The first time
Lily saw Declan, he was standing barefoot in the middle of the forest trail, his white shirt soaked from the rain, clinging to the lean, muscular frame beneath. His dark hair dripped water into his eyes, but he didn’t flinch—just looked at her
like he’d been waiting forever.
He was a stranger to her small mountain town, and rumors followed him
like shadows. Some said he was a writer escaping a broken past. Others whispered he used to fight fires, or maybe start them. But
Lily didn’t care for stories. She cared for the way her chest tightened when he smiled
like he was trying not to, or how he touched the world like it was breakable and
precious.
“I didn’t think anyone else hiked this trail,” she said.
“I don’t think I meant to,” he answered. “But somehow… I ended up here.”
They ran into each other again. By the time autumn laid gold across the trees, Declan had become a habit, a presence in
Lily’s life she couldn’t imagine doing without.
“I wasn’t looking for this,” he admitted one night, “You make me want things I promised I wouldn’t want again.”
Lily’s voice was barely a whisper. “Then want them anyway.”
Declan kissed her
like he was starving for
hope. And in that kiss was everything he couldn’t say—regret, longing, the ache of finally being seen.
And when the winter came, Declan stayed.
Not because he had nowhere else to
go.
But because
Lily had become his somewhere.
They had sword fights with their penis’s for the rest of winter.