Somewhat damaged

Austin

It had been a year since Austin Chase had lost his wife. To make matters worse, they’d only been married for a year when she passed. A truck hit them on their way home after celebrating their first wedding anniversary, and Alice was lost forever. Austin, on the other hand, had a concussion and a fractured wrist.

Life was certainly not fair.

A whole year had passed, and on what should have been their second anniversary, Austin had finally finished packing up their home, that he’d sold, and was ready to move back home, to be with his family.

Austin had always been a family oriented guy, but when he met Alice in college, and she wanted to return to her home in California, he saw no other option than to follow her. He was madly in love, and knew they were going to spend their lives together, so if he had to move to do that, he would, without a second thought.

Sliding the last of the boxes onto the back of his truck, he closed the tail gate and looked back at the house he and his love had shared. It was a 1,5 story house, with white wood paneling and a big porch. With Alice it had been a home. But looking at it now, it was just a house, sad and empty.

He had sold all of the furniture, and most of their things. Alices family had picked out a few things they wanted to keep, and the rest was sold or donated to charity. The memories were enough, he didn’t need a bunch of things to remember his wife.

With one last glance at the house, he jumped into his truck and headed for home. His childhood home in Texas was about a 29 hour drive if he didn’t stop, which he wasn’t really planning on. After five years living in California, he was ready to just be home. While he loved his wife, he missed the ranch, and the life it brought. It was all he’d ever known, until he went to college, something his parents had insisted on, even though he just wanted to take over the ranch when the time came.

But following his parents wishes, he’d gone to UT on a football scholarship and gotten his MBA. He loved football, but not enough to go pro, so he stuck with college football, and resigned afterwards.

He’d met Alice in his second year of school, she’d just transferred in and joined his class. They immediately hit it of, and were inseparable from their first coffee date, the third day of school.

Memories kept flooding back while he drove. How her smile could light up a room, how her half long blonde hair would never stay put in the ponytail she put it in, and how she would cheer him on at every football game, being the loudest one in the crowd. After a year without her, he still didn’t know how to live when she was gone.

Laying down in a cold bed every night, waking up every morning, seeing the other side hadn’t been slept on, it broke his heart all over again.

He looked forward to coming home.

After driving for about six hours, Austin stopped at a gas station to fill up the truck and stretch his legs. He still had a long way ahead of him, and didn’t want to stop any more than he absolutely had to. He bought some snacks to eat on the road, and headed back out.

He ate his snacks and listened to his favorite albums, trying to make time feel like it was passing quicker, but without any real luck. He just kept thinking about his lost love, and how he was going to start over back home.

He’d get into his old routine, getting up at five am. He’d feed the chickens and go for a ride on his old horse, Storm. He’d spend his days wrangling cattle and fixing fences, doing the things he’d done all his life, up until her.

While thinking about his past, he started getting excited. He had lived this life for five years, wearing suits and ties, drinking wine and going to fancy parties, because that was the life Alice wanted. But it was never who he was. Austin was a true texan, and loved nothing more than his worn-to-death Wranglers, and his Stetson. He hadn’t even taken it with him when he moved to California. Alice said she loved the hat on him, but he should keep it in Texas - for when they came to visit.

After feeling some sort of positivity, and singing along to his favorite songs, Austin felt a little liter, and the hours seemed to fly by.

He drove though the night, only stopping to powernap and fill up the truck a couple of times.

He stopped at a diner outside of Dallas to eat breakfast, after having nothing but snacks for twenty-four hours.

After a quick breakfast at a busy diner, he drove through Dallas, and pulled into the long driveway of the family ranch about an hour after lunchtime. He smiled to himself, looking over the familiar fields, seeing the trees and valleys that was home.

He drove slowly to take it all in, like he was seeing it for the first time. After a couple miles of fields, he drove around a bend, and saw his childhood home. A house that was filled with love and laughter. He was lucky, he’d had such an amazing childhood, and their home held no bad memories.

His dad had run the ranch for almost forty years now, after taking over when his father retired. His mother had used their horses to do equine-assisted therapy for years, but had retired from that a couple years ago. Now she helped out around the ranch, and enjoying retirement.

Austin parked his truck beside a strange car outside their home. It was a Range Rover, the new fancy kind, and he assumed it belonged to one of his moms fancy ass friends. Austins mother, Constance Chase, was born in Dallas, and still had a lot of high society friends from her younger days. She used to visit them a few times a year, but he couldn’t remember them ever really coming out to the ranch. They weren’t very accepting of the farm-life, but had come to terms with it because of the successful therapy business.

He stepped out of the truck and breathed in the fresh air.

“Welcome home, sweetie!” Constance came barreling out the front doors, smiling brightly, and enveloping her son in a tight hug.

“Hi mom. Good to be home.” He returned the hug, although not as crushingly as his mom.

“I hope you had a good trip. I’ve been waiting for you, made all your favorites and everything!” She beamed at him.

“Thanks, I’m getting kind of hungry. And tired. And in desperate need of a shower” he chuckled, and his mom laughed.

As he turned to get his bag out of the truck, leaving the boxed for later, he caught a glimpse of someone riding towards them through the fields. The woman on the back of the horse looked like an angel, with the sun lighting her up from behind. He couldn’t make out her face, but her long hair whipping around in the wind as she was riding, absolutely mesmerized him.

She slowed down when she neared the fence, and he took a few steps towards them to get a better look at the woman.

Her skin was tan, and her long, light brown hair fell all around her. She glanced over at him, and for a moment, he looked into the most amazing blue eyes he’d ever seen. She had a natural blush on her cheeks from riding, and a bead of sweat was making it’s way down towards her thick eyebrows. He kept watching her, looking at her prominent cheekbones, and big, slightly parted lips, and he found himself wondering what they would feel like, pressed against his own.

With that last thought, he tore his gaze away, not understanding himself. He was still grieving his wife, why the fuck did he think about kissing another woman?

He grabbed his bag, and walked up onto the large wrap-around porch, glancing one last time at the angel on the horse, before heading into the house.