Thirty-three-year-old gay farmer Vladimir Wozniak IV lives for his crops and the hard work that makes them profitable every year. Five miles up the road, former rodeo bull rider and rancher Thomas Sullivan is just as committed to his corn-fed beef. Once best friends until VJ kissed Tommy during freshman year in college, they stopped speaking when Tommy rejected VJ. Ten years later, after the country doctor who helped bring them into the world dies and his will names them as co-owners of property, they decide to check out their inheritance together to see which one wants to buy out the other. As they travel down memory lane through the Doc’s correspondence and visit familiar sites on the land, can they work their way back to friendship ... and possibly beyond?

The Thaw

My phone reception was at one bar, so it took me a while to call in a preliminary report about the power outage. The utility dispatcher cautioned me to be careful if I decided to go outside to check for damage because the wind might trip me up or a downed wire blowing around might electrocute me. I liked the dispatcher, the mother of one of my summer hands. She was curt and to the point, never mincing words with anyone. She didn’t just say, “Be careful,” but reminded me about how I might die if I wasn’t.


Meanwhile, VJ, who’d gone outside, came back in with a monster LED lantern. I told him what the dispatcher had said.


“Yeah, well, I called, too. Her assistant said pretty much the same thing. The forecasters say the wind is only supposed to last a couple of hours and the snow accumulation might be a foot or so. Seems like they underestimated the storm.”


Chapter 12