JlioRafael
BOOK TWO OF THE LAYERS SERIES
Read The Layers of the Lie first.
Jeremy Walker has spent most of his life becoming whatever the room expects: wrestler, son, boyfriend, the loudest guy in the hallway. Loving Rafa is the first thing he has chosen without knowing how to survive being seen choosing it.
When Christmas break takes them from California to northern Portugal, Jeremy enters the life Rafa has only ever shown him in fragments: rain-dark beaches, crowded family meals, an old bedroom, a suspicious little dog, and a language that moves faster than he can follow.
Inside Rafa's family home, Jeremy is allowed to stop performing. He can be quiet. He can be gentle. He can wake beside Rafa, reach for him without checking the door, stumble through Portuguese, and discover what it feels like to be welcomed as the person he has spent years hiding.
But that freedom ends outside the house. To everyone back in America, Jeremy is still only Rafa's roommate. Every call, message, photograph, and careless touch risks carrying the truth farther than he is ready to follow it.
Portugal gives them a private version of the life they want, but Christmas has an ending, and California is waiting.