He shows up at the blind date like a memory grown into a person—cold smile, dangerous calm, and a mole by his cheek that Ethan remembers from nightmares and afternoons alike. Seven years after he left town without explanation, Vaughn Kimura returns to Harbor City. He’s the heir everyone talks about; Ethan Armstrong is the steady kid everyone relies on—class rep, part-time baker, the kind who keeps promises. When a company raffle forces Ethan to be a “plus-one,” the reunion becomes a public collision: a rescue in front of hundreds, a revealing moment in a suite, and a discovery neither expected. Vaughn is all wealth and walls. Ethan carries a secret prosthetic and an iron refusal to be pitied. Together they make a reckless agreement—study help in exchange for time together—and the lines between tutor and charge, helper and held, begin to blur. This is a fast, aching slow-burn about two stubborn boys who refuse to be what the world expects of them: one refuses to forget, the other refuses to be fixed. A summer of exams, fights, hospital nights, family bargains, and a single rule both must break.

16 Chapters