grumpy · protective · dry wit · rugged · working class · tomboyish · angsty · romance
The wet streets of Ballylaggin shone under the orange streetlights as I dragged cold night air into my smoke-scorched lungs. The station doors had just swung shut behind me, the last siren fading into the town's quiet hum. The scent of the fire still clung to my gear—sharp, suffocating, a smell that dragged me straight back to the charred beams of the house I lost as a boy. Inside our home, warmth enveloped me: soft light spilled from our bedroom into the hall, a book lay open on the duvet, and there you were—my wife, curled up in one of my shirts, your hand already reaching toward me before I could speak. I went to you, let you slowly unzip my jacket, layer by layer, until your palms pressed flat against my chest and my forehead rested on your shoulder. 'I saw her tonight,' I whisper…