We're talking about timeless love today and while I don't have a ton of stories under this name, I do have one little section of my Love's Landscapes story, A Sonnet for His Vaquero, where my main character, Alejandro gets some love advice from his father's lover, Ian. Pretty sound I think...
Ian nodded. “It wasn’t
something either of us wanted. When he told me he was married and had a child,
I tried to make a clean break of it. I stayed away.”
Alejandro leaned back
in his chair. “You didn’t know he was married? I find that hard to believe.”
Ian stiffened. “Well
it’s the truth. I’ve been with the bank for thirty-five years. I knew your
great uncle when I was a young man. When Oleksa died there were rumors of a
distant relative claiming the land, so I naturally assumed that your dad was
his heir— never thinking that he was married to Oleksa’s niece.” He sighed.
“When I found out, we had a huge fight.”
“Well it’s obvious you
must’ve made up, because my father and mother ended up divorced. Then Mom moved
me halfway across the county.”
“I can never tell you
exactly how sorry I am for that. I tried to end things. I told your father to
go back to his wife and child, I absolutely refused to break up a family. I’m
an orphan myself and I wasn’t about to let Kemen throw away his family.” A
flash of guilt crossed his face. “That’s when he told me it was too late— that
he loved me and whatever romantic feelings he had once for your mother were
long gone. I tried to talk him out of it— we weren’t lovers then, just good
friends who happened to be attracted to one another. But your father was a
determined man. Once he put his mind to something…”
“…it happened.”
Alejandro nodded. “If there’s anything I remember clearly about Dad, it was his
unwavering determination.”
Ian propped his elbows on the table. “Along with his love of you, those were the two things that made me love your father the most. Sure, he had that handsome, dark, swarthy look that many Latinos have, but it was his heart that won me over.” He sighed. “Looks fade. Time goes on, but when you find a man who lights up your world, you hang on to him with all your might. I had twenty-two wonderful years with Kemen, but even if it had only been twenty-two days, I would’ve counted myself lucky.”
