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Chapter 6 :

Annabelle

The sun had dipped below the horizon, tinting the fields in a hazy blue glow as Annabelle drove past. She was the only one of the girls at Hoyt farm that knew how to drive, and Henry had given her his father's old Ford truck so that she could run errands on her own. Usually picking up supplies from town, or selling off some surplus crops at the farmer's market. Sometimes she just liked to drive, find a place to park, and watch the world turn.

She had black hair that she almost always kept in a thick braid that stopped just above her tail, and this was casually over her right shoulder and down her front so that she wouldn't be sitting on it in the seat. Her lopsided spots made her look odd in this dim lighting, especially the side of her face covered in black. She looked like a girl half in the light and half in the shadows, and in a way that was almost the truth.

She almost never took off her dusty old stetson hat, but it was next to her on the old bench seat now. Like the truck, it had also belonged to Henry's father. He wasn't really a hat guy though, so the hat and truck remained together for years before Annabelle had taken possession of both. There was enough room in the cab that should could have worn it while she drove, and normally she did. It was off because it was her way of disengaging herself from the farm. Taking off her hat was like taking off the uniform she felt, and where she was going it didn't feel right to be wearing it.

A girl on the old AM radio was yelling out some cookie-cutter song about breaking up with a man and how it was all his fault. It was just some background noise for the ride, and she wasn't really listening anyway. That over-produced pop star of a girl had no idea what country was about, anyway. Her songs had no complexity. Just anger and insults. No sorrow. No love. No soul.

Annabelle knew what real country should sound like, because she knew how hurt was supposed to feel. She knew, because she was living it.

Eventually she turned off the main road onto a path that seemed to lead off into nowhere. No signs marked its purpose or told what it led towards, but she already knew the answer to that question. She'd been down it dozens times before, and she knew exactly what lay at the end...

The Pretty Kitty. The only whorehouse in the state that catered exclusively to clients looking for a good time with an animal partner.

They had skirted the laws for years. Prostitution was illegal, and so was bestiality... But the changed were somewhere in between. No matter the charges brought against them, they always managed to blur the lines of what was written to get themselves out of trouble. It probably helped that at least one of the county judges was a frequent client, and that fact was only barely a secret. Everyone knew, but no one did anything about it.

It was another ten minutes on this road before she saw her destination. Built along the river, and standing out like a sore thumb was a massive three storied manor. It was like something out gone with the wind, but tainted with the massive pink neon sign bearing the establishment's name tacked onto its face. She parked the truck, noting how few other vehicles there were outside tonight. It was why she had chosen to come on a Monday, in fact. She didn't want to deal with a lot of humans mistaking her for one of the workers, and she definitely didn't want to wait.

Everyone in the lobby turned to look as she entered, surrounded by red and purple velvet curtains and couches. It was a gaudy place that reeked of perfumes, as if they could cover the scent of sin with lilac and lavender.

There were a lot of girls here. Mostly dogs and cats, but all of them animals in varying states of lingerie and robes. They were changed, like her... But they were nothing like her. She walked through the room less like a lady, swinging more at the shoulders than at the hips in a way that was more masculine. She was a woman of strength. She was a woman who made her living breaking her back instead of laying on it. She had nothing in common with them, and she had nothing to say.

The old hag of a human was working the counter tonight, which brought a sneer to her lips. She clearly never cared for Annabelle. Frankly she didn't seem to care for anyone, and especially not for the changed. She'd seen the way she spoke to her girls, and she was not impressed. Annabelle stopped at the desk, and started reaching for her back pocket to produce the cash.

"That'll be two hundred." The old woman said. She knew what the girl wanted. She wanted what she always wanted.

"Two?" Annabelle said, narrowing her eyes, "It was one fifty last time."

"Now it's two hundred." The old woman practically spat at her, "That a problem?"

"Well, I have one fifty..." She replied, holding up a wad of bills, "You can either take it and let me see him, or I can turn around and leave and you get nothing."

There was a long silence as they stared each other down. It was a clear hatred between them, and one well deserved. What each of them stood for in this life was in direct contrast, but what the old woman stood for was greed. Eventually she relented, and snatched the bills out of her hand.

"Fine..." She said, clearly displeased, "But you get forty five minutes, not the whole hour."

"Whatever." Annabelle replied, turning to walk up the stairs leading to the second floor. She could hear the woman on the phone paging up to let her soon to be partner know in an irritated voice that he had a customer coming, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered here. Nothing but him.

She didn't bother knocking. This wasn't a place for manners. She opened his door and stepped inside. He was there on the bed, lounging naked on one side in the same pose he always struck before a customer came in. He was spotted brown, almost eight feet tall and solid muscle, with a long mane of white hair that all parted off to one side. His eyes were closed, and he was quiet. He'd gotten himself just aroused enough before she came in so that half of his penis flopped down to the mattress, and the other half lay flat against it like a rope that someone had forgotten to tie off. It was massive. Over a foot and a half long, even not fully hard as it was now.

He was hung like a god damned horse... Then again, he actually was a horse.

He said he wanted customers to feel like they discovered him, rather than that he was waiting for them. The first time she saw him like that, her heart skipped a beat. Now she just thought it was funny. It wasn't real, that pose, and it wasn't what she wanted. It wasn't him.

"Hey Ranger." She finally said once she was done admiring the view.

"Annabelle?" His eyes shot open, and upon seeing her he quickly got up out of the bed to come over and lean down to take her into a tight hug, "I wasn't sure you were coming back! It's been so long!"

She wrapped her arms around him, keenly aware of the giant phallus pressed against her stomach, "It ain't that easy, sugar. You know that."

"I know, I've just... I've missed you so much." He said, pulling back enough to give her a tender kiss. Their long snouts weren't really made for this kind of gesture and it always looked a bit odd. Neither of them cared about that though, and they spent a long few moments letting their lips press and rub together.

He never kissed any of his clients. No one but her. There had been a time when the hours they spent together had been all in good fun, joking and playing with each other's bodies. Exploring what felt good and right, in order to make each other happy. As time went on, the fun faded into longing for each other in the time spent apart. Now the games were gone, replaced by desperation. Replaced by a powerful need to be together, which could never be satisfied because of the lives they both led.

Annabelle finally broke the kiss, tugging his lower lip between hers as she did so. She took his hands to look up at him, a touch of sadness in her eyes, "We ain't never got enough time, Ranger. I ain't keen on wasting it."

He took a step backward, still holding her hands to pull him gently along after him and sitting back down on the bed. It creaked and strained under his weight, despite the fact that steps had been clearly made to reinforce it. He turned his face away from her, mirroring her sadness. He knew she cared about him, but she was right. She needed him right now, and he needed her. There wasn't ever going to be enough time to just be together and talk.

She didn't bother to remove her clothes, kneeling before him to take his giant cock in her hands. With her right she took hold of it about halfway up from the base, the rest of it still only half hard and flopping off to the side. Her left hand then caught it by the tip to straighten it out, her thumb pressed upward against the underside of the crown to give it a little rub.

Girls like herself were practically human. Breasts, nipples, vaginas... Everything was more or less in the same place as it would have been on a regular woman. Ranger's member was decidedly not the same. It rapidly hardened under her touch to just shy of two full feet, long and brown with flesh colored flecks peppering the length. It was unreasonably thick at the base where it disappeared into his sheath, but tapered down to a more manageable girth no thicker than her wrist near the business end before flaring out a wide mushroom shaped tip with the dome slightly collapsed in on itself.

Ranger was a horse, and nowhere was it more evident than in the thing the she was gently stroking to life. This weren't no man's cock, she thought to herself... But it was her man's cock, and she loved every inch of it.

She leaned in, slurping around the edges of the tip with light and careful nibbles like a girl with an ice cream cone that threatened to topple over. It twitched a time or two under her attentions, and before long was standing well enough on its own without needing any more support than the lips tending to the far end. She let her right hand start working it once it was no longer needed for support. Long slow strokes, her fingers able to wrap all the way around near the top, but barely able to get more than halfway around the further down they traveled.

"Please, Annabelle..." He said, gasping the words out, "You're the only woman who has ever been able to do it... I need it..."

She knew what he meant, drawing back to look him in eyes with a smile, "Then say the words, sugar."

He reached up with one hand to stroke her cheek, a gesture which she tilted her head into affectionately, "Suck me off, Annabelle. Please... Make me come."

She could hear the desperation in his voice, and she knew why. He was practically the star of the show here at the brothel, but he had long since lost his ability to do more than get it up and put on a show. The sex was meaningless to him now. It was just part of the only job he'd ever known since his change. As long as his clients went away happy, his pleasure wasn't required, so he could go weeks without a single orgasm and it just didn't matter.

But Annabelle... She could always meet his needs. Not just because she had the ability to make him come, but that with her he actually wanted to.

She leaned in again, this time taking the tip and placing it square against her lips to give it a tender kiss. Even now the flare of that tip seemed impossibly wide. Most folk wouldn't have been able to do more than suckle on the sides of it the way she had been doing before. Then again, most folks didn't used to be a cow.

She slowly opened her mouth wide taking most of the tip up in a single slurp, but even then she knew it was going to take more work than that. She swirled her head around in a circular motion and pressing down on it firmly. She worked it in from all angles until if finally popped inside along with about five more inches of the shaft from the pressure it had taken to get past the threshold. Her lips clamped down around it as she pulled back a little bit, that wide flare at the end of his cock now pressed against the back of her teeth.

He moaned and threw his head back as her tongue went to work on him, rolling along the underside of his shaft as she started moving her head up and down the slowly. She wasn't greedy. There was no way she could work more than a third of a dick this size. Maybe a foot if she really forced the issue, but there weren't no way she was interested in trying to swallow it down. That kind of thing was more for show anyway.

Ranger had had his fill of show working at this place. He just wanted to feel something... Anything...

It wasn't going to take long, they both knew that. His excitement was obvious and his breath was coming in quick huffs. The hand that had been stroking him loosened its grip, sliding just a single finger up and down along the underside a couple of times before dropping down to take up one of his heavy testicles. They were the size of softballs, and the sack was already starting to tighten up around them as he neared completion.

"Oh, Annabelle..." He whispered, leaning back on his hands to let her completely have her way with him, "It feels so good... Do the... With the hair..."

She slowed her motions for a moment, taking the long black braid that had fallen over her shoulder and wrapping it in a single loop around the base of his shaft where it entered the sheath. She gripped the braid on either side, slowly starting to pull it back and forth around him to let the silky strands caress his sensitive flesh and causing him to moan. She then pulled on it from both sides, snapping the braid extremely tight around him, causing another twitch of pleasure to shoot up it. Just as quickly it started to throb as the blood being pumped into his member became restricted. Each swell with his pulse necessary to push the blood back out past the velvety cock ring she now had in place.

His eyes were clenched tight now, mouth open and gasping for breath as she started working his tip again. She was moving faster now, thrusting her head up and down the shaft with rapid movements designed to finish what she had started. Her tongue worked quickly along its underside, slurping loudly now and causing long strands of spittle to escape, dangle and dance before breaking off and falling to the floor.

It was all he could take. His chest heaved as the orgasm approached, and then practically doubled over on itself when it happened. The first shot of his cum probably could have drowned most people, especially as difficult as it would have been for her to pull him back out of her mouth at the peak of his swollen pleasure. She had no intention of letting him free though. She had no intention of putting on a show of letting him splatter her face with his load, and he didn't want her to anyway. She just started swallowing, easy as you please. A long wave through the both of them, starting at the base of his cock and flowing into her mouth and right down her throat with each heavy gulp.

It seemed to last forever. Her head was still and her eyes were closed and almost peaceful, but his hips couldn't help but buck his cock slightly in and out of her mouth with each heavy shot of his seed. She took blast after blast with a calm almost zen-like serenity, what felt like a gallon of cum simply accepted and swallowed without difficulty or complaint.

Eventually he came back down, breathing heavy as he practically fell back against the bed. She let her grip on her braid loosen and it slid off him, but she didn't even try to remove her mouth yet, and she wouldn't bother trying until some of his erection had faded. They were practically locked together for a long half minute, until she felt the tip go soft enough to draw back, still forcing her to pull with some pressure before he finally popped out of her mouth.

"Oh god, Annabelle..." He said between gasps, "No one else has ever made me feel like you do."

"Ain't no one else wanted to like I do, sugar." She said with a smile, wiping her lips on her wrist. It was just some spit. Not a drop of his seed had escaped her gullet, "A girl should know how to please her man."

"Am I, though?" He sat up, still a bit weak, "I love you, Annabelle, more than I can say. But what kind of man am I for you?"

She had stood now and was starting to undress, her vest off and she was unbuttoning her shirt, "Love don't work that way. Sometimes it ain't what we choose, Ranger... Sometimes it chooses us."

He watched her expose her breasts, almost instantly feeling a twinge in his softening member at the sight. He's seen tons of women naked and it hardly affected him anymore, but it was different with her, "We used to have fun together, you remember? Now every time I see you it just hurts knowing how soon you have to leave again."

She dropped her jeans and stepped out of them, taking a step over to the bed and rolling herself into it behind where he was still sitting, reaching up to stroke his back, "It hurts me too, sugar, but I'll take that hurt if it means I get to be with you. Ain't that what matters?"

He turned around slowly, leaning in to nuzzle and kiss at her neck. She was more than he deserved. A hard working, dedicated and beautiful woman. He was just a whore. It was all he had ever been, since the change. He hated it, but he couldn't imagine being worthwhile enough for anything else.

"Make love to me, Ranger?" She finally said, putting on arm around his shoulder to draw him closer, "It's a powerful need inside me... I can't bear it any longer."

He raised himself up over the top of her and she spread her legs out invitingly. She was already drenched with her arousal, the lips of her pussy swollen and parted to let her labia hang slightly open as well. All the girls at the farm wondered, but none of them ever dared ask why her sex was so lovingly broken in. She only ever used moderately sized toys during milking, so it just didn't make sense.

She reached down to pull his still slightly limp manhood up and let it flop down on her belly. This was the reason, right here. The man that had stretched her out in ways they could only imagine. The man she needed to do it again.

She stroked him slowly back to life between her hands and they started to kiss once more, playing with each other lips and nibbling on ears while they felt him stiffening under her gentle attentions. He didn't need to get all the way hard for this, and in fact it was easier to start out for her when he wasn't, so after a bit he leaned back on his knees and reclaimed his member from her with one giant hand, looking her over while he gave it another couple gentle strokes for good measure.

She was looking up at him desperately, legs out wide on the bed. Her hands above her head, "Please..."

He smiled a sly little smile, and repeated her question from before, "Then say the words."

She smiled back, her eyes narrowing seductively, "Fuck me, Ranger... Make me come."

He leaned back in, taking the tip of his cock in hand to press it against her moist lips. She was more than ready for him, but he still had press forward hard to get himself inside. She could take him, but it had been a while and a man his size wasn't something a girl could get completely used to without more frequent applications. She was tight around him. Tight and hot and wet... And it felt wonderful.

Her teeth clenched with a hiss when he popped inside. It wasn't so much pain, as it was just the feel of her body straining against its own limits. They were limits she'd tested many times before though, and she knew she hadn't reached them yet. He waited for her to relax, and she eventually did so, tangling her legs around his to encourage him further.

"Do it..." She said breathlessly, "Make me yours..."

He started slowly at first, with a gentle thrust that went only a few inches deep. With every few he'd go little farther... Six inches... Nine... A whole foot. Her body relaxed and expanded to accommodate him, lubricated by the fluids produced by her desire.

She was already half way there before he started, and both of them had plenty of experience with what was about to happen and how it would come about. He stayed at that depth for a while, slowly pumping just about a foot worth of his massive cock in and out with a gentle rhythm, watching her breathing become more rapid and her chest heave. He knew right when to pull the trigger, and when she was ready he pulled back leaving just the tip inside...

And slammed forward hard.

A full foot and a half of him was inside her now, the crown at the tip of his penis pressed tightly against her back wall. It was all it took to send her over. She was gripping the sheets tightly off to either side, back arched and shaking as the orgasm took over her body with waves of bliss.

"Yes!" She cried out, twisting slightly against him as if to roll away but nailed into place by his heavy shaft. Any other words she wanted to say were lost, only coming out as indistinguishable squeaks of pleasure with each outward breath as she rode out the orgasm. Eventually she started to come down, melting on the mattress into a mess of moans and the occasional twitch.

Ranger watched her, mesmerized by the sight as he waited for her to come down. Eventually her eyes opened and met with his, still gasping for breath in a vain attempt to recover. She smiled at him weakly, and then he back at her...

And then they started to laugh. Once upon a time before they had fallen in love, they had always laughed. Their time together was fun, and while those days sometimes seemed all but gone, there were still moments like this. Moments where it all came back and they remembered how much they loved making each other feel good.

He leaned down over her, letting his weight onto her body. He was massive, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. In fact, she liked it. Feeling practically consumed by his body, as he started to nibble on her ear again, "Let me know when you're ready..."

"It's alright..." She said, knowing she was still going to be a little sensitive. But she was watching the clock, and there just wasn't enough time left to wait, "Do it, Ranger... Pound me."

That was all the encouragement he needed, he started with a firm thrusting that made her wince a little as her body protested the haste at which they had begun again, but she hid it from him and soon enough felt a more pleasant tingling start up in its place.

He raised his head back, cupping her right breasts in his hand and placing his lips over it. She wasn't surprised. They never got through a session without this. He loved the taste of her milk, and she reached up to cradle his head as he drank deep from her. He nibbled on the hard nipple between suckles. He moved to the left breast after bit, sucking the nipple and the entire areola and pulling back to lift the entire tit up and let it fall back again with a bounce and jiggle, swallowing the warm fluid that had squirted into his mouth with a sigh.

"Everything about you makes me want you more." He said, moving back up from her breasts to look her in the eyes, "You're perfect, Annabelle."

She smiled, head still in her arms as she gave him a little kiss on the lips, "It's you that makes me perfect, sugar... I ain't whole without you."

He started thrusting harder now, laying his head into her shoulder and bracing his hands against the mattress for leverage. It was a pounding pace, each time striking against her back wall with a force that made her rock back and forth in time.

"That's it..." She said through a sigh, "That's what I need..."

He went on like that for a while. He was getting close again already though, so he started to slow but she was having none of it.

"I said pound me, Ranger!" She said, desperation and need in her voice, "Come inside me! Don't wait!"

He was surprised by her reaction, not knowing how little time they had left, but he did as he was told. He squared himself up again and started slamming himself in and out of her pussy with a force the shook the building. Some of the older girls downstairs had to smile when they noticed. They couldn't feel it, but they could see the chandelier start rocking back and forth. They knew the cause, and they knew it only happened because of one man and only with one woman...

Annabelle was getting fucked.

He was on the edge of coming again, and she wasn't far behind. He was far too big to wrap her arms around his back, so she settled for tangling them around his arms instead as he gripped the mattress around her. She was practically throwing herself back against his thrusts as if she was trying to get him to break through to the other side of her, moaning loudly now on every labored breath, before eventually starting a slow chant...

"Come inside me... Come inside me... Oh Ranger... Come inside me..."

He slammed home a few more times, then the thrusts started to slow. Not because he intended them to, but because he had lost all control of his body. The first blast hit her insides like a firehose, painting her velvet walls with his hot seed and making her eyes go wide. He couldn't move at all any more, just pressing himself as deeply as he could inside her and firing off ribbons of cum that squirted all around his member as it tried to find some place left inside of her to hide.

Soon after she joined him. The feel of his body twitching against hers, the tip of him spraying against her deepest reaches... It was all she needed, and she came with him. She gripped him tightly, pulling herself up off the mattress to press herself against his body now. Hanging off him supported by nothing but her arms and the massive cock she was impaled on, her legs straight up in the air and slightly bent.

Eventually... Slowly... They both collapsed. Breathless and satisfied, if only for a moment.

After a long motionless minute of heavy breathing, he finally spoke with a weak laugh, "You know... I should be the one paying you."

This time, she wasn't amused, "Neither of us should be paying at all."

He raised up, realizing his mistake, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I didn't mean that."

She moved to crawl out from under him and he rolled away to let her, his member finally sliding out of her in the process. She cupped her hand over her vagina as she stood, moving over to a dresser where she already knew they kept clean towels and replacing the hand with one of those instead. Just as quickly a large gob of his seed plopped right out of her into it, followed by a slow leak that she started to wipe away.

"Are you leaving?" He asked, sitting up on the edge of the bed, "We still have time left."

She just shook her head, tossing the towel in a bin nearby, "They raised your rates, sugar. I couldn't afford the whole hour."

"Oh. I didn't know." He hung his head, clearly disappointed, "Can you come back next week? I don't know if I can wait so long again..."

"We start breaking earth on a new acre of the old pasture tomorrow." She said, moving to gather her clothes and toss them on the bed, before coming back to sit next to him, "It's a lot of work, plowing and picking stones. It takes time, and you ain't exactly easy to get to."

He was watching her dress now, and he sighed. She worked hard for a living, and it made him feel guilty for the life he led, "You must really think I'm pathetic, Annabelle."

"I think you're just trying to find a place in the world. Same as all of us that survived." She said, standing to slip her pants on and do up the fly, "It ain't pathetic. It's just..."

She paused, long enough for him to ask, "Just what?"

"I love you, Ranger." She said, turning to look at him, "But you ain't made much of an effort. You just stay here waiting for me, knowing I'll keep coming back... And I will. I always will."

He looked back at her, a look of concern on his face.

"But if I find you on my doorstep tomorrow, or the next day, or next week... I'll put you to work." She said, folding her arms over her chest, "It ain't easy, and the pay ain't great... But you'll have a roof over your head, the best meals you ever ate, and at the end of the day you'll have done something that you can feel proud of. Something that we can be proud of together."

He looked away, hanging his head, "I don't know if I'm cut out for that kind of life."

"That's my life, Ranger." She replied, "If you ain't cut out for it, then you ain't cut out for me... And I don't think that's true."

He looked back up at her with sadness in his eyes, as she leaned in to place her snout alongside his, putting a hand on his chest as she did so, "You have a home, Ranger... With me. I can't make the choice for you to leave here, but you gotta know I'm waiting... Every day I wake up hoping to find you there."

"Annabelle..." He said, putting his arms around her.

She closed her eyes and sighed, "Come home, Ranger."

The drive home was always a mix of satisfaction and melancholy. She had her elbow out the window and one hand on the wheel, the warm evening air swirling around the cab refreshingly. The radio was off this time. She had no desire to hear some over-produced, fake country tart sing yet another break-up song right now. She wasn't in the mood.

She just wanted some time with her thoughts. She just wanted some time to enjoy the sensations still lingering after the act. She only ever saw Ranger every so often. Only when she could justify the cost. Usually long enough periods apart that she always left feeling a touch raw and tingling in a way that was oddly welcome. She'd cleaned herself up, but she could still feel much of his seed inside her, tucked away and precious deep in her body where it belonged.

It made her feel like a woman. He made her feel like a woman, and she longed for the day when he would let her make him feel like a man. She longed for the day when she didn't feel a little raw after he made love to her, but when he'd had her enough that she could fit him just right.

She pulled up to the farm and turned onto the dirt road that lead between the houses and back to the rest of the property. The trucks were kept parked back by the barn, but she slowed down to stop next to Henry's house instead, turning off the engine and getting out, picking up her dusty old stetson off the seat as she did so.

"Good evening, Annabelle." Henry said, leaning on a porch post as he watched her.

"Evenin' Henry." She replied. She knew he was there, "Mind if I leave it here tonight? I don't want to wake anyone."

"That'll be fine." He said calmly, pausing for a few seconds before adding, "I don't mean to spy on you all, but..."

"I left the phone on for a reason, Henry. I know the risks." She came around the front of the truck to look up at him, putting her hat on for the first time since she'd left the farm. It was part of the uniform for her, and it was time to get back to work, "I ain't ashamed of where I've been."

He nodded slowly. The girls didn't really need phones, but they had a few that they would take whenever they left with installed with a GPS tracking app. There was always a risk of one of them being snatched by a competitor so it was purely a precaution, not a form of control.

"That place, though..." He said calmly, "Why there? Is there someone you're trying to save?"

"No, that ain't how it works." She said, lowering her eyes and giving a long sigh, "I'm just hoping to give him reason enough to save himself."

A sympathetic smile came to Henry's lips, "You know, the old man that drove that truck, and broke in that old hat... You're a lot like him."

She tilted her head a curiously, "You mean your dad?"

Henry nodded once, "He never told me what to do... But he always made sure I knew what the right thing was. He let me decide for myself if the right thing was worth doing."

She gave him a sad smile. They would have made a fine country song. A lady doing her best to win her man. A man afraid to leave his life of sin to be with her. The man she saw as her father being proud of her anyway. It was love just trying to keep its head above water in a sea of hurt. It was complicated and full of sorrow, but it had a soul.

"It looks good on you." Henry said, eventually leaning off the post and turning around to head back inside, "You have a good night, Annabelle. I'll see you in the morning."

"Night, Henry." She said, starting off to walk back to the bunkhouse.

She had a long day ahead of her tomorrow. She and Sophie really were breaking new ground for some fall crops, and it was going to be a lot of work. It would probably take them a couple of weeks to get it all sorted and done enough just to start planting.

If only they had help...

It's all she ever wanted, really. To work in the fields beside her man. To share a beer as the sun set and admire a job well done. To make love in the cool evening air and fall asleep in his arms.

"Come home, Ranger..." She whispered to herself, hoping beyond hope as she wiped away a tear that had started forming at the corner of her eye.

"Please come home."