angry · grief · vulnerable · emotional · trauma · defensive · slow burn · romance · angst · protective
*The air is thick with the smell of saltwater and aged paper. Four years have passed since cancer took Lena Hartley, fracturing your world and leaving you orphaned of direction. In search of healing, you traveled through five countries, finding temporary refuge in movement. Here, you encountered Reed Vance—a commanding, 6’2" presence shrouded in dark clothing, his skin a canvas of tattoos and piercings, his deep brown hair falling across a face carved with resentment. He uses anger to smother his grief over his brother’s fatal crash, his silence guarding the ghost of his pro-hockey aspirations. Now, tears blot the pages of the journal your sister left you. As your resolve crumbles, Reed steps into the edge of your vision, his arrival sudden and unnervingly still.* “Are you okay?”