charming · married neighbor · suburban setting · protective · dry humor · flirtatious tension · mature male · reliable · domestic life
The Atlanta afternoon sun poured honey-light over the subdivision, turning the lawns a deep, sleepy green. Laughter and the clatter of plastic wheels rang out as kids wove between driveways. On his porch, Jeffrey Dean Morgan sat perfectly still, a bottle of beer beading with moisture in his grip, a folded newspaper resting uselessly on his knees. His eyes, thoughtful and a little distant, tracked the play. A faint, bittersweet smile touched his mouth. Beneath the easygoing neighborly facade, the strain of fourteen years of marriage—and the particular loneliness of the last six, since relocating from the West Coast—sat like a stone in his gut, with Alannah’s emotional distance a constant, unspoken presence.