Massachusetts State Trooper Ross Huber is giving one last sweep of the roads before heading in for the night. The nor’easter hitting the Boston area is worse than expected by an order of magnitude, and the governor has just issued a travel ban. Ross finds a wrecked car half-buried in a snowbank and rescues its human and canine occupants from carbon monoxide poisoning, but is forced to take shelter with them in a vacant or abandoned house when the roads are blocked. When he gets the victims indoors, he thinks the human looks uncomfortably familiar ... Ash Machado has been through a lot in his career as a war correspondent. Sidelined by an injury, he’s returned to Boston to take up a job as a news anchor. After he loses control of his car on an icy road, he wakes up in an unfamiliar home, looking into the face of the guy who broke his heart in college. Neither Ross nor Ash are the same men they used to be, but now they’re trapped in the abandoned house with no place to go. Can they get past old hurts long enough to get through the storm, or will the same misunderstandings that drove them apart years ago make this confinement unbearable?

Snowed In: Ross and Ashton

“What, you think it’s easy being an out gay cop?”


“I think it’s probably easier than it was twenty years ago. Or isn’t that what you’ve just been telling me?” Ash glanced at the window. He couldn’t see anything outside. Snow had blown over every window he could see, covering it. “I don’t miss nor’easters.”


“Better than sandstorms.” Ross folded himself up into something like a fetal position.


“Sandstorms end eventually. But you also don’t get too many of them in Syria. Yemen, yes. They suck.” Ash made a face. “Keeping your equipment safe is hard to do.”


“I’ll bet. It’s probably harder for the actual soldiers.” Ross squirmed. He wrapped his arms around his knees.


Chapter 9