Elite ballerina Allie Rousseau is no stranger to pressure. With her mother’s eyes always watching, perfection was expected, no matter the cost. But when an injury jeopardizes all she’s sacrificed for, Allie returns to her summer home to heal and recover. But the memories she’s tried to forget rush in and threaten to take her under.
As a Coast Guard rescue swimmer, Hudson Ellis knows that hesitation can mean the difference between life and death. He’s always prided himself on being in the right place at the right time, especially when it came to Allie Rousseau…until the night he left for basic. After the biggest regret of his life, the secrets he keeps mean he can never be with the one woman he wants more than his next breath.
When Hudson’s niece shows up on Allie’s doorstep, desperate to find her birth mother, Allie finds herself in an unimaginable position. Allie and Hudson’s past and present might be endlessly complicated. The thread that tied them to each other all those years ago may have unraveled, but the truth could pull them back together, or drive them apart forever.
Why You Should Read This Book
Tropes
Trigger Warnings
Variation
“You look like a fucking dream, Allie. Truly breathtaking.”
“You’ll come at least twice before I fuck you, Allie. I’m far from silent, and I know how to use my mouth to ensure you aren’t either.”
“Oh, and as for Hudson, he’s built like a Greek god and fucks like one, too, so I’m all taken care of.”
“I meant what I said. Every word of it. And if you want to use someone for an escape, then it’s me you’ll be using. Sure, I’d like you to fuck me because you need me, but I’ll take you however I can get you, Allie.”
“Mom says Uncle Gavin is prone to stupidity, but you’re supposed to be the one who does the right thing.”
“Truth always differs depending on who’s telling the story, and in complicated situations, there are countless variations. But when it comes to that summer, in every single variant, I’m the asshole who wasn’t strong enough to hold on to her.”
“You, Allie. You scared the shit out of me. Do you have any idea what you mean to me? You’re my air. And I know you don’t even want to think about going there when it comes to us, that you need things all neat and tidy, but I’m already there. Messy. Tangled. So wrapped up in you that I couldn’t breathe in that ER because I needed to be here with you.”
“To be flawlessly convincing, you should unblock my number so you can get ahold of me, assuming that’s why you never picked up any of the times I tried to call you.”
“You broke my heart. Maybe we were just friends, but you broke my heart.”
“You have to stop dating those dancers. If you can’t tell someone’s working their ass off for you, then they don’t deserve you.”
“I’m the one who needs you. I need you, I always have.”
“My mom wanted to adopt me. Alina wanted to give me up. They both got what they wanted. Why doesn’t it matter what I want? Why do I only matter when I turn eighteen?”
“I want all of you. No masks. No walls. No more pretending what’s between us is fake when we both know it’s excruciating, and terrifying, and amazingly real. I want more than five minutes.”
“I’ve already told you that you’re remarkable. You’ve only been doing this for five months. Give yourself grace, but check your ego. I just told you why you aren’t ready for pointe, not that you suck. You don’t. Ballet is a lifetime of development, of never settling for the skills you have now, knowing that you might be phenomenal, but still striving for that unattainable feeling of perfection.”
“I’m not breaking up with Allie. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever, if I get a say. Letting her go was the worst mistake I’ve ever made in my life, and I’ll be damned if your inability to pull your head out of your ass is going to cost me the only chance I have with her.”
“There’s no one else. Never was. Not for either of us. They were all just placeholders.”
“Hudson might be the baddest motherfucker alive to the US Coast Guard, but you put Allie Rousseau in a room with him and he’ll trip over his own feet.”
“If that means I have to watch from a distance as she lives her life without me, then it fucking sucks, but so be it. I love her enough to let her go.”
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