Sunset Love

The sun touched the horizon of a hundred-acre plot of land. A little farmhouse sat on a large field laid out with fences and animals eating away at blades of grass. A barn, big and red, stood on the side of the land. It was the perfect picture of farm living. As if to finish it off two large men worked together to fix the fencing toward the front of the acreage.

The sky burst with reds and blues. It was something you could sit on the porch and take pride in looking over. It wasn't easy living, but that's what made it all worthwhile. To build something with your own two hands, it would make anyone want to protect and love whatever they were pouring their soul into. .

A pickup truck, small and painted light blue, threw up dirt as it made its way toward the creme-colored house. One of the men stood, smiling through sun-kissed skin and wrinkles earned with time and love. He took the cowboy hat from his head, scalp full of hair plastered down with the sweat of a hard worked day, and waved it in greeting.

The other man, younger but still deeply loved by the sun’s touch, stood up to look towards the unknown vehicle. He didn’t remove his hat, unsure of who the visitor could be. He had never seen the old man quite this happy to greet someone in the middle of a sweltering day.

“Who’s that?”

The aged cowboy looked over his shoulder, his grin getting bigger as he caught onto the young buck. A decent kid in his late twenties with a good balance of brain and brawn and a penchant for working hard. He had been helping with the land for over a year now and without him, the farm would be nothing but run down and ready to sell out. The older man likened him to a son.

In his mind, a plan had formed long before this moment. It was something his wife had not been too fond of at the time. Yet, even her stubborn heart warmed up to the young man. At least enough to ease into liking the idea her husband had cooked up.

The older man placed the hat back on his head, situating it before hitching his thumb toward the young woman slipping from the front seat of her pickup truck. He could still remember the day she turned sixteen and got the thing from a neighbor's auction. It was her baby in a way, and she loved the thing more than most people do their own kin.

Standing tall her sundress fell to the middle of her thighs in a shade of lavender that made her tan skin look even darker. Her hair, just like her mother’s, fell well past the middle of her back in natural dark brown ringlets. As a child it had been braided a million times, her mother lovingly adorning it with wildflowers.

She was the jewel of the family, the only child of the couple, and a prayer well answered. The older man continued to smile as the young man’s gaze caught onto the woman like a hawk. She hugged her momma and they spoke for a moment before grabbing two large duffel bags and heading for the house. Yup, he was damn near sure the young man’s jaw couldn’t fall much farther before touching the dirt under their feet.

“That’s my daughter.”

The younger guy suddenly caught himself, shutting his mouth and standing up straight before clearing his throat in embarrassment. His cheeks were red, partially from the sun but mostly because he had just caught himself in the midst of a cliche, wanting the farmer's daughter. Wide eyes moved back to the fence as he busied stiff hands with finishing up the job before the sun disappeared for the day. The older man allowed him the moment of silence, knowing full well his thoughts were still glued to their lavender flower.

Most fathers would be smacking the guy upside his head for gawking at their daughter in such an open way, but not him. No, if he wanted his plan to work out he had to play his cards right. His daughter had grown into a helluva woman, but her past men had all been the same low tier trash. One loser after another, it didn’t matter where they came from they all ended the same way, using his baby girl for all she had and then up and running. If it were his choice, he would've hunted each and every one of the bastards down.

Part of him wondered if she found those men for a certain reason, but who would want to be used like that? No, his sweet baby was smarter than that, but she also had a big heart that yearned to help people. He blamed her momma for that, the woman had tended to many injured animals in their time together, wild or not. Hell, he knew his kind wife was a damn angel because she married a stray like him.

After the guys finished up and packed the supplies into the older man’s truck he spoke up, stopping the younger man from leaving just in time to catch him off guard.

“Why don’t you come down for dinner?”

He turned back to frown at the older man, obviously confused. The memory of the woman in purple sent a spark through him that had him moving from one foot to the other as if he were uncomfortable. She was definitely a looker, but he knew better than to disrespect the woman by staring. Sure, he had been surprised at first, but he was quick to reel himself in.

He wondered what she looked like up close, the color of her eyes, and the way she might smile. Did she have a big, limitless smile, almost like a child on Christmas morning? Perhaps she had a small, shy smile like a schoolgirl spun up in her first crush. What about her laugh? Did he want to find out?

“Don’t you want to spend some time with your daughter? She just got in and I don’t wanna intrude so rudely.”

The older man waved off his concern, that smile full of mischief. If his young farmhand knew any better, he'd think the old man was up to no good.

“Are you kidding me? Georgia baked three pies and made enough food for the whole damn town. At this rate, I’ll die in a food coma if you don’t help me out a little.”

The younger man smiled, laughing at the thought of his aged friend eating enough to cause such a ridiculous thing to happen. The man was in his fifties and still had muscles that rivaled the bull riders in town. Hell, he had aged with enough grace to fool an angel, though the young man wouldn’t be the one to say such a thing.

The women in town, however? Whew, they checked him out like dogs on a stack of ribs. It didn't help that he had a soft manner about him that could tame a wild stallion with a whisper and a look. To top it all off he never once batted an eye in any direction beside his wife's.

He envied the love the man had with his wife. It was a pure kind of affection that only soulmates could have, something that he hoped to find for himself one day. The farmer’s wife was a stubborn one, but from his time with them, he could tell she had an enormous heart and all the patience in the world for her loving husband. A marriage made of compromise and loyalty seemed to last a lifetime. Passion and loving glances anytime they were in each other's presence proved his point.

He wondered what that would feel like, to have a woman waiting for him with a smile on her face that could brighten even the darkest of days. Someone to grow with, learn, and age with. Would he ever understand the sacrifices needed to have that kind of peace with another person?

“I guess I can stop in for dinner, but then I gotta head back to town and help Martha out at the bar for a little bit.”

The older man shook his head, frowning. That watering hole should've been shut down ages ago with how rough its clientele could get.

“The bar again?”

The younger man, his eyes green and his hair a dirty blonde, nodded solemnly.

“I wouldn’t offer, but honestly I can’t stand the thought of leaving her to tend to the men that come in there by herself. They get way too rowdy and even with a shotgun she doesn’t scare them enough to stop them from being damn fools. Liquor is a helluva ego booster, makes some folks think they're invincible.”

The older man sighed, taking his hat off and heading toward the driver's side of the truck. When they were both seated up front, he started her up and brought up the bar one last time. There was no use nagging the boy, but he did worry and it was hard to keep those thoughts to himself.

“Boy, I tell ya, if it weren’t Martha’s livelihood I’d have that damned place shut down quicker than Johnny’s mouth at church on a Sunday morn’.”

The young man nodded, looking over the land as they headed toward the house. The town was small, and this farm was the biggest piece of land for miles around. There were four other farmhands that helped around the land on the weekdays, but on the weekends, it was just him and the old man tending to the basic chores. On a Saturday night like this, the other hands would be out on the town or at home with family. All of them enjoying a well-deserved day off.

With three little stores, a garage, a small diner and a bar the town couldn’t get much smaller. If it didn't look quaint enough already, the sheriff’s place was a two-story ranch home rather than a jailhouse. Honestly, there weren’t many people to throw behind bars in the first place, so it made sense not to have a big empty concrete cage.

Around these parts, everyone took care of their own, and if they had a problem it was never big enough to cause a scene. Most of the time a punch thrown and a curse or two later they were back to being buddies and helping each other out like nothing ever happened. It came with the territory of growing up together and aging with the same friends you went to grade school with.

The town was somewhere to plant roots and grow a family, a place all the teenagers planned on leaving only to come back a few years down the road to follow in their family trade. They had a household for each thing the town needed; cars, grocery store, diner, fishing, hair salon, sheriff, bar, and farming.

Hell, there was even a town drunk and a town gossip, no need for a newspaper in a town this size. Though, of course, the town gossip ran the damned paper anyways. The woman was a crazy old broad, but she was sweeter than his momma’s tea and if you needed help she’d be there in a heartbeat.

The whole town was like that, helping each other in any way they could without anything in return. It was the place he grew up and the place he wanted to plant his own roots. One day he would own a piece of land and maybe by then, he could find himself a suitable wife. He wasn’t holding his breath though.