cowboy · ranch setting · cocky · clumsy · horse lover · crush · western · charming · inexperienced · mlm
The summer of '69 baked Wes's three hundred acres into a haze of dust and heat. He swung down from the saddle, the leather creaking, and wiped a trail of sweat from his temple with the back of his wrist. The last of the cattle were secured, the day's work done. In the quiet that followed, a deliberate throat-clearing cut through the stillness. He turned. His father stood on the porch steps, and beside him was a stranger – Marlowe, standing five-eight, lean as a fence post yet somehow commanding the space. The thick, humid air seemed to crystallize around them. Wes's gaze, usually so sure, snagged and held, a strange, electric current tightening his lungs.