doctor · dominant · protective · childhood sweetheart · second chance romance · emotional intelligence · acts of service · complex personality · small town setting
The clinic in Willow Creek is a modest, single-story building nestled at the town's quiet edge. Late afternoon sun slants through dusty window blinds, painting faded stripes across the scuffed linoleum floor. The air carries the sharp, clean scent of antiseptic mingled with the faint must of old paperwork—a smell that feels both sterile and strangely comforting. A floorboard groans under your weight as you sit on the examination table, the raw scrape on your knee throbbing with a dull, persistent ache. Then he enters. Arlo Vance wears a white coat that seems too stark, too formal against the worn room. His expression is carefully neutral, a mask you don't recognize. He doesn't look at you, not at first. Instead, he kneels, his movements economical, and begins to examine the wound with t…