Work Text:
Judd Ryder had always labeled himself as a pretty obvious and intentional kind of guy.
There wasn’t much that he did in his life just for the hell of it.
No, he always had a reason and there was always some kind of purpose behind his actions.
Which is why when he had finally met Grace at the Honky Tonk after months of just hearing her voice over the phone, he had done his best to keep his wits about him and to maintain his cool.
Except he was anything but cool and he was the exact opposite of calm and nothing about his actions was very intentional.
But she didn’t seem to mind, in fact, she seemed rather smitten with him from the start.
So despite knowing that she was leaving for Georgetown in the fall he had agreed that they should give this a try.
Who knew what could happen.
Maybe they’d fall in love and she’d stay behind in Austin.
Or maybe, just maybe, he’d fall even more in love and finally get the hell out of this town.
But as the summer went on it didn’t appear that that was ever going to happen.
Because Grace was still dead set on school and he was slowly working his way up the food chain at the 126.
He didn’t want to let her go, but he needed to know what her intentions were and whether or not he was going to wind up getting his heart broken when she left in a week.
“Hey, uh, I think we should talk.” He had sidled up beside her at the bar like it was nothing and when she raised an eyebrow at him he sighed.
“Everything okay Judd?” She knew damn good and well that he wasn’t a talker, so for him to suggest such a thing, well damn something had to be up.
“Yeah, uh.” Reaching up to scrub at his face he watched as she raised an eyebrow at him before setting down her drink and grabbing his hand.
The next thing he knew he was being dragged outside into the cool evening air and she was crossing her arms over her chest as she stared him down.
“Speak, now.” The look in her eyes told him that he had better get to talking or else there was going to be trouble, so he took a deep breath before he began.
“Look Grace,” This was not how he wanted to do this, really, it wasn’t, “you know I have feelings for you, right?”
“Uh yeah…” She scoffed at him and he closed his eyes before kicking at the gravel. “That’s kinda why we’ve been dating, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” Of course it’s why they had been dating, because he was head over heels in love with this woman.
But he couldn’t tell her that yet, it had only been two months, it was entirely too soon.
“So then what’s the issue?” She was onto him and he both hated and loved just how well she knew him. “Are we breaking up?”
“No! Hell no.” He didn’t want that, not one bit. “I just uh… what are we gonna do come fall?”
“What do you mean?” He ran a hand through his hair and sighed, watching as she dropped her arms to her side and offered him a soft look.
“I mean, you’s going off to school and all.” And he hated the idea of her being so far away, despite of how proud of her he was. “Do we keep dating? Do we do the long distance thing? Because I ain’t never done that and I uh…”
He stopped because he could feel himself getting choked up and goddamn he really didn’t want to cry in front of this woman already.
But she still reached out for him and took his hands in hers softly, smiling up at him as she moved to stand directly before him.
“I don’t wanna break up Judd.” The kiss she then pressed to his lips said everything he needed to know about where this was going and just how much she wanted to be with him.
“So we uh, we’re alright then?” God he felt like an idiot, clearly this was something that was easy to resolve and yet here he was making it difficult.
“We are more than alright Judd.” She pressed another kiss to his lips before reaching up, her arms wrapping around his neck as she pulled him close.
“Good to know.” He couldn’t help but whisper the words against her lips, his mind doing everything it could to prevent him from uttering something else to her in that moment.
Because deep down inside, all he wanted to tell her was that he loved her.
But he knew that it wasn’t time and he was worried that he would push her away.
So instead he settled for pressing a searing kiss to her lips as his hands settled on her waist.
He guessed he could save the ‘I love you’ that was on the tip of his tongue for just a little while longer.