Used to Be | [mxm]

"I... like you." Asher's heart hammered like it ran a marathon. Those words he kept bottled up for many years finally found a voice. "There, I said it."

"You disgust me."

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One confession severed a friendship. Two hearts splintered. Three words became impossible to forget.

Asher Dalton leaves town after that day under the bleachers, carrying a rejection sharp enough to follow him for years. Now, he returns five summers later before his last year of college to help keep his brother's bakery running. He tells himself it's just temporary: keep his head down, stay busy, and avoid anything that might reopen what he worked so hard to bury. A safe decision, and a simple one. Until one afternoon, a ghost from his past steps through the bakery doors.

Kane Pembrooke is set to inherit Pembrooke & Co. as the eldest son and prodigy to the family business. His entire life was molded into becoming the next CEO since he was young, collecting connections like currency. He was raised to be the perfect heir, yet Asher was always the exception, the friend who saw the boy behind the name.

Now Asher is back, and Kane wants back into Asher's orbit, chasing something he swore he didn't want. This time, Kane isn't asking for forgiveness; he's chasing it. The question is whether Asher will let him close enough to earn it. Will Asher's return reignite what they once were... or will Kane's pursuit be the final nail in the coffin, sealing them as strangers for good?

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Book #1 of the Hearts Yearning Duology
Published 01/02/2026
Loosely inspired by Third Ending