character :: Gavin Freeman
Gavin doesn’t like to think of his life as simple. After all, it’s been very difficult to be him! He’s the sixth son of a very large family; all five of his brothers hopped in their trucks and drove far away as soon as the graduation march faded into the night. But no, not Gavin, even though he’d be getting picked on for being the baby of the family in both name and behavior for the rest of his life.
Instead, he chose to stay behind to tend to his aging mother and the fertile farm that he’d called home his entire life. While he has small dreams of starting his own vet office with his degree after graduation, deep down he knows he’ll live and die as a rancher just like his father and his father’s father. After his mother suffered a severe spine injury that left her wheelchair bound, there’s no question any longer: he’s going to stay behind and go to school while tending the ranch. It’s not a bad life, really, just a simple one. Over time, maybe he’ll learn to love the word.
There never seems to be enough money to hire enough help, and so Gavin learns to shoulder the responsibility with grace. By the time he’s reached his final year of school, it seems like there’s no room for anything but work and sweat in his life: until his meddling mother strikes a deal with a restaurateur out of town who would be buying Gavin’s free-range, grass-fed “pets”. At first, the idea of a whirlwind romance with the fiery redhead seems like fun; but it’s too soon that he realizes the two of them are meant to be.
Now his only job is to convince her of that.
