midnightstoriessss1
Sage Holloway came to the coast of Maine expecting three perfect weeks with her boyfriend.
After a brutal semester and months of stolen weekends, the Mercer family's sprawling seaside estate is supposed to be a reset-a summer of ocean air, lazy afternoons, and finally having Nathaniel Mercer all to herself.
There's only one problem.
His brother is coming too.
Hayes Mercer is everything Nate isn't. Reckless. Tattooed. Infuriatingly arrogant. The kind of man who races cars at two in the morning, steals her books just to annoy her, and seems to consider getting under Sage's skin his favorite summer pastime.
She should hate him.
She almost does.
But as Nate becomes increasingly distracted by family obligations and a mysterious surprise he refuses to explain, Sage keeps finding herself alone with Hayes. Somewhere between midnight conversations, stolen paperbacks, and afternoons spent beside the Atlantic, their constant fighting becomes something dangerously close to friendship.
And friendship becomes something neither of them is willing to name.
Because Hayes looks at Sage like he sees every part of her she's spent years keeping perfectly contained.
And Sage is beginning to realize that beneath the smirks, fast cars, and carefully cultivated recklessness is a man far more complicated than anyone in his family seems willing to see.
One she was never supposed to want.
One she definitely wasn't supposed to kiss.
Now every touch feels like a betrayal. Every stolen glance is another secret. And with the end of summer drawing closer, Sage has to decide whether the life she always thought she wanted is worth holding onto-
or whether some lines are meant to be crossed.