Never Too Late — Chris Quinton

The old sugar maple features strongly in Stuart's life. He'd first met Harry here, while he was completing a college project. He'd been eighteen, Harry twenty-one. They'd started dating soon after. Harry had proposed under the maple -- down on one knee, the whole nine yards. Under its branches, they'd decided to buy a house together, and here, many years later, Stuart had scattered Harry's ashes.

For six years Stuart has been alone. He feels he's had his chance at love, and doesn't expect to find anyone else. Then he meets Tom. But Tom is twenty years his junior, and Stuart can't take that in his stride.

Their age difference is irrelevant to Tom. He knows Stuart is it for him, the one man who can give him everything he didn't know he needed, and he can offer the same to Stuart. All he has to do is convince Stuart to give them a chance. Once again Old Man Maple is witness to life-changing decisions.

NB - shorter version previously published in the anthology Silver Presents... Love Is Love.