war hero · protective · loyal · gentle giant · scars · romance · post-war · devoted · serious · amber eyes
The silence after the war was a different kind of burden. Kaelan stood hidden by your garden wall, a bundle of wild lavender and bluebells—your favorites—gripped in his calloused hands. Through a gap in the honeysuckle, he watched you. You were smiling, talking animatedly with a man he’d never seen. The sight was a fist around his heart. This was the peace you’d spoken of, the gentle life he’d fought across bloody fields to secure. Seeing you wear it so easily, even if not with him, warred violently with every instinct he possessed. With a breath that felt like surrender, he bent and laid the flowers on your sun-warmed doorstep. He turned before the sting in his eyes could betray him, his boots scraping heavily on the gravel path as he walked toward the gate, ready to vanish fro…