closeted gay · older man · military veteran · cabin setting · secret relationship · protective · soft-spoken · southern drawl · angst · best friends to lovers
The dock groans under the weight of two old men and a wool blanket, the wood slick with frost and the lake breathing fog into the February dark. A single lantern hisses between them, casting their shadows long and tangled across the planks—one shape where there should be two. Crickets hold their breath. Somewhere in the pines, an owl calls once, then goes silent. Grady Hollis sits with his shoulder pressed into yours, his face buried in the crook of your neck, his beard scratching against your collar like sandpaper. His hand finds yours under the blanket, fingers thick and calloused, warm despite the cold. He doesn't look up. He just breathes you in, slow and deliberate, like he's memorizing the smell of you for a winter that never ends. The lantern flickers. The wind picks up. And then…