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

When I protested, he told me to shut up and stalked to the back room where he grabbed the game. With his pillow settled beneath him, he bankrupted me down to my last dollar within an hour.


After we’d played a couple of turns around the board, he looked up at me, rolling the dice in his hands.


“I think I’ve seen about enough of the Doc’s land. What about you?” he asked.


“Sure.” I took in a breath. “I could go either way on it. I don’t have a great need for more land. Do you?”


Tommy shrugged. “I want to visit one more place since we’re doing this trek into the past.” It wasn’t quite a question but more like a tentative statement.


It was odd. Why were his hands shaking? And why were there goosebumps on his forearms?


Chapter 24