--MerLynn
Charlotte Farley has loved her best friend, Conrad Fisher, in silence for years- quietly, fiercely, the way she loves her favorite books: memorizing every line of him without ever daring to mark the pages.
As his best friend and confidante, Charley knows everything about him- his fears, his dreams, even the way his voice cracks when he talks about HER: Isabel Conklin, a 'golden girl' that Conrad compares to the 'sun', while Charley stays tucked in the shadows.
While he chases after his childhood crush, Charley remains by his side- her love hidden beneath endless cups of coffee shared at midnight and dog-eared pages in novels he'd never read.
When life's turmoil causes Conrad to spiral, it's Charley who is there to pick up the pieces, breaking her own heart to ensure the sanctity of his own. There, of course, comes a time when she must decide: Keep stitching his happiness together piece by piece? Or risk unraveling it all by pouring her heart out to him, finally voicing the words she could never bring herself to speak?
***
He has these eyes- like the ocean right before a storm. Not just blue, but that deep, swirling kind of blue that pulls you under if you stare too long. Sometimes they're calm, all quiet and endless, like the horizon at dawn. Other times they crackle with intensity, dark and untamed like a rogue wave crashing against the shore. I could drown in those eyes and never regret it. And I guess I did.