Tommy Cabot Was Here

3.5 stars

This is a quick post-WWII MM romance between two long-lost friends. It's a bit dramatic because men don't talk about their feelings, especially in 1940s USA, so most of the “lost” part is down to simply not communicating.
Everette, instead of telling his best friend at boarding school (who he's already in a sexual relationship with) how he feels, enlists in the army during WWII and then, having survived that, goes off to college in the UK when that friend gets married, cutting off all contact.
Tommy is a golden all-star Rich Kid who has it all until he doesn't then, 15 years after marrying Patricia and losing his best friend without so much as a goodbye, has a chance encounter with said old buddy Everette when he drops his own kid off to attend his old boarding school - where Everette is now a teacher. Turns out, in the interim, Tommy had a sort of life crisis where he told his whole Old Money family he was gay, who promptly disinherits him, and also to his wife, who asks for a divorce besides being Old Money herself and both Catholic (which is a Big Deal).
The wife Patricia/Pat sticks around and has now also developed her own queer relationship with a genderqueer/FTM person named Harry, even though the divorce isn't final. This last bit was out of left field and you have to remember this is still 1950s USA so I thought it didn't really fit in with the story or was even a necessary detail but never mind.

Even though the plot points are kind of eyeroll-inducing, it's still a short and sweet story with a HEA. I'd love to read more MM romances in this era.