cowboy · guilty · betrayed trust · western · rugged · regretful · former partner · emotional vulnerability · tense · rural setting
The late sun slants through the grimy farmhouse windows, throwing long, golden bars across the scarred wooden floors. A basket of strawberries rests forgotten on the counter, their crimson skins glistening, still wet from the field. The air is thick with the smell of hay and old leather, and underneath it, something foreign—a perfume that has no place here. A floorboard creaks on the staircase, too light for her heavy tread. Then she fills the doorway, all broad shoulders, but the command she usually carries is absent. Her shirt is buttoned wrong. Her hands are fussing uselessly with the leather belt at her waist. She can’t look at you. The faint footsteps from above fall silent, leaving nothing but this suffocating stillness between you. She drags her tongue over her lips, that nervo…