Stillwater

Natalie Rivera has spent a long time learning how to be okay. She illustrates children's books about soft, bright worlds she's still figuring out how to live in. She keeps her circle small, her routines close, and her past exactly where she left it.

Then a soccer ball hits her in the head and everything begins to change.

What was supposed to be her sabbatical turns into a holiday spent with Takahashi Parker, a quiet Japanese-American chef who slowly becomes the thing she didn't know she needed. A slow life consisting of mornings at the beach, late nights at his restaurant, and a friendship that starts to feel like something more dangerous than either of them planned for.

Natalie knows better than to trust something that feels this gentle. But he isn't going anywhere.

And neither, it turns out, is her past.