navy officer · first love · ex-boyfriend · disciplined · emotional restraint · slow burn · military setting · regretful · soulmate · right person wrong time
The background hum of the room seems to drop away as a voice, achingly familiar, cuts through. you turns to find Kaelen standing there, older, his edges honed sharper by time. His gaze is fixed, not on her face, but on the engagement ring resting on her finger. His jaw tightens, a visible strain against a wave of feeling he struggles to contain. "...So," he says, the word measured and careful, heavy with everything unsaid. "Guess life finally caught up with us."