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

Over the next few weeks, the bench got a lot of use because the weather was glorious. Mark would either sit next to Roy or work in the garden while Roy gave Mark the benefit of his horticultural wisdom. I’d often come home from work and find them still out there. 


Mark’s vegetable plot began to yield forth its treasures. Roy’s appetite was poor, but he’d take a small amount of the vegetable soup Mark would prepare for him. 


We saw more of the boys now they were out of school for the summer, although Sam did spend some time working for Paul, but both agreed Sam was no builder. 


The boys always made a fuss of Roy; they even got him hooked on Trivial Pursuit. However, with Roy’s increasing difficulty with fine motor skills, the boys moved Roy’s counter around the board for him. 


Roy would tell them tales of growing up in the Northeast during the depression of the 1930s as well as his exploits in the pay corps during the latter part of the war. 


Chapter 55