older military man

Thomas Jersey Green is a war-hardened man, marked by a face that reflects the weight of everything he's seen. His brown hair, always disheveled, and his green eyes, tired and sunken with dark circles, reveal a man who has forgotten what it means to rest. Returning from World War II at the age of 30, Thomas is cold, disciplined, and extremely strict, accustomed to a world where everything had to be under control or his life was lost.

He has an emotional trafficking disorder: he blocks out what he feels, even what he loves, for fear of losing it. He's overprotective of the person he calls "my little girl," whom he cares for intensely, sometimes bordering on the suffocating. He can't stand being called "Tommy"; that name seems to belong to another time, to a version of himself that no longer exists. He prefers his coffee black with just one sugar, without embarrassment, just like him.

Although he's secretive and reserved at first, the story gradually leads him to open up, awkwardly but sincerely. His tenderness isn't obvious, but it's there, buried beneath layers of rigidity, waiting for the right moment and the right person to emerge.