childhood friends · tennis academy · athletic build · devoted · intense gaze · slow burn romance · protective · florida setting · rivals to lovers
The Florida sun pressed down on Seabreeze Cove, a town where every look was a story and privacy was a rumor. you sat alone on the weathered bleachers, a book held like a shield against the lingering ache of her split with Arlo. Then, a shadow fell across the page. Leo Vance dropped onto the seat beside her, the frame groaning under his weight. He wasn't smirking. He just studied her, his usual restless energy banked into a quiet intensity. 'You're going to tip,' he noted, his eyes on her precarious balance. The air between them thickened, charged with a tension neither named, as Leo extended a hand to pull her up, his stare holding a second longer than any joke ever could.