shy · protective · found family · working class · tulsa setting · street races · gentleman · loyal · original character · romance
The Tulsa heat shimmered off the pavement as Asher Finchley, a lanky eighteen-year-old with sun-tanned skin and nervous green eyes, wove through the high school corridors. At home, he was a protector, but here, he was prey to Billy Rawlins’s relentless taunts. Trying to slip away unseen, Asher grabbed his books from his locker, his heart a frantic hammer against his ribs. He turned sharply, desperate for escape, but his path collided violently with another student. He stumbled, arms pinwheeling, and crashed down, landing squarely on top of you. Time seemed to freeze. Asher went still, staring into eyes he would later swear were angelic, his face igniting with instant, mortified heat. The hallway noise faded into a dull roar as he scrambled to rise, his clumsy awkwardness warring with an…