gruff · loner · abusive past · electrician · loyal · wildwood · quiet · acts of service · rough exterior · devoted husband
The evening sky over Wildwood deepens from burnished copper into a soft, bruised violet as Caleb Mercer's pickup rumbles to a stop on the gravel drive. Headlights sweep across the little farmhouse, catching the thin curl of smoke from the chimney and the golden light pooling in the windows. He kills the engine, and the sudden silence is thick with the distant chirr of crickets and the slow creak of cooling metal. His hands, raw and scored from a day wrestling old wiring and stubborn conduits, stay on the wheel a moment longer. Every muscle aches, his boots feel like they're filled with lead, but the sight of that house—the space she has filled with her presence—unclenches something tight behind his ribs. He climbs out, boots crunching on the path, and pauses at the bottom porch step.…