The blurb of Improves with Age drew me in for several reasons. One, I am big on opposites attract stories.  Two, the characters are older than what I normally see in M/M romance.  I love books and shorts with men of a certain age so I knew this one was right up my alley.  

Reece Watkins has just returned to his hometown of Riverview, Montana after being gone for twenty-eight years. At forty-eight, he has been mourning the loss of his partner of twenty years, Mike, for the past three.  Needing a change from the hustle and bustle of Seattle, he buys a house in Riverview, uprooting not only himself but his thriving accounting practice that he will now be handling remotely as compared to working in a busy office every day.  What he didn’t expect was the heavy snow to cause a hole in the roof of his new home. All of the local contractors in the area are booked solid for the next few weeks and Reece can’t wait that long. A contractor he speaks with suggests the services of someone else who might be willing to do the repairs.  That someone else turns out to be a former classmate of Reece’s, Nick Kennison.

Nick Kennison had been the star football player in high school and had dated (and eventually married) the head cheerleader.  Seeing Nick at his door after all those years makes Reece tongue-tied.  Reece had been the class nerd who may have had a little crush on the captain of the football team once upon a time… the captain of the football team who was obviously straight (or so Reece thought).  But here he stands in front of Reece and it’s obvious that while Nick may have dated and eventually married a woman that he is definitely now very interested in Reece.  Literally minutes later there is a hand job and blowjob and eventually Nick gets around to checking out the hole in the roof.

… what scared the living daylights out of me was that Nick was looking at me with a hunger in his eyes that I didn’t know what the hell to do with.

“Guess I’d better show you my hole,” I mumbled, nodding to the stairs.

I froze on the creaky floorboard when I realized how that could be interpreted and to my dismay, Nick laughed long and hard as he followed me up the stairs.  When we reached the landing, he put his hand on my shoulder and leaned until his warm breath tickled my earlobe.  “That sounds like an offer I can’t refuse, Reece,” he whispered.

This begins a relationship of sorts with the two men deciding (after the above-mentioned hand and blowjob) to start dating.  There is very little to be said after that really as the story is quite short. Told in Reece’s point of view as he is the one dealing with the loss of Mike and his feelings of dating again after a twenty-year relationship, I found that nice in a way as the reader is inside his head as he goes back and forth with the guilt that plagues him over falling for someone other than Mike.  However, I would have liked to have been inside Nick’s head as well. Divorced with two grown children who are aware that he is gay, he has his own issues with the holidays coming up and introducing a man to his kids for the first time ever.  Also, I felt that Reece went a bit far with the constant ‘I’m old. I’m gray. Why would anyone want me?’ spiel. Nick is the same age as he is even if he doesn’t have as much ‘snow on the roof’ as the saying goes.

Overall, I enjoyed this story but again, I would have liked to have seen more of what Nick was feeling.  The author didn’t drag out the angst when it came to Reece dealing with his guilt over Mike but there is a little there and it was written well.  There are a few sexual situations but they didn’t consume every other page of the story. What is there is nicely written.  I thought the quick up against the wall hand job and blowjob within five minutes of meeting again was hot as hell.

This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press in exchange for a fair and honest review.