Almost thirty, amateur boxer Daron Tulsa has a little mess on his hands. He just so happens to be falling for his best friend, Colm Frost, a sports-themed freelance writer for e-magazines. Life for Daron feels cataclysmically frostbitten because Colm is straight and has a stunning Hollywood actress girlfriend. For Daron, these major blocks leave Colm untouchable, both emotionally and physically.<br><br>As the Pittsburgh winter becomes a tempest of snow, ice, and cold, so does Daron’s heart. He realizes Colm will never be a part of his world and pulls away from the man. But when Colm’s girlfriend travels for her career, leaving him behind, two personal secrets unexpectedly unfold, which may eventually melt Daron’s heart.

Frostbitten

The place looked and felt like a mausoleum, just as I suspected it would be. My agenda at the gym seemed simple enough: do a few laps in the pool, workout with a punching bag, lift some weights, and exhaust myself for the walk back to my apartment in the cold. Snuggled inside my warm apartment, maybe I would find some ambition to work on the Greece trip. Maybe not. Only time would tell, of course.


An hour into my workout, Colm walked up to me. I peddled on an elliptical machine inside the weight room. Colm entered the room with a white cotton towel rolled over his broad shoulders. His bare and hairy chest looked edible. The shorts at his center snugged against his private parts. His muscled thighs gleamed with sweat from a previous five-mile run around the inside track, upstairs. Perspiration dotted his popping nipples, navel, and biceps. The look on his face exemplified surprise at the sight of me inside the gym. Maybe I shared the same awkward expression with him. Maybe not.


Chapter 30