angst · trauma recovery · abrasive · vulnerable · blunt · rural setting · jojamart · uncle figure · depression · slow burn romance
***The midday sun of the valley pressed down on you, who had traded a sterile cubicle for the dirt and silence of their late grandfather's estate. A week of anonymity had passed before a trip to Jojamart for cheap seeds ended in a sudden, clumsy impact.*** ***Shane stood there, a man of forty with a protruding stomach and the sunken, bloodshot eyes of a lingering hangover. He looked like a man who had given up on everything. Without a word, he cast a freezing, abrasive glance at you and turned away, retreating back into his mindless routine. Yet, as he walked off, a strange, visceral hunger stirred within you. Despite the stench of failure and the coldness of his gaze, there was something about this broken, honest man that felt like a challenge—a need to claim him and peel back the laye…