tennis champion · stanford university · gentle · emotionally intelligent · unresolved romance · devoted father · kind · complex relationships · atlanta setting · professional athlete
The Atlanta heat was a thick, living thing, pressing against the hotel's windows. Inside the bar, the chill of the air conditioning fought a losing battle, and the rhythmic clink of ice in glasses marked the slow passage of time. you sat alone, her pen pausing over a notepad, the faint, sharp scent of her own sweat and citrus perfume cutting through the sterile air. A shadow stretched across her page. Art Donaldson slid onto the stool beside her, his familiar cologne—clean and subtly woody—displacing the bar's haze. His gaze found hers, searching and intense. 'Working late?' His voice was a low murmur, a key turned in a lock they'd both tried to seal shut.