Title: V is for Valentine
Author: Thomas Grant Bruso
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: 02/06/2024
Heat Level: 3 – Some Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 16200
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, family-drama, interracial, gay, small town, homophobia, Valentine’s Day
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Description
Bradley James Winterbottom has a bigger-than-life dilemma this Valentine’s Day. He is bringing his new boyfriend, Ronnie, home to meet his parents for the first time.
After a few years away, Bradley’s mother, Marla, and father, Harold, have summoned their only son back to the small-knit town of Holly Springs in upstate New York for a Valentine’s Day family gathering.
Bradley is thrilled to see his parents after all these years. When he arrives, however, he notices the years have taken a toll on them. They have aged significantly, and Bradley is shocked when he sees their time-worn faces and meandering gaits. Harold has had heart surgery in the past, but recently, he has been experiencing complications. He is not the workhorse he used to be, fidgeting in the tool shed and repairing projects around the house.
Spending a few days under the roof of his childhood home, where he used to live with his extended family, Bradley notices significant changes. But some things, like his childhood bedroom and the homey surroundings, still look and feel the same as if he never left.
Bradley knows coming home is a place of tranquility and comfort, but life is not always sunny and rosy, as he and Ronnie soon discover through the ups and downs of small-town life.
V is for Valentine
Thomas Grant Bruso © 2024
All Rights Reserved
One of my favorite getaway places was a quiet spot with a view of Cove Harbor, two miles downtown near the newly renovated local independent movie theater.
“Every Friday after school, instead of going home, I’d take the bus across town and have the driver drop me off at the corner of Spring Street and River Road,” I said, pointing east of town.
“Why would you come all the way out here? It’s miles of road and woods,” Ronnie said. “It seems like a world away from everything.”
“Exactly. Come on. I’ll show you why it’s so special.”
Down a snowy pathway littered with leaves, usually fenced in to keep out the occasional homeless person from pitching a tent under the bridge’s underpass, stood my haven hideaway. The weather was too cold for any man or beast to survive the brutal Holly Springs winters, but the solitude and setting were welcoming.
When I accessed the riverfront wrought-iron gates and slipped beneath the bridge’s rumbling stone structure, gripping Ronnie’s frozen, tight-fisted hand, I led him to my beloved refuge.
Under the overpass stood an empty metal bench bolted and chained to the ground. You’d be surprised how many people have tried to run off with the town’s famous Ryan Pediculi bench. “Named after the mayor, a veritable man for all seasons,” I said, reading the confounded expression on Ronnie’s face. “Not just that, but if you sit here long enough, the buzzing rhythm of the overhead traffic lulls you into complacency. After a long work or school day, all your stress and anxieties melt away.”
“I realize now why I asked you to be my life partner.”
I shifted on the cold bench and turned to my partner, noting his skeptical, raised eyebrows. “Tell me again.”
“You make me whole. Your joy and enthusiasm for life. That boyish smile.” He touched my face. “I love you, Bradley.”
I looped an arm over his bulky shoulder layered in a shirt, sweater, and an oversized heavy wool coat and hugged him. “I love you too. I wouldn’t want to share my life with anybody else.”
“It’s peaceful,” he said, turning to the frozen lake. “I’ll give you that. But it’s colder than a witch’s titty in a brass bra.”
We laughed.
He said, “We should get going.”
“But that view—it swallows you up. It’s so peaceful.”
We stared out at the vast lake of Cove Harbor—a playground of winter landscape.
Endings, no matter the subject—a movie, a stroll by the lake, or in the park, I didn’t want the moment to end.
Like now, sitting beside Ronnie, tangled in each other’s arms, coasting the familiar and unfamiliar streets of my childhood home.
Life was perfect.
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Thomas Grant Bruso knew at an early age he wanted to be a writer. He has been a voracious reader of genre fiction since he was a kid.
His literary inspirations are Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Ellen Hart, Jim Grimsley, Karin Fossum, Sam J. Miller, Joyce Carol Oates, and John Connolly.
Bruso loves animals, book-reading, writing fiction, prefers Sudoku to crossword puzzles.
In another life, he was a freelance writer and wrote for magazines and newspapers. In college, he was a winner for the Hermon H. Doh Sonnet Competition. Now, he writes book reviews for his hometown newspaper, The Press Republican.
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