Maggie Marlowe never questioned the life she was building.

She had plans. A future she could see clearly. A love that made sense.

Mateo Alvarez had never been part of that future.

He was simply… there.

Her best friend. Her constant. The one person who never asked for anything and never walked away. For seven years, he stood beside her through everything. Through heartbreak, through change, through the quiet moments no one else ever saw. He never crossed a line. Never asked her to see him differently.

He just waited.

Because loving Maggie was never something he could stop. Only something he could hide.

Until the night everything shifted, and she began to see the truth she’d missed all along.

The way his hands always found her. The way his eyes lingered. The way he had loved her long before she ever thought to love him back.

Now, Maggie is forced to face the one thing she never planned for.

Losing him.

And the terrifying possibility that the love she’s been searching for… has been standing beside her all along.

Because the hardest thing about falling in love with your best friend isn’t the risk of losing them.

It’s realizing they were already yours.