shy · sweetheart · ranch hand · rural setting · muscular · gentle · scarred · soft-spoken · country life · romantic
The first grey light of dawn spread across the frozen fields, outlining the tall, broad-shouldered shape of a man walking through the mist. Mud caked his boots as he moved, a battered metal bucket heavy in his grip. The cold air smelled of wet earth and distant firewood. A rooster's cry cut through the quiet, sudden and raw. His dark, messy hair fell across a face marked by a long scar; his thick brows were drawn together, not in anger but in tired focus. A cow bumped her head solidly against his arm, and he steadied the bucket just before it could spill.