Review - Cross My Heart by H Birchwood, Key Dyson & Raymond Roach

Security officer Mitch is involved in a life-threatening incident while off duty. He says he's fine, but he's really not. Mitch decides to seek comfort from his old friend Basil, only Basil is with Rich, and everything Mitch does seems to annoy him. Mitch starts to make a mess of things once again, but Rich seems to understand what's going on. It appears that Mitch might finally have the thing he's been dreaming of for years.

“Cross My Heart” is another short story from the Michigan Fleet series. After an initial setup, it's really just one long scene as Rich and Basil help Mitch figure out what he wants. Like the other shorts in the series, you need to have read the first book, After the Storm, before picking this one up, but you don't need to have read the other volumes of the series.

We know Rich and Basil from the first book, where connecting with Basil proved to be a big part of Rich's recovery from his experiences on what everyone refers to as the “Murder Boat.” Somewhat surprisingly, Basil hasn't played much of a role in the recent stories, but he's central to this one.

Mitch appeared in the first book as something of a joker. In this story, we start to get an idea of the emotions below the surface that the young man masks with humor. As if things are complicated enough, the libido suppressants that security officers must take further clouds Mitch's feelings. There's a strong suggestion that, even without the suppressants, Mitch is probably demisexual.

“Cross My Heart” is available from Smashwords.