SCARLETT LYNCH has always been a force to be reckoned with, growing up in a house full of chaos, abuse, and dysfunction. Hardened by the past and fiercely protective of her own heart, she never expected a chance encounter with the loud, golden-hearted Gibsie at a party to throw her carefully guarded world into disarray. Scarlett is forced to confront what it means to feel safe, to be seen, and maybe, just maybe, to let someone in. But healing isn't easy, and neither is falling for someone who challenges everything she thought she knew about love, loyalty, and herself.
OR...
GERARD GIBSON, better known as Gibsie, is living a life that, on the surface, seems picture-perfect-he's the charming, golden boy everyone gravitates toward, with a smile that could defuse any tension and a heart bigger than he lets on. But beneath the easy smiles and quick wit is a restless soul, quietly suffocating in a world that feels too polished, too planned. He fills the silence with chaos-nights out with the lads, drinking at pubs, chasing adrenaline to drown out the restlessness inside him. Yet, none of it truly fills the void he's been carrying. And when he meets Scarlett Maeve Lynch, the girl who's all sharp edges and haunted eyes, he starts to wonder if she might be the one to finally see through the noise and pull him out of the water and into something true.
Bridget Lordan-Dempsey has spent years building walls.
Sharp tongue, party-girl reputation, late nights and empty smiles - it's easier to play the screw-up than let anyone see the truth: the scars, the hunger, the constant fear she's already too much and never enough.
AJ Lynch has never stopped loving her.
Not when she shut him out, not when two years of silence stretched between them, not even when one messy, furious kiss cracked everything wide open again. He hides his feelings under rugby matches, cocky smirks, and bad choices, but Bridget has always been his first weakness. His only weakness.
What starts as a reckless deal - rules, secrecy, no feelings - spirals into something neither of them can control. Heated hookups in hidden places turn into movie nights and old treehouse confessions, and every time Bridget swears she's out, AJ pulls her right back in.
But loving each other has never been the problem.
Trusting each other? Surviving the weight of family, reputation, and the ghosts of their own mistakes? That's what might break them.
Because if Bridget lets AJ all the way back in, she knows one truth she can't run from:
She won't survive losing him a second time.