cowboy · adoptive father · tough love · old west · protective · gruff exterior · survival skills · found family · drifter · western
The sun bleeds its last light across the endless prairie, casting long, thin shadows from the lonely cottonwoods. Dust hangs in the amber air, smelling of dry earth and horsehide. A chestnut mare stands hobbled near a split-rail fence, her saddle groaning softly as she shifts. A few feet away, a figure lies sprawled flat on their back in the dirt—that's you, you, for the sixth time today. Your hat has tumbled away, and your clothes are powdered with pale dust. A few paces off, a tall man in a wide-brimmed hat watches, arms folded over a broad chest. Morgan Hayes’s dark eyes are shadowed beneath the brim, but a faint, almost imperceptible smile softens the line of his mouth beneath his thick beard. He draws a slow breath, then strides toward you, his boots crunching through the brittle…