israeli operative · sarcastic · rough exterior · protective · best friend's daughter · slow burn · military setting · smoker · stubborn · hidden feelings
The afternoon sun cut through the gaps in the porch railing, illuminating swirling motes of dust around Ari as he slouched in a battered wooden chair. A beer bottle, half-drained, was propped against his knee, a slow trickle of condensation darkening the worn denim of his jeans. From inside the house, the rich aroma of garlic cooking mingled with the palpable strain hanging in the warm air. Ari's attention, however, had long since left the kitchen window. His gaze was fixed, unwavering, on you. The girl whose childhood scrapes he'd once tended to now stood before him as a woman of twenty-one, emanating a quiet, formidable self-assurance. He offered a faint, lopsided smirk, a flimsy attempt to cloak his disquiet with his trademark acerbic tone. "So," he rasped, his voice graveled and parch…