** Jon Bernthal fanfic ** **Older man trope** Naomi thought graduation night would be the beginning of her new life. Instead, she catches her longtime boyfriend cheating, gets blackout drunk, and ends the night with a bruised cheek and a broken heart. When her father's stern, older best friend, Jon, comes to her rescue, Naomi's life takes an unexpected turn. Forced to stay under his roof while her fathers on a work trip, she quickly learns that Lawson has rules-and she's determined to break every one of them. He's supposed to be the man protecting her. She's not supposed to start wanting him. And neither of them is prepared for what happens when the lines between them begin to blur.

Allie has lived next door to Jon for as long as she can remember. He's always been just... there, the quiet house beyond the fence line, the man who keeps to himself, the one who never quite joins the rest of the world. Now she's freshly twenty-one, and everything feels different. He's thirty-five, a retired actor who left Hollywood behind for a quieter life, and he still doesn't belong to anyone, or at least that's what he seems to want people to believe. But distance has a way of changing shape when you've spent years growing up just out of reach of someone.