The Space Between. Coldwater Hearts, #1

Some feelings don't announce themselves. They just quietly take up all the space. Saoirse has spent six years being Soren's person - his emergency contact, his 2am call, his closest friend. She's made peace with what she feels for him, or at least she's convinced herself she has. Then his brother comes home. Zephyr isn't warm. Isn't easy. Keeps everyone at exactly the right distance with the kind of practiced precision that tells her he's very deliberately keeping something out.
She doesn't plan to be the person who gets close. She doesn't plan any of it. But he laughs at something she says one afternoon and looks almost startled by the sound of it. He shows up somewhere he didn't have to. He remembers something small she mentioned weeks ago. And Saoirse starts to wonder if the feelings she buried weren't ever really about Soren at all. The Space Between is a slow burn contemporary romance about almost-moments, quiet realizations, and the terrifying distance between what you feel and what you're allowed to want.