Book Title: Full Balance (The Peachtree Series, Book 3)
Author: Brigham Vaughn
Publisher: Two Peninsulas Press
Cover Artist: Brigham Vaughn
Genre/s: Contemporary M/M Romance
Trope/s: May/December, age gap, hurt comfort, workplace romance, found family,
Themes: Marriage equality, family acceptance/homophobia, exploring light kink,
friends and chosen family, emotional baggage, established couple, adoption.
Length: 108 000 words
Buy Links – Available on Kindle Unlimited
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Love doesn’t always look like you expect.
Blurb
Russ Bishop and Stephen Parker have settled into wedded bliss.
They’ve moved into a spacious new condo, found professional success, and their connection in the bedroom is as sizzling as ever.
Neither of them ever expected to become parents but when their volunteer work at the Open Doors Shelter makes them realize how many LGBTQ youth are in desperate need of a home, they begin to reconsider.
After a snarky teenager named Austin comes into their lives, their future together will never be the same.
In 2014, I had an idea for a short story about Russ Bishop, a man in his late twenties, who slips and falls on a puddle of spilled coffee in a stairwell at work, twisting his ankle and giving himself a concussion. He was rescued by his (much older) coworker, Stephen Parker, who feels guilty about spilling the coffee.
It was supposed to be a fun, light story about two guys with a big age gap getting together. But it quickly became so much more. They slowly revealed their backstories and their struggles with the almost twenty-year age gap and the story grew in both length and depth. I knew I needed to write more.
The first book was Equals, a novella following their first meeting to when they begin their relationship. There was so much of Stephen’s history to explore after that though, and I put their relationship to the test in Partners when Stephen’s estranged father dies and he has to go back to small hometown to bury him. I was shocked by the depth and emotion in that novella and knew there was still more story to tell. In the next book, Family, they invite Russ’s family to visit them for the holidays and have to navigate all of the awkwardness of a complicated family situation. I thought I had wrapped up their story in Husbands, when Russ proposed and they struggled to decide what they wanted for their future together to look like.
But then two side characters from the series jumped out at me and demanded their stories be told. At first, Evan and Jeremy seemed completely different but when it hit me like a lightning bolt that they were, at heart, two broken people in need of love and support, and I realized they were actually perfect for each other. So I wrote Trust the Connection.
And then I had an idea that Russ and Stephen would adopt a foster son. I waited years to tell it because I had other projects to work on but it nagged at me. And by the time I went to tackle it, I realized all four of the Equals Series books needed some work. My writing skills had improved in that time, and I wanted to combine the stories into two longer novels called Off-Balance and Love in the Balance. It improved the flow and pacing and soon became The Peachtree Series. After that, I wrote a third novel, Full Balance, about the final piece for them, fostering and adopting Austin.
That was supposed to be the end of things but I deeply loved some of the side characters from Trust the Connection, so I have plot bunnies nibbling at me to tell the stories of Chris, a jockish sweetheart who is secretly a nerd with a cute dog and Tod, a flirtatious flamboyant waiter who meet and discover they’ve been flirting with each other online for months.
And then Dan, the director of the LGBTQ outreach center told me his sad story about his dead husband and his foster and adopted kids and Marcus, a social worker at the center who is in love with him and desperately wants to convince Dan to love again.
I had no plans to give Austin a book of his own but at the end of Full Balance, I wrote an epilogue that gives us a glimpse of an adult Austin, refusing to admit he’s in love with his best friend and vice versa and well … it looks like I’ll be telling that story someday too.
Chris & Tod, Dan & Marcus, and Austin & Toby’s stories haven’t been told yet. But they will. And it seems like it’s time for me to admit that that standalone novella I started in 2014 has become an epic universe about love and acceptance and found family in Atlanta. I’ll be telling those stories until the characters fall silent and, honestly, I can’t complain because I love them all so much.
I hope you will too.
Russ let out a contented sigh.
“I swear it just gets better with time,” Stephen said.
Russ kissed him. “Me too. I had no idea married sex would be so good. If I did, I might have been more eager to get married when I was younger.”
Stephen chuckled.
“This is going to change, won’t it?”
Stephen slipped an arm around his waist, pulling him even closer as he studied his face. Russ’s expression was soft but there was a little edge of worry in his gaze.
“It will,” Stephen said, knowing he was talking about how becoming parents would change their sex life. He ran his thumb across Russ’s cheek. “We’ll have additional responsibilities and stressors. Much less privacy. But it doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It’ll be tougher but that doesn’t mean we can’t find some benefits along the way.”
“Like what?” Russ gave him a curious, inquisitive look.
“Like … it may bring us even closer.” He took Russ’s hand and brought his palm to his lips. “It may deepen our relationship further.”
“I like that.” Russ pulled him closer.
“I think going into this with our eyes wide open is our best chance of success. We need our relationship to stay solid so we can give whoever we bring into our lives the best, most stable home we can. Which means working together to solve problems.”
“Agreed,” Russ said.
“No running away.”
Russ gave him a wry grin. “Got it.”
“Hey that’s not just a reminder for you,” Stephen said gently. “I’ve pushed you away at times too. And I think this will probably bring up a lot of baggage we both have about the ways we were raised.”
“True.” Russ’s expression turned serious.
“So we can’t let that overwhelm us. Or come between us.”
“Absolutely.” Russ hesitated. “Are you excited about this at all though?”
“About the idea of becoming parents? Yeah, I am,” Stephen said. “I remember how satisfying it was to see Evan grow into himself and he was an adult and only with us for a month and a half. The idea of being able to watch that growth over years in someone who needs it even more … well that’s a challenge I never expected to take on. But I am excited about it.”
“Me too.” Russ grinned. “I am really looking forward to calling my sister and telling her she’ll be Aunt Addie.”
Stephen chuckled. “I look forward to that as well. Jeremy is going to be shocked. That should be fun.”
“We have a lot to look forward to, don’t we?”
“We do.” Russ pulled him in for a kiss and Stephen went willingly. “Thank you for making this a very happy Valentine’s Day.”
“You know, if someone had asked me five years ago how I’d feel about making the person I’m married to a father, I would have kindly assured them they were very, very confused,” Stephen said drily.
Russ’s laugh was loud and genuine. “I would imagine.”
“And yet …” Stephen couldn’t quite finish the thought. His heart was too full.
Russ smiled as if he understood. So Stephen leaned in to kiss him again. They had the whole night ahead of them to celebrate this happiness. Why not take the time while they had it?
Their lives were about to change in a very big way.
Brigham Vaughn is on the adventure of a lifetime as a full-time author. She devours books at an alarming rate and hasn’t let her short arms and long torso stop her from doing yoga. She makes a killer key lime pie, hates green peppers, and loves wine tasting tours. A collector of vintage Nancy Drew books and green glassware, she enjoys poking around in antique shops and refinishing thrift store furniture. An avid photographer, she dreams of traveling the world and she can’t wait to discover everything else life has to offer her.
Her books range from short stories to novellas to novels. They explore gay, bisexual, lesbian, and polyamorous romance in contemporary settings.
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