaned against a balcony railing, a wide view of the Philadelphia skyline at his back.
    Alan knew it was the Philly skyline because of the statue of Billy Penn just visible behind the hottie.
    “Is this the laptop guy?”
    “No.”
    “Is that the dead guy then?”
    “No, it’s not. I don’t know who that is.”
    Tommy clicked to another picture.
    This one showed the same blond, only now he was lying in too soon FoR Love 59
    bed, propped against a mountain of pillows, a sheet pulled up to his waist, his erection clearly visible underneath. His beautiful face wore the same expression of guileless wonder even as he winked at the camera. Or at the photographer.
    “Whoever he is, seems like he had quite a thing going with laptop guy. You don’t send pics like these out as Christmas cards.”
    “Tom, stop. We shouldn’t be doing this.” Alan didn’t know how he knew, but he did. He knew