Tessa Young is an 18 year old college student with a simple life, excellent grades, and a sweet boyfriend. She always has things planned out ahead of time, until she meets a rude boy named Hardin, with too many tattoos and piercings who shatters her plans.

Everly Winter hasn't had a day without responsibility in years. Between dealing with her newly divorced parents and watching out for a suicidal best friend, Everly never has time for herself. But then Jace Wasson comes along, self-contained and enigmatic. He doesn't give Everly the best first impression, but the two of them just can't seem to stay away from each other. Everly finds herself falling- falling in love with someone who she never expected to like the slightest bit.

Haunted. Terrified. Alone. Those three words seem to be the only emotions that seventeen year old Gabriel Adams knows how to feel. At the age of thirteen, when other boys were chasing after pretty girls and playing in the dirt, Gabriel had been kidnapped and molested. Now, several years later, Gabriel still can't return to the normal life he'd lived before the Incident. He's terrified of the dark, and even the daytime gives him anxiety attacks. Gabriel hates being touched. A simple brush against him will set him off into spasms while panic quickly takes over his mind. It seems as if nothing will relieve Gabriel from the constricting, painful claws of the man who'd done him harm, and Gabriel is becoming desperate. That's when Evan Ricci steps in. Evan, a stubborn yet surprisingly selfless teenager, moves to the small, quiet town of Clydesdale Heights. When Evan sees a small, awkward blond haired boy carrying pop boxes across the street while he's bringing moving boxes into the new house, he decides to help him. Things don't go exactly as planned, though, and their relationship begins with a rather rough start. The two eventually learn to bond, and Evan helps Gabriel learn to deal with the psychological consequences of being molested, which eventually blooms into an understanding so deep they can't imagine themselves with anyone but the other. A hint of infatuation sparks up, but not quite yet will the love blossom out like most. Their love will take time. And lots of patience and persistence, too.