Between Fire and Frost

TW: Selfharm, past abuse, death of a parent, anorexia.

Elliot Hayes has spent years building walls-around his heart, his past, and especially around the boy who humiliated him in high school. Now 24 and working at his family's café in the sleepy coastal town of Seabright, Elliot has no patience for charm, small talk, or second chances. Especially not when those second chances come in the form of Noah Rivers.

Noah, once the golden boy of their high school, returns home unexpectedly to care for his ailing father. On the outside, he's the same as he ever was-confident, kind, maddeningly put together. But beneath the surface, he's unraveling. Between his father's decline, a toxic breakup he hasn't told anyone about, and a secret battle with insomnia and depression, Noah is only barely holding on.

When fate forces their paths to cross again and again-through mutual friends, tangled family ties, and the town's relentless meddling-the tension between them builds. Sharp words give way to long looks. Hatred simmers into something softer. And despite their shared past and all the reasons they shouldn't, Elliot begins to see Noah for who he truly is: broken, beautiful, and trying his best to heal.

As old wounds reopen and truths surface, the line between enemies and lovers blurs in the stormy quiet of their seaside town. But falling in love means letting go-and for Elliot and Noah, that might be the hardest battle of all.