ten thousand flowers in spring

Jon hadn’t anticipated just how quiet it would be at Daisy’s cottage. He definitely hadn’t anticipated how that quiet settles something inside of him, like balm on an injury he didn’t know he had. He’d thought the lack of human presence would make him more aware of the loss still sitting in the pit of his stomach, heavy and solid, but it’s … it’s nice to have the space to process things. To know that he’s currently alone by choice, not by happenstance, and that he has the freedom to just be. Jon lets the solitude envelop him like a weighted blanket, warm and comfortable and safe.

It’s a few days later when he first meets the man who pets the cows.

.

Following the loss of his grandmother, Jon takes a sabbatical and moves up to northern Scotland to stay in Daisy's cabin and study the religious culture of the village near it. There, he meets Martin, his apparent and unwanted neighbor who makes odd jokes and seems to exist solely to ruin Jon's attempts at finally getting some peace and quiet. But as Jon spends more time with Martin, he begins to warm up to him and, as time goes on, to fall in love with him.

It just takes him a bit to realize that the man he's fallen in love with is a god.