Chapter 1 - a warm welcome

What had Dianne been thinking? Moving to the country had sounded so idyllic and yet, here she was, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by boxes of all the crap she had collected over the last twenty years. She took herself back inside, away from the summer heat and lay on her bed. Perhaps she had been a bit overzealous packing up her whole life and moving here. What did she even know about living in the country? She’d been a city girl for all thirty-nine years of her life. This was pure madness!

Dianne consoled herself with a drive into town, suddenly feeling the need to see other human beings. Inside the small general store, there were plenty of anonymous faces that somehow calmed her spirits. She took her time, wandering the aisles, happy to avoid the piles of boxes back at home for as long as possible.

“Hi there, Dianne!” called a loud, deep voice from behind her.

Dianne was startled and turned around to see who on earth it was who knew her here. She took in the figure of a man, not too many years older than herself, broad and tall, with a handsome face. He wore heavy work boots and informal clothes, suggestive of manual work.

Dianne still took a second to recognise him, until she realised that the man was the farmer who had driven past when the real estate agent had showed her around the house. He had got out of the tractor and introduced himself. Dianne hadn’t even been certain that she was going to put an offer in on the house at that point, yet the farmer had clearly committed her face and name to memory. Was this what life was like here?

“Oh, hi there…” she called back, desperately searching her entire brain for the guy’s name.

“It’s Rob,” the guy reminded her helpfully, taking her hand and shaking it firmly with a warm smile on his face. Dianne was a strong girl herself, having maintained a good condition in the gym for many years; yet the strength in the farmer’s handshake made her determined to never upset the guy. “You haven’t met my son yet, have you, Dianne?” Rob went on, moving aside to reveal the most shockingly handsome young man Dianne had ever seen; even taller and more athletic-looking than his father, the boy had the fresh, model-like face of an angel. In fact, Rob had to raise his hand up quite high to pat his son on the shoulder. “This is my boy, Hayden. He’s skipped college so that he can learn all about the farm from me. His mother and I want to retire in the next few months, and Hayden here is going to be taking charge,” he smiled proudly, gazing at the statuesque boy with almost as much admiration as Dianne.

“Nice to meet you,” Dianne offered, reaching out her hand and shaking it with Hayden’s, noticing the strength of the boy as she did so.

“Nice to meet you,” echoed the beautiful, young hunk in his deep, sexy voice.

“Hayden here got engaged last week,” his father explained, pausing to allow Dianne enough time to jump in and congratulate them. “If we’d have known you were here, we could have invited you to the party last night. Everyone is very curious to meet you in town.”

Dianne nodded politely, but secretly thanked the stars above that she had missed out on that torture. She showed her appreciation to the two men for their welcome and couldn’t help but gaze adoringly at Hayden’s fine glutes as he strutted down the aisle behind his father.

Maybe country living wouldn’t be so bad after all.