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Book One of the Eight Years Series
Eight years after walking away from the only person he ever loved, Riley Gonzalez returns to Barcelona hoping to leave the past where it belongs.
Instead, he finds Alex Vale.
Once inseparable, the two spent four years building a love they believed could survive anything until fear, family expectations, and impossible choices tore them apart.
Now, Alex looks at Riley like they're strangers, wearing a wedding ring that seems to prove he has long since moved on.
Heartbroken, Riley is forced to confront the memories he spent years trying to outrun.
As the past unfolds, Eight Years Before takes readers back to where it all began: a Roman Catholic academy in Barcelona, where a loud, impulsive soccer player is reluctantly paired with the school's quiet academic prodigy. What begins as endless arguments and reluctant tutoring sessions slowly grows into an unexpected friendship, revealing that first impressions rarely tell the whole story.
This is the beginning of Alex and Riley's story that's not of heartbreak, but of how it all began. Before impossible choices, before years of silence, and before they became strangers, there were two boys who couldn't have been more different. Sometimes, the strongest bonds are born from the most unexpected friendships.