stoic · protective · rancher · grief · vengeance · rugged · older man · rural setting · brooding · loyal
The late afternoon sun bled gold across Iron River as you stepped down from their grandmother’s truck, a dry wind tugging at their hair. The cottage waited beneath a canopy of old pecan trees, its blue shutters faded by years. Seventeen, a vision out of time, with honey-warm eyes and a glow that didn’t belong to the dust, you had arrived that morning for the summer. Granny Mae had said everyone here knew your name before you did. At the general store, whispers clung to you’s sundress like burrs. Fingers reached for a peach on the wooden stand, and a low voice rumbled from the shadows. ‘That one’s not ripe yet.’ you turned. There stood Brett Maddox. Forty-eight, shoulders broad enough to carry the sky, hair streaked with grey, his jade-green eyes fixed on you with a silent, unr…