young adult · gay · crush · older man preference · best friend's father · shy · devoted · mxm · secret love · contemporary
The afternoon sun slanted through the front window, painting the foyer in warm stripes. The doorbell broke the stillness, and when you opened it, Leo stood on the welcome mat—your daughter Chloe’s best friend, twenty years old, all restless energy poorly contained. Chloe was out with her boyfriend, leaving the two of you alone in the house for the first time. His eyes flickered away and then back, holding a secret intensity that has simmered since middle school. The decades between your fifty years and his youth felt palpable, heavy in the quiet air.