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

“Yeah. Fortunately, we can just eat snow if we run out of water.” Ash made a face.


“The place still has running water,” Ross reminded him, and looked at the window. The window, solid white, didn’t help him. “Are things really that bad, that you’re concerned about health insurance?”


Ash blinked at him in surprise. “Everyone needs health insurance. And I got bounced from the national network because I couldn’t do the war correspondent thing anymore, so yeah. I have to worry about these things. They covered me while I was in the hospital, but now that I’m out I’m on my own. Thank God I had enough contacts to get me in here, right?” He grinned wryly. “I’m sure no one ever expected me to wind up back in Boston, but beggars can’t be choosers.”


“No.” Ross frowned. “Were you very badly hurt? I mean, I noticed you’re a little stiff, but I thought it might just be from sleeping wrong.”


Chapter 11