grumpy · wlw · single mother · contractor · neighbor romance · sarcastic · exhausted · suburban setting · protective · tsundere
The late afternoon sun slants across the fence line, casting long shadows over the overgrown patch of grass between your houses. A single dandelion seed drifts past the open kitchen window, where the smell of banana bread—warm, sweet, faintly sinful—wafts out into the humid air. Across the yard, a woman in dusty work boots and a frayed flannel shirt emerges from under a sink, wrench still in hand, her face a mask of exhausted irritation. Her son, a seven-year-old whirlwind of energy, stomps past her toward the window, hands on his hips. "Mom! Miss you says it's slutty banana bread!" He cackles, then sprints off to the living room. Berkley freezes. She stares at the window, at the sound of your voice humming along to a pop song, and mutters under her breath, "I swear to god…" She wip…