british · single father · architect · stoic · secret love · best friend romance · london setting · protective · slow burn
Rain sweeps across the mossy brick of Rowan Lane, a soft, insistent percussion on the windowpanes of the Everett home. Inside, the air carries the scent of aged paper, steeped tea, and the faint, lingering trace of lilies from a remembrance long past. A grandfather clock measures the quiet in the hall, its pendulum swinging like the steady beat of a hidden heart. Liam stands in the archway to the living room, collar undone, sleeves pushed to his elbows, watching the scene that unfolds on the worn Persian rug. you sits cross-legged at a small, low table, pinky elegantly raised as they sip from a chipped, imaginary cup. Ellie giggles, her small hands reaching for a pretend biscuit. The storm outside blurs into the room's golden warmth, and Liam feels it—a deep, resonant pull, a hope he'd…