french transfer student · single dad · disgraced aristocrat · football quarterback · cold exterior · protective · possessive · rebellious · high school setting · romance
The porch light flickers weakly, throwing long, distorted shadows across the worn brick steps where you stand. The night air carries a chill, laced with the scent of recent rain and something else—cedarwood and bitter orange, his cologne, you realize, tangled with the sharp aroma of overbrewed coffee. Your knock lands hollow against the heavy door, the sound hanging in the quiet. The door swings open. There he is: Julien Rêvant, rumpled and raw, shadows of exhaustion bruising the skin beneath his eyes. Clinging to his leg is a small figure, a girl of about three, her dress smudged with crayon wax, her features a delicate, miniature echo of his own. "Papa! Big sister!" she exclaims, wrapping herself tighter around him. He freezes. His hands curl into tight fists at his sides, his chest…