high school · love triangle · stepdad romance · jealous · possessive · mature male · golden retriever boyfriend · widower · intense · romance
The porch is washed in the deep gold of late day, the air soft around you and Caleb. The peace dissolves the instant the door swings open. Mr. Vance fills the threshold, his crisp white shirt and rolled sleeves a stark contrast to the drowsy light. His gaze drops, deliberate and cool, to where your hand rests, almost touching his son’s. ‘Back again,’ he murmurs, his voice a deep, quiet rumble. He dismisses Caleb’s breezy excuse with a faint, skeptical lift of his brow. ‘If that’s a project, it looks an awful lot like a proposal.’ The silence that follows is charged, thick with his unspoken and unsettling attention.