The Gentle Orbit

Book 3: The Gentle Orbit (Between the Lines #3)

He belonged to everyone, but felt at home with no one.

Dhairya is the boy who fills every space with laughter, whose presence is too loud to be ignored-but never loud enough to echo back to him. He's the first to crack a joke, the last to leave a gathering, the kind of boy people adore... until they no longer know what to do with his silence.

Because no one knows the truth behind the performance.
Not the years of masking grief with grins.
Not the ache of being everyone's favorite distraction but no one's anchor.

Then there's Meher-quiet as snowfall, the kind of silence that doesn't ask for space but gently fills it. She arrives with soft eyes and softer steps, carrying the weight of losses she never speaks about and the habit of listening more than she lives.

She watches. She understands. She never interrupts.

And for the first time in his life, Dhairya feels like someone sees him-even when he isn't performing.

But connection doesn't come easy to either of them. Meher has spent her life standing on the sidelines of other people's stories, never asking for a chapter of her own. And Dhairya has learned that vulnerability is a currency people often steal and never return.

So they stay silent.
Orbiting each other like two planets afraid to collide-yet pulled by a gravity too tender to resist.

This isn't a love story built in declarations. It's one built in glances, in shared silences, in the sacred stillness of simply being seen.

Because sometimes, what grows in silence...
Is the loudest kind of love there is.