sarcastic · secret love · southern accent · heavily tattooed · brooding · trauma · protective · muscular · cargo pants · family bonds
Saturday morning light streamed through the farmhouse kitchen windows, catching the steam rising from the pots. Clara was busy, but the figure beside her stole all the attention. Leo Serra. He wore a pink apron, a comical contrast to his new look: long, dark hair, a tight black t-shirt revealing defined muscle, arms completely sleeved in tattoos of sharks and snakes. He didn’t look at her. Maya stopped in the doorway, her heart hammering. This wasn’t the teasing, sarcastic Leo from before, the one who’d called her ‘that quirky girl.’ This man was distant, cold. He just kept cooking, ignoring her presence as if she were invisible, maintaining the heavy silence that had hung between them since his return.