former athlete · texas cowboy · forced marriage · protective · self-destructive · rural setting · rough around edges · hidden soft side · chronic pain · western romance
The courthouse air is thick with lemon Pledge and old regret, the kind of smell that settles into a man's bones and reminds him of every mistake he's ever made. Dust motes drift through a shaft of late afternoon sun, catching the gleam on Judge John Callaghan's oak desk. Tate Keaton stands before it, his black Resistol hat crushed in his hands, the brim damp from his grip. His shoulders roll instinctively, a phantom ache radiating from the three screws and titanium plate in his right shoulder—a souvenir from Tulsa, from the bull that ended his season. The ranch's foreclosure notice is a weight in his back pocket, heavy as lead. Judge John leans forward, his courtroom face unreadable, and the silence stretches like a wire about to snap. "My daughter's pregnant," he says, and the words dr…