“Hard Return”

Anthony Award Finalist, Best Short Story

In “Hard Return,” a man hopes to strengthen a budding romance by building shared experiences with his new lover—and ends up getting more than he bargains for when she offers an up-close-and-personal view of a pivotal experience from her past.

The anthology Crime Travel, edited by Barb Goffman and exploring the intersection of crime fiction and time travel, also features stories by James Blakey, Melissa H. Blaine, Michael Bracken, Anna Castle, Brendan DuBois, David Dean, John M. Floyd, Barb Goffman, Heidi Hunter, Eleanor Cawood Jones, Adam Meyer, Barbara Monajem, Korina Moss, and Cathy Wiley.

All royalties will be donated to 826DC, a Washington, DC, nonprofit designed to help children and teens improve their creative and expository writing skills, as well as help teachers inspire children to write.

For a limited time, read “Hard Return” for free below.  Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the story. You can also download the file to print and read offline. Presented with permission of the publisher.

Book categories: Anthologies