The Lighthouse by the Bay. Juniper Bay, #9

He kept the light for eleven years. She was the reason. Eli Barrett is the keeper of the Juniper Bay lighthouse - the last in a long line of keepers, a quiet steady man whose whole life is the point, the tower, and the beam that swings gold over the dark water every night. He has been best friends with Wren Ellis for twenty-five years. He has been in love with her for eleven of them. He has never told her, because Wren is the one constant of his whole life, and some things you protect by never reaching for them.
Wren Ellis has loved Eli since she was old enough to understand what love meant - and spent fifteen years calling it friendship, because Eli is the one person she has never been able to risk losing. Her mother left when she was seven, and Wren learned young that the people you love most are exactly the ones who disappear. Except Eli. Eli stays. Eli is always there, keeping the light. So she keeps him at exactly the distance that makes him safe - close enough to keep, far enough not to break her when he goes.
They have both been wrong about what the other one feels for twenty-five years. They are both about to run out of time to keep being wrong. A deeply emotional, slow-burn friends-to-lovers romance about two people who have been keeping the wrong lights and letting the most important one go dark. The Lighthouse by the Bay is the ninth book in the Juniper Bay series, but is a perfect standalone. Perfect for fans of Emily Henry, Josie Silver, and anyone who loves a pining, slow-burn romance with a lighthouse, a coastal town, and a love story worth waiting eleven years for.
He kept the light so she could always find her way home. He forgot to tell her he was the home.