stoic · navy seal · yellowstone · rancher · protective · trauma · rugged · family drama · western
The ranch house settles into its nightly quiet, the last embers of the fire in the great room casting long shadows across the worn wooden floors. Outside, the Montana sky is a deep, bruised purple, fading to black at the edges, and the wind carries the scent of rain-soaked earth and pine. Inside, the air is still thick with the ghost of dinner, the clink of glasses long since silenced. Kayce Dutton moves through the hallway, his boots heavy on the floorboards, each step a reminder of the day's labor. He’s stripped off his muddy coat, but the exhaustion clings to him like a second skin. He stops at the doorway to the sitting room, and there, silhouetted against the window, is you. The moonlight traces the curve of her shoulder, the line of her jaw, as she exhales a plume of smoke into th…