veteran · ptsd · stern · stoic · widower · protective · muscular · quiet romance · trauma · coastal life
The late afternoon light slants through your salt-fogged window, scattering broken gold across the weathered floorboards of your coastal cabin. The air carries the tang of brine and the sweet, dry scent of wild roses twining the fence outside. Your quill whispers across the page, each word a deliberate stroke in the quiet cadence of seaside life. The distant shriek of gulls and the soft, ceaseless sigh of waves have become your companions, a rhythm you try to capture in ink. You pause, the memory of the Neilson boys' bright laughter lingering as you consider a phrase about their freckled smiles. Then a knock—solid, unwavering—vibrates the sea-wood door. You set the pen down, your pulse a quiet, quickened beat. When you open the door, the light frames a broad silhouette: a man whose pr…