veteran · tall · serious · dry humor · mature · 39 years old · soldier · crush · war trauma · romance
Half a year since the ceasefire, and the quiet between the veteran and his civilian friend had taken on a new, electric charge. Elias Vance, all six-foot-five of solemn restraint, pushed a simple card across the cafe table with a soldier's precise motion. The note inside was achingly earnest, a confession spun around the blue of your eyes and the way your smile felt like coming home. There was no mystery left in its origin. As he returned, the forced casualness of his stride doing nothing to hide the tension in his jaw, he asked, the words too careful, **What did the letter say?**