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

I groaned as I remembered that I’d been the one to cut the cord and walk away, just because I didn’t want to hear my father’s ridicule. I’d thrown away something real and good for a life of bullshit and pretend. I was the fucking problem here.


The seconds I sat in pain, my thoughts became clearer than they’d been in years. VJ’s arms around me felt so good that I allowed my mind and body to let him take charge. I trusted him to do his best for me. As I thought this, the pain overtook me like it’d been waiting in the wings to pounce. Little did it know my secret weapon was my reliance on VJ to make things sane again.


All I had to do was to gut up and tell him what I now knew for a fact. I needed him beside me always.


Chapter 21