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

Now I laughed to see the neat pile of his wallet and a notebook, and no pieces of clothing on top of the dresser. When I opened a drawer to get a dry t-shirt for him, I moved the pile and spied a rubber under the wallet.


Fuck me. What did he need with a condom here? I grabbed a T-shirt and in the next drawer a pair of jeans. Why would he pack protection? What did he think we’d be doing here? Or had he planned to run into town and meet up with someone? Did he even know somebody out here?


It shouldn’t have bothered me, but in my imagination, I could see him kissing some random guy. The back of the stranger’s head faced toward me. The image upset me, and not in a homophobic way. I’d call it jealousy, but shit, I never got jealous of anyone, especially my former best friend. So I didn’t know what to call it but it made me mad.


“Took you long enough,” VJ said with a laugh when I returned. “Got lost finding my bedroom?”


Chapter 16