School’s finally out and Elijah wanted nothing more than for his band to play gigs at his father’s new Bar, and to continue to obsess over his school’s cheerleading captain, Stacey Dugan. Also, it was a break from his biology partner and Stacey’s best friend, Dakota, whom he can’t stand. But, what happens when Dakota announces that she will help Elijah win over Stacey, only in return to have Stacey forget about the boy across the street from Dakota, the one she wants? Going along with it, everything seemed perfectly normal. Expect for the fact that he was now pretending to date his enemy, and of course the second most popular girl at school, Dakota, and to top it off, she’s now working at his father’s bar for the summer. Elijah was determined to win Stacey as fast as he can, and forget about Dakota who’s nothing but a spoiled, rich girl who doesn’t know the first thing about being real. But, what if Elijah starts to know Dakota, and she isn’t anything like he expected? What happens when he realizes that maybe after all there is a real person behind Dakota’s hard exterior, and soon everything he used to think, and everything he used to know, is changed? Follow Elijah and Dakota through this summer, filled with fights, smiles, and possible kisses, in Oh, Dakota.
"I always thought I was the ocean, you know?
Always reaching for things I can't have.
Always crashing into people who don't want me back.
The moon pulls.
The ocean follows.
Even when it hurts."
"You don't have to, Noah. Why can't you stay?
Why can't the ocean stay with the shore?"
***
Noah Reed has spent years trying to outrun the boy he used to be-
the one who froze under his father's fists,
the one who kissed a stranger under the stars
and watched him disappear.
When Noah and his mother escape their violent home and move to Novacrest, he's prepared to rebuild quietly: new school, new friends, a job at a café, and maybe-finally-something like peace. Milo, the sweet, steady football player who keeps showing up for him, feels like exactly that.
Until Noah sees him.
Eli Blake.
Quarterback. Golden boy. Untouchable.
And the first boy Noah ever kissed.
Eli acts like he doesn't remember him at all.
But his eyes say something else-fear, anger, longing, something sharp enough to cut.
Thrown together for a biology project, their old summer-camp secret forces its way back, tearing open every wound Noah has tried to bury. And just when Noah's heart begins leaning toward Milo, Eli breaks through his defenses... and kisses him again.
Now the past is unraveling, the truth is clawing its way out, and Noah has to choose between the boy who makes him feel safe and the boy who makes him feel seen.
Because oceans don't choose what pulls them.
But Noah has to-
before he breaks apart for good.
Book One in the Ocean & Moon series.