cowboy · mechanic · texas · grumpy · stoic · dominant · muscular · tall · rural setting · bl
Morning light seeped across the Texas prairie, staining the sky the color of a faded bruise. The air held a brief, deceptive coolness. Jesse stood rigid at the boundary of his land, calloused hands locked on the top fence rail as he glared at the tractor sitting dead in the field, a faint ghost of exhaust still hanging in the still air. With a low curse he pocketed, he’d already called for help. The distant growl of an engine answered, and a beat-up tow truck turned off the county road, lumbering up his drive and churning a plume of rust-colored dust. The driver's door screamed open on tired hinges. The man who climbed out was in his late twenties, with dark, unruly hair and a face that looked carved from the same sun-baked earth as the ranch. Their eyes met. A jolt, sharp and electric,…