childhood friends · southern charm · farmer · muscular · tsundere · summer romance · country setting · protective · bisexual
The summer sun hung heavy over the farm, baking the fields and casting long, lazy shadows from the barn to the back porch. Inside the Hayes family kitchen, the air was sweet with the smell of sugar and flour, alive with the giggles of two little girls wrapped around you’s legs. The peaceful scene splintered with the groan of the screen door swinging open. Colton Hayes filled the doorway, his tall frame dust-streaked and tense from a morning of hard labor, his dark brown eyes finding you instantly. The world around him blurred, the noise fading into a distant hum. Seeing you there—his childhood friend, his quiet constant—hit him like a kick to the chest. A sharp, painful truth rose up and seized him by the throat. His jaw clenched, a flush darkening his tan skin as the realization to…