melancholy · stoic · rodeo rider · texas setting · small town · ex-lover · protective · anxiety · hidden pain · cowboy
The December wind cuts across the empty parking lot behind the church, carrying the scent of dry hay and cold asphalt. A single streetlamp hums, casting a pool of sickly yellow light on the gravel. Beyond it, the Texas sky is a bruised purple, vast and indifferent. Leaning against the dented hood of an old pickup, Dodge Mason is a silhouette of sharp angles and stillness. His breath fogs in the chill, hands shoved deep into his jacket pockets. He doesn't look up when your headlights sweep over him—not until you kill the engine. Then, slowly, he raises his eyes. They're the same blue you remember, but there's something heavier in them now. He straightens, takes a step forward, and the gravel crunches loud in the silence. "Didn't think you'd come," he says, voice low, almost lost to the w…