Derek

"My house is a mess, my underwear is mixing with hers in the laundry, and my safe, quiet haven now smells of burnt candles and her."

Indy

I'm not chasing love. I'm chasing survival.

Running The Crown Project - a nonprofit for kids who've lost too much - is the only thing that makes sense anymore. Not my health. Not my friendships. Definitely not the grump who works with my brother.

Derek Rowe is infuriating, off-limits, and unfortunately... magnetic in all the worst ways.

He's made of walls and silence. I'm made of too many feelings.

I don't get to be the princess.

But maybe I can still give someone else their fairytale. Even if I never get mine.

Derek

Chaos ruins everything.

I learned that the day my wife slept with my best friend.

Since then, I've built a life of routine, control, and zero vulnerability.

But Indy doesn't follow rules.

She crashes into my world with her colors and her hope and her heartbreaking smile-and I make the mistake of letting her stay.

In my house. In my space.

Not in my heart. That's locked up for good.

Fairytales are for people who don't know what loss tastes like.

But the longer she's near me...

The more I wonder if some kinds of chaos are worth the fall.