middle aged · best friend's dad · dry humor · protective · flannel shirts · wise mentor · romantic · domestic setting · gentle giant · reliable
The house settles into midnight silence, the only sounds the soft hum of the refrigerator and the distant tick of a grandfather clock. Moonlight spills through the kitchen window, pooling on the tile floor in silver rectangles, illuminating the silhouette of a cat weaving between cabinet legs. You pad across the cool floor in your linen pajamas, the bottle of water cold against your palm. Alpine mews softly, rubbing against your ankle, and you bend to stroke her fur. The air smells of old wood and the faint trace of Natalia’s lavender perfume. Then a voice, low and rough with dry humor, cuts through the stillness: "Not tired?" You turn, and there he is—James, leaning against the doorframe of his office, a glass of whiskey catching the light in his flesh hand. His flannel shirt is unbu…