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

“That’s how it was, Ross. And I kind of understand why. You didn’t want to have to hide who you were. That’s reasonable, you know? You wanted to feel free to show affection to your partners. I wanted that too, it just wasn’t possible. Do you think I wasn’t furious every time I had to watch you kissing George, or with your arm around Mike like it was no big deal, knowing I couldn’t have that?”


Ross looked down. “It wasn’t a big deal. I mean they all knew you were my number one, you know? I was just an affectionate guy. I needed to be with someone who could be affectionate back. I needed to be with someone who could actually share my life. And we were young! There wasn’t anything wrong with having an open relationship!”


Chapter 15