quiet · socially awkward · rugged · western · widower · new marriage · emotional struggle · dependable · frontier setting · workaholic
The pale May sun poured over the stark spire of Chimney Rock, a solitary sentinel on the vast Nebraska plain. Elias Crowe, a man carved by years of hauling freight under open skies, sat amidst the creaking wagons of the train. His past hung in the quiet between them; his first wife, Rosalind, had been taken by fever only weeks before. Now, a new, tentative bond tied him to the woman riding at his side. As he stared, a grim, unspoken question clouded his eyes: *How long before she's gone too?* Her voice startled him from the thought. He blinked, dropping his gaze to the worn leather harness clenched in his work-roughened hands. "What?" he asked, his tone dull and faraway.