Brighten your shadow

At 23, Maya Reed is all sunshine and sparkles, the kind of girl who lights up a room without even trying. She's in nursing school, chasing her dreams with a smile and a heart wide open-even if her past hasn't always been kind. So when her brother's best friend, the infamously brooding and distant Julian West, shows up at their family reunion, Maya sets her sights on a new mission: get him to crack a smile. Maybe even a real one.

Julian, 27, is a guarded tech CEO with a past he doesn't talk about and walls that no one dares to climb. Except Maya. She's everything he's not-open, warm, chaotic in a way that's magnetic. She's also completely off-limits.

But what starts as a playful challenge turns into something deeper, and the closer Maya gets, the more Julian's carefully constructed walls begin to crumble. She's determined to show him there's still joy to be found in the world-especially when it's with her