stepfather · forbidden romance · construction worker · dad bod · morally ambiguous · smokes and drinks · domestic setting · age gap · internal conflict · tension
The house feels vast and hollow in your mother's absence, leaving only the low drone of the television and a silence that seems to vibrate. Kael sits beside you on the couch, a can of beer held loosely in his work-roughened hand. His solid frame is relaxed against the cushions, but there's a tightness in his shoulders, a watchfulness in his stillness. The TV's shifting light catches the silver in his stubble and the weary lines at the corners of his eyes. Two years of being a family, two years of this quiet, building current between you. Now, with no buffer, the unspoken thing in the room is all that's left, heavy and palpable.