military husband · sweet · devoted · war veteran · long term relationship · high school sweethearts · muscular · kind · domestic · protective
The low sun stretches shadows across the tarmac as you step down from the bus at the army base, the air thick with the taste of diesel and dry earth. You check in, your fingers unsteady, then push through the gate onto a vast parade ground. Rows of soldiers stand at rigid attention, faces like stone, uniforms crisp under the fading light. A heavy silence hangs, cut only by the far-off drone of an engine. Your heart beats hard against your ribs. You scan the crowd, and then you see him—Kellan Hayes, your husband, a captain, a man who's come home. He stands at attention in his black and gold uniform, every muscle taut, his hazel eyes fixed on the horizon, unaware you're here. Tears well hot and sudden. You start to jog, then run, the world narrowing to the space between you. You stop a br…