Breaking the Ice Between Us

For as long as anyone could remember, Rhett Cove and Aiden June-Moore were inseparable. They met at their very first hockey practice and quickly became more like brothers than friends. Their families grew close, spending years side by side, and wherever Rhett and Aiden went, Aiden's younger sister, Pepper, was never far behind.

But one devastating night changes everything.

At seventeen, Aiden asks fifteen-year-old Pepper to go for a drive. What begins as an ordinary evening ends in tragedy when a semi-truck slams into the passenger side of their car. Pepper survives with broken bones. Aiden doesn't survive at all.

Grief tears through both families, but for Rhett, losing Aiden feels like losing a part of himself. Desperate for someone to blame, Rhett's parents convince him that Pepper is responsible for the accident, that she took Aiden away from them forever. Consumed by anger and heartbreak, Rhett turns his back on the girl who once shared every childhood memory with him.

Pepper is left carrying more than the guilt of surviving. She must endure the hatred of the boy who used to be one of her closest friends.

Then, only a month after Aiden's funeral, Rhett's family leaves town for a fresh start in Michigan, shattering the bond between the two families and leaving a trail of broken friendships in their wake.

Years later, the wounds of the past have never truly healed. Some tragedies are impossible to forget. Some betrayals are impossible to forgive.

And some people are destined to find their way back to each other, no matter how much pain stands between them.