Heatstroke (Extended Version)

**Official Description:** At twenty-one years old, Richard Lewis Bancroft was on the fast track to fame and fortune. An award-winning start on the Broadway stage led him to the silver screens of Hollywood, where his star began to rise, and his heart fell hard for professional baseball sensation, Manuel Guzman. But there was no script for living out loud with the man of his dreams in the world of 1964.

Then Richard disappeared without a trace.

Forty years later, Michael Spencer discovered a journal in his grandmother's attic that would change his life forever, and quite possibly, solve the mysterious disappearance of Richard Lewis Bancroft.

**Original Prompt:**

*Dear Author,

They met while vacationing on a tropical beach, can their summertime romance last?*

**Photo Description:** Two very muscular, tanned men are naked on the beach. One is lying down, his left knee bent, his head (to the right) in the lap of his lover. The dark-haired, kneeling lover is leaning over him, hands to either side of his shoulders, about to kiss him upside-down.

Download the story, read it [here](https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/591750-taylor-v-donovan-heatstroke-7-15) or find it in [Don't Read in the Closet, Volume 2](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12993786-don-t-read-in-the-closet) or [Don't Read in the Closet: GayRomLit Retreat 2011 Special Edition](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12562203-don-t-read-in-the-closet).

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**Genre:** contemporary

**Tags:** gay m/m, family secrets, lies, angst, HEA, intolerance, sacrifice, romance, emotional

**Word Count:** 31,889