DeVore lost the love of his life ten years ago, left his seven-figure career with a huge financial firm, and became a recluse. He now indulges a hobby of photography which has become his new vocation. At one of the few social functions he attends, he meets an amazing young man. Can he find new life and new love? The game of hearts is always risky, but what if a part of your first love now lives in another body?<br><br>Tim was a preemie and always frail. Later, an organ transplant was the only thing that could save him. Now grown, he still struggles to break restrictive family ties and find a purpose. It’s a thrill to meet the charismatic DeVore, an idol whose powerful photographs move many. But is this attraction his own, or coming from the stranger’s heart now beating in his chest?

A Game of Hearts

When the driver saw them, he hopped out and swung both back doors open, and after only a brief hesitation holding the right hand one for DeVore, obviously the older of the two. Whether he recognized Tim or not, he didn’t indicate.


Tim added a fiver when he paid the fare and asked the cabbie to pick them up there in two hours. The cabbie smiled before he pulled away.


They found seats—it was a seat-yourself sort of place—and a server, one of the proprietor’s kids, scuttled over with menus and a pitcher of the house wine, a nameless but rich red perfectly suited to complement the food. After the first glass, DeVore seemed to relax and grow mellower, and Tim gathered his courage to ask a few of the questions that crowded his mind.


“It might not be any of my business, but how did you become a photographer? From what I’ve been able to learn, you appeared rather suddenly on the art scene some ten or twelve years ago.”


Chapter 8