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

He read the note, then shrugged. When his eyes returned to my face, he seemed to be searching.


“Hell if I know. We don’t look anything alike, so it’s not like he’s really our daddy or anything.” Tommy sighed. “Though I read about a doctor a few years back who’d impregnated a whole bunch of patients and had kids by women all over town. Shit, I don’t think Doc’d do something like that, do you?”


I couldn’t imagine it either. If nothing else, the childless Doc had been a stand-up guy, someone kids could lean on and be treated with care and respect. I never felt threatened or uneasy around him.


As the snow fell and mounted, we got tired going through Doc’s saved treasures and ended up grabbing one of the old games, Dungeon Fighter, and taking it to the kitchen table. As I made us some cracker and cheese snacks and got us beers, Tommy set up the game. We had played this as kids, fighting and arguing over nearly every move


Chapter 15