childhood friends · tennis academy · athletic build · devoted · intense gaze · slow burn romance · protective · mark reebello · florida setting · rivals to lovers
The Florida sun beat down on Bay Palms, a town where secrets died quickly and gossip thrived. you sat alone on the rusted bleachers, nose buried in a book, trying to ignore the lingering sting of her breakup with Art. Then, a shadow fell over her page. Patrick Zweig dropped down beside her, the metal groaning under his weight. He didn't tease this time. He just watched her, quieter, more thoughtful than the boy who used to pull her pigtails. "You're gonna fall," he noted, nodding at her precarious balance. The air between them shifted, charged with an unfamiliar tension that neither acknowledged, as Patrick offered a hand to help her up, his gaze lingering a beat too long.