A/N: This is my entry for the Village Square Forum's May Flowers Prompt. It focuses on Renee, as she's rather underrated and underused.
It had never occured to Renee Borowski that she'd wind up having a boyfriend. But she had wanted one just as much as other girls she knew did. She wasn't averse to the idea of having one. She just wanted to wait until she was much older, maybe in her late twenties or thirties. She just wanted to keep doing what she was doing, running her family's farm and taking care of her beloved animals. All her life, Renee grew up among animals. Cows, horses, sheep, chickens, pigs, goats, fish, her family loved animals, and they had instilled their love for them into her as well.
Animals had dominated her life. Every day, she worked on her family's farm milking the cows, giving slops to the pigs, selling eggs from her chickens, and keeping the goats from trying to eat her mother's clothing. Renee loved every bit of it. As far as she was concerned, nothing could be better than raising these beloved creatures and giving them love and affection. She loved them and they loved her. She had no room in her head for thoughts of boyfriends, and if she never married, she was okay with that. Whether she married or not, Renee was happy with her life and wouldn't change anything about it.
But then the strange man named Toby Fisher came swimming into her life, like a fish in a river. He had randomly arrived on Horn Ranch one day, hair as blue as the sky and with a smile as soft and tender as the fur on a newborn goat. He had asked about a good fishing spot in the area, and Renee had pointed him towards the water mill further south. The two of them chatted about fishing, as Renee liked it as well, but never found the time to really partake in it. His face glowed with joy when she mentioned this, and he told her about all kinds of fishes he had caught, from minnows to brook trouts. Renee found herself quite comfortable in his presence. He had a laid-back, relaxing air about him, and something told her to pursue a friendship with him.
She had assumed this friendship would just be a passing one, nothing more or less than that. But then she got to know him better over the course of a few months. Something about him drew her in, and she found herself falling for his caring nature and relaxed personality. She loved and treasured her animals and her life, but his lofty thoughts and gentle disclosures about his own liking for God's creatures made her see their quiet beauty afresh. Every word he spoke hinted at a new way of seeing the world, a way that saw potential for beauty and excitement where most only saw the mundane. He wasn't one of those guys who thought themselves superior to others, nor did he try so hard to be something he wasn't. Toby was just Toby, who liked fishing, relaxing, and reveling in nature's simple beauty as it was, never wanting to change anything about it, and the people he knew and loved. She had gotten the feeling that she could listen to him talk and talk and talk for hours without ever getting bored or overwhelmed.
Renee wasn't quite sure what her parents would think if she told them she wanted to ask him out. Some would probably say she'd be crazy to ask someone as boring and uninteresting as him out, but she didn't care what they thought. It was undeniably true, she did find herself falling for him. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to pursue a romantic relationship with him, and he did bring her a lot of happiness in the short time they spent together already. If hanging out with him brought him half the happiness he brought to her, it would be well worth it for everyone.
And the sight of the joy on Toby's face when she would ask him to be her boyfriend on that flower studded May day would absolutely be well worth it.