Closer Than We Should Be

Maren Holloway has spent thirty-six years pretending she doesn't feel it.

The pull toward her stepbrother. The man she grew up with. The one she was never, ever supposed to want.

She buried it deep-married a good man, raised three kids, built a life that looks perfect from the outside. But perfect has a way of cracking when you stop paying attention. Her marriage is quiet in all the wrong ways. Her husband doesn't see her anymore. And Garrett? Garrett has always seen her.

Now he's freshly divorced, wrecked from a marriage to a woman who nearly destroyed him. And Maren is the one he calls. The one who shows up with food and silence and steady presence when everything else falls apart.

She tells herself she's just being a good sister.

She's lying.

"We can't do this."

"I know."

"Garrett..."

"I know. But I don't want to stop."

They're not kids sneaking around at family dinners anymore. They're in their forties with careers, mortgages, and children of their own. The stakes aren't grounding or awkward holidays-they're custody battles, shattered families, and destroying the parents who brought them together.

But some fires don't stay buried. Some wants don't fade with time.

Some lines, once crossed, can never be uncrossed.

𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 (𝟏𝟖+) - This story contains explicit sexual content, adult themes, infidelity, and emotional complexity. Reader discretion advised.