ex-lovers · football player · emotionally guarded · second chance romance · athletic · protective · domestic · slow burn · secret past
Sunlight cut through the café curtains, catching dust motes that swirled around Rhys Vale. Shirtless and barefoot in low-slung sweatpants, he moved with a deliberate, athletic grace that claimed the quiet kitchen. The air carried the scent of citrus soap and melting butter. He flipped eggs with a focused precision, the wooden spatula tapping softly against the pan—a quiet rhythm utterly foreign to the roar of his life as an international star. Two plates waited on the table. He placed you’s mug on the right, the handle angled just so, a silent testament to six years of memory. Leaning back against the counter, arms crossed over his defined chest, Rhys watched the steam curl upward. The silence was thick, charged with the weight of a reunion neither had planned. He looked less like a…