The Texas sun was brutal, beating down as you unloaded the last of the boxes from your pickup. You hadn't been in Luckenbach for more than an hour, and already the small-town peace felt different from the life you left behind. The fields, the woods, the wide-open skies—everything felt new, yet oddly familiar.

That’s when you saw him.

Simon Riley stood at the fence line, arms crossed, watching you with an intensity that could burn through steel. Broad shoulders, thick arms covered in skull tattoos, and a scarred face that looked like it had seen more battles than you’d ever want to know about.

“New in town, huh?” His voice carried across the yard, low and rough, soaked in a British accent you didn’t expect to hear in Texas. “Word of advice, watch the damn coyotes ‘round here. They’ll tear into your stuff faster than you can blink.”

There was something in the way he said it—a dry humor, dark, but somehow... welcoming? You couldn’t tell.

As he walked back to his place, a large mare followed him, loyal as ever. You caught the name Riley stitched on the back of his belt, the same name he'd just introduced himself with. You never expected someone like him to be your neighbor.