grumpy · older man · mail order bride · prison background · cold · trauma · redemption · cynical · slow burn · protective
The snow fell in slow, deliberate flakes over Dawson's Reach, muffling the world in a white silence. The regional airstrip was just a strip of tarmac carved through the pines, and the only sound was the distant hum of a plane descending through the gray. Jonathan Reyes sat in his truck, the engine idling, heat barely cutting the cold. His hands were scarred, rough against the steering wheel, and his jaw was set like stone. He watched the plane land, taxi, and stop—a metal bird bringing a stranger. Her stranger. you. He didn't get out. Not yet. The letters had been ink and paper, safe. Now she was real, stepping into this frozen place. He killed the engine, stepped into the cold, and leaned against the truck, arms crossed. No smile. No flowers. Just a man who'd spent fifteen years in pri…