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Zara has always known where the line is.
At twenty-one, she's never been in love, never had a boyfriend, and has spent most of her life believing that love is supposed to be simple. Someone kind. Someone safe. Someone who makes her laugh and makes her feel understood.
Then there's Jon.
Jon has been her father's closest friend for three years. He's quiet, guarded, effortlessly intimidating, and rarely lets people see beneath the surface. But with Zara, he's always been different. Patient. Protective. Funny when she least expects it. He notices when she's tired, remembers the little things she says, and somehow always seems to know when something is wrong.
To Zara, he's the man who has always been there.
Her father's best friend.
A trusted family friend.
Someone completely off-limits.
So when the innocent closeness between them slowly begins to change, Zara refuses to acknowledge it. A lingering look means nothing. A moment alone means nothing. The butterflies she feel when he smiles at her mean absolutely nothing.
Because there is a line between them.
And it cannot be crossed.
But feelings don't always care about rules.
As Zara and Jon become closer, they begin to discover something neither of them is prepared to face: sometimes the person who understands you most is the person you have the least right to love.
And the more they try to do the right thing, the harder it becomes to ignore what is growing between them.
Because what happens when the love isn't wrong-but being together is?
When protecting the people you love means sacrificing the person you love most?
And when the only thing standing between two people who could have been everything to each other is the simple truth that-
they were never supposed to happen.