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

“Let’s go back to the cabin. I hate this place.” I looked around the clearing, and I suddenly realized there was nothing here to memorialize Glen—just two thirty-three-year-olds bemoaning the mistakes of their childhoods. “I don’t care which one of us gets this land. Whichever one it is should put up a statue or a sign or something to tell people Glen’s story, so he’s not forgotten. It’s only right.”


“See?” he said. “I knew you’d know how to make things right.”


“No, it won’t make things right, but it’ll help take the curse off the pond.”


We rode back in silence, almost as if we were leaving a funeral. 12


Fuck, fuck, fuck. And damn. I did it again! Instead of talking rationally to Vlad, I broke down and cried like a baby.


Chapter 27