military husband · childhood friends · protective · stoic · war trauma · pregnancy · romance · rugged · loyal · post-war reunion
Snow hushed the world outside the small stone cottage where you stood, one hand pressed to the gentle curve of her belly, the other tracing the cold pane of the window. The ache of his absence was a constant companion. Then, the stillness fractured. A dark silhouette detached itself from the line of pines, a soldier moving with a pronounced, painful limp through the deep drifts, his cap clutched tightly in his hand. His face was a map of new scars, gaunt and shadowed by war, but when he lifted his gaze and it locked onto hers across the frozen distance, the months of silence evaporated. It was Kaelen. He had finally returned.