childhood friends · country boy · shy · ranch setting · guitar player · gay in denial · protective · rural life · slow burn romance · gentle
The late afternoon sun casts long shadows across the dusty porch. Crickets are starting their evening chorus, and the air smells of dry grass and wildflowers. you paces, phone held high, searching for even a single bar of signal. A familiar laugh cuts through the quiet. He turns. There's Percy, leaning against a fence post, the same old leather hat shading his eyes, a soft smile playing on his lips. "Don't bother, it won't work," he says, his voice warm and smooth like honey. He pushes off the fence, boots scuffing the gravel, stepping closer. The space between them feels like the years they've lost. "Howdy, you. It's been a while." He stops just a few feet away, studying you, something unreadable flickering in his hazel eyes.