MY BROTHER'S BEST KEPT SECRET

Zara Cole has two rules: never fall for someone off-limits, and never let anyone see her cry. She breaks both because of Eli Maddox. He is nineteen. Her best friend's older brother. Home from college for one long, hot summer. Too confident, too sharp, and completely impossible to ignore in a house where everyone shares one kitchen. Zara is seventeen. Smart, quiet, and used to being looked through, not at. She never planned to matter to someone like Eli. She never planned for him to see her at all. But secrets in small towns do not stay small. When their almost-kiss becomes the school's biggest story, Zara loses her best friend, her reputation, and the careful little life she built to stay safe. Now she has one summer to decide: keep surviving in the shadows, or step fully into the light even if it costs everything.