1 Chapter 1

The country road was rougher than Daniel had imagined. Recent rains had washed away some of the soil cover, exposing many of the larger rocks. He was grateful that this day was only overcast with little to no chance of rain. The bed of his new used pick-up contained his few belongings and the back of the cab had several bags of groceries strapped to the seats. Daniel had bought the food from the nearest grocery store to the Seyda Ranch, named for Jake Seyda and his fathers before him who had owned the land. Daniel would be renting a small cabin on Jake’s property, if he ever reached it.

Daniel made a right at the first fork in the road past the welcome sign. He sighed in relief, knowing his journey was almost over. It had been a long way from Chicago. Now Daniel was getting the new start he had needed for a while. Packed carefully in the boxes beside him on the passenger seat were his various cameras and their accessories. After years of being an urban photographer, selling his work to various galleries, Daniel decided to return to his country roots and go full-freelance. Wyoming had exactly the landscape he was looking for, and he couldn’t wait to get out there and see it.

The truck shook violently and Daniel heard two successive bangs before everything shifted to the left. He panicked for a moment and slammed his brakes. Cursing his life and the universe itself, Daniel opened his door to confirm the worst; both his front and back left tires had blown out. The road behind him was almost nothing but jagged rocks jutting up from the ground like bristling scales. Daniel had hoped the truck was tough enough to make it over safely, but he supposed he should have checked the tires more thoroughly at the used car lot.

When kicking the hubcaps yielded nothing more than a dull pain in his toes, Daniel retrieved his phone from the cup-holder and called Jake.

“Hey there, Danny-boy!” Jake answered. “Made it there safely, I take it?”

“Not quite,” Daniel sighed. “I’m still about a half-mile away and I blew out two tires on the rocky road. Normally I would walk the rest of the way, but I’ve got perishables in the truck, not to mention all my stuff.”

Jake let out a low whistle. “Golly, sounds rough. I was worried about those roads, but there hasn’t been much time to tidy them up. I’ll send Cole your way in our truck. He can take you and your things the rest of the way. He ought to be there in about fifteen minutes.”

“Thanks, Jake.” Daniel hung up and groaned. He could make it to his new home in ten minutes at a steady pace, but not loaded down with his stuff. As much as he wanted to make it to the cabin and put his feet up, he resigned himself to waiting. It was yet another bit of bad luck to add to his recent streak.

It all began one chilly yet clear afternoon in mid-February when Daniel got a teary call from his mother. His dad had passed away unexpectedly. Daniel’s dad already had two heart attacks under his belt, and claimed his heart was too strong from years of camping and hiking to give out so easily. Unfortunately, the third one turned out to be too much. Daniel had been close with his dad, and the news hit him like daggers to his chest.

Then, reevaluating his life in the city, Daniel told his at-the-time boyfriend, Troy, that he wanted to get away from the grind and the concrete jungle, revisit his childhood love of the great outdoors that his dad had instilled in him. However, he had said, he didn’t want to drag Troy into this if he wasn’t comfortable leaving Chicago, and he was willing to compromise for the sake of their relationship.

“Does this mean I can finally break up with you?” Troy had asked. “About time. You’ve been such a downer these past few weeks.”

The heartless statement was enough to shatter the tenuous connection between them. Troy had been one of Daniel’s best models, and while unearthly attractive, he was occasionally aloof and uncaring. Daniel stayed with him because the sex was good and working so closely together made flirting and teasing nigh unavoidable. Daniel broke up with him on the spot and cemented his plans to find something better.

Now here he was, stuck on a dirt road in the middle of Wyoming with half his tires in shreds and his mood souring more and more the longer he had to wait for Cole. Having only negotiated with Jake over the phone or via e-mail, Daniel had never met Cole before, but Jake had told him about their chief ranch-hand and maintenance man.