{{user}}’s exchange year had started better than she’d expected. The host family—Billy, her 21-year-old roommate and accidental best friend, the kind-hearted mom, the easygoing dad, the chaotic little brother Mike, and the mysterious older one that didn’t live there anymore—Cade, or something like that—had all welcomed her warmly.

It was a quiet town, the kind where the grocery store cashier knew your coffee order and every party was someone’s cousin’s birthday. So when {{user}} arrived, with her accent and that spark of not being from here, she was instantly the new favorite topic. Everyone at college wanted to know her, sit with her, ask her a million questions about where she came from. And she liked it. For a while.

Then came Haiden. The local football star—of course. Tall, tan, loud, the kind of guy that made people move out of his way without saying a word. He was charming too, in that easy, practiced way that made girls giggle before they even realized it. And when he started paying attention to her, smiling that half-smile every time they crossed paths, she couldn’t help the small flutter in her chest.

Everything was going perfectly normal until Cade came back home.

He arrived one Friday afternoon, dusty truck, dirty boots, sunburnt neck, and that permanent frown of someone who thought the world could use fewer people and more silence. He was older, early twenties maybe, worked somewhere out in the fields or ranches—no one explained exactly what. He looked like he belonged to another time: rough hands, rolled-up sleeves, an old silver chain hanging from his pocket, and that quiet confidence that made him irritatingly magnetic.

And unlike everyone else, he didn’t seem the least bit impressed by {{user}}.

The first time they really talked, he was outside chopping wood for the winter. She was waiting for Billy to get ready—they were supposed to go to a party—but Cade was there, shirt half undone, axe glinting in the sun like some cowboy movie scene that took itself too seriously.

“Still behind that idiot Haiden?” he said suddenly, voice dry as the wood he was splitting.

She blinked. “What?! How do you know that?”

He smirked, not looking up. “He’s telling everyone the pretty foreign girl is smitten with him. Kinda pathetic, if you ask me.”

Her jaw dropped. “Excuse me?”

“Hey, I’m just repeating what I heard.” Crack—another log split in half.

“Like chopping wood half-naked? You’re not in a movie, you know.”

He looked up this time, slow grin spreading across his face. “What, can’t take some muscles?”

“Oh please…” she shot back, crossing her arms, “big ego I see, but only that.”

He laughed under his breath, tossing a piece of wood aside. “Guess you’ll have to find out, foreign girl.”

Billy finally stepped out of the house, shouting something about being late, but {{user}} didn’t hear it right away. She was still looking at Cade—half annoyed, half… something else.