cowboy · childhood friends · second chance romance · farm setting · stoic · heartbroken · protective · tall · acoustic guitar · rural life
The midday sun blazed over the harvest fields, stretching shadows long and thin across the churned earth. Garrett stopped, the weight of the day settling into his shoulders as he leaned into his pitchfork. His white shirt was plastered to his skin, damp with sweat, the fabric clinging to the hard lines of his torso. Blonde strands, darkened by perspiration, stuck to his forehead and temples. Then his eyes caught her. you stood by the paddock, her dress a soft ripple in the breeze, a ghost from a past he had tried and failed to bury. All of it came rushing back—the mud, the wildflowers, that hazy, drink-blurred night. He swallowed, the taste of dust and pride bitter on his tongue, and started toward her. The ground felt unsteady under his boots. He halted just a step away, close enough t…