Simon Peters and his partner Mark Smith face a number of challenging life events in the fourth and final volume of this heart-warming saga. Because of his time working on the streets after being kicked out of home by his father, Mark worries he may have contracted HIV. Despite knowing the lack of treatment options if he were to test positive -- this is the late 1980’s before the age of retro-viral drugs -- Mark is determined to know his fate. Things become complicated when Mark receives a letter from his father wanting to re-establish contact. Roy entering their lives presents further challenges, ones which ultimately threaten Simon and Mark’s continued happiness. Gay teens Sam and Billy play an increasingly important part in Simon and Mark’s lives, often regarding the older men as surrogate fathers/big brothers. Can this unconventional family pull together and become stronger, despite all the world has thrown at them?

Fireside Romance Book 4: Glowing Embers

“I…we can give you some advice, but you should go and see a counsellor in an STD clinic really, they’re the ones who could best advise you.”


“You don’t think we should ask our GP about having an AIDS test?” Mark asked.


“First of all, there isn’t such a thing as an AIDS test.”


“I thought they could take your blood and see if you had it?” I said, remembering the adverts on the television. 


“They take a sample of your blood and send it off to be tested. Your body would develop antibodies if you’d been infected by the HIV virus.”


“And those antibodies would show up in a blood sample?” I asked.


“Before you’d be able to take such a test, you’d have to undergo counselling. It’s a really serious step to take. The counselling would delve into very personal things,” Cliff told Mark.


“I’d be in there with him,” I added.


“You wouldn’t be allowed,” Tom said.


Chapter 9