The Sanctuary Line ~ Beau Maxwell

"Dean thinks he's protecting you by putting you in a glass case, Chloe. He doesn't see that you're suffocating. Stand behind me. I'm big enough to block out the whole world."

Chloe Di Laurentis was supposed to be conquering Manhattan. Instead, a brutal cyberbullying scandal at her elite design institute left her creative identity shattered and her anxiety permanently frayed.
Desperate to heal in quiet, she transfers mid-semester to Briar University, seeking shelter under the protective wing of her older brother, Dean.

Enter Beau Maxwell.

Beau is Dean's lifelong best friend, a projected top-five NFL Draft pick, and the starting star of the Briar Football defensive line. He's also been hopelessly, agonizingly in love with Chloe since he was sixteen years old, sleeping on the trundle bed in Dean's room. For seven years, Beau has played the role of the loud, teasing childhood nuisance, keeping his feelings buried deep to honor his brotherhood with Dean.

But when Dean gets buried under the intense schedule of the hockey season alongside team captain Garrett Graham, he asks the one guy he trusts implicitly to look out for his sister: Beau.

When Chloe's senior thesis showcase is threatened because she lacks an athletic model, Beau steps up to the velvet platform. To save her degree, Chloe is forced into Beau's immediate personal space with a tape measure, uncovering a powerful, protective man who knows every shift in her posture and every ghost in her mind. Now, Beau has to navigate the hardest playbook of his life: protect the girl who has always been his ultimate destination, while figuring out how to handle the inevitable day his best friend finds out the truth.