Eva has always been the kind of girl Hawkins watches carefully—cheer captain, straight-A student, polished smiles and pastel skirts, golden hair always falling perfectly into place. She moves through the halls like she belongs there, glossy and composed, green eyes bright with something people mistake for effortlessness. No one sees the anxiety beneath it, the pressure to be perfect, the way she holds herself together through sheer will. Eva knows how to be admired, how to be wanted without ever being touched too closely, how to exist inside Hawkins’ expectations without letting them crack her open.
Eva and Alex are total opposites. Alex plays guitar in his band, doesn’t give two shits about his grades, has these messy black curls and brown eyes, always glimmering with mischief, lips in a lazy smirk. His fingers are constantly adorning chunky, silver rings, and his forearms with a few tattoos he probably gave himself. He sports an eyebrow piercing under his messy mob of curls. And his outfits: black jeans and a worn down band tee that, without fail, stretches over his muscular arms just right. Whereas Eva— the schools queen bee— wears little skirts and cute tops, always put together and on top of her grades, the most popular girl in school. Yet, despite their differences, there’s always been something between them, since they can both remember, they have a connection— under all his teasing and banter and her attitude, in public, in private, it’s a mess of unconditional love between the two, he is perhaps, Eva’s greatest, dirty little secret.
Eva has spent her entire life learning how to hold herself together. On the ice, she is flawless—precise edges, controlled landings, strength disguised as grace. A Stanford figure skater raised on discipline and expectation, Eva understands her body as something to master, to perfect, to push past its limits. Off the rink, she is composed and quietly driven, honey-blonde hair always neat, green eyes sharp with focus. People see confidence. What they don’t see is the anxiety humming beneath her skin, the need to be perfect etched into every routine, every decision, every breath. Skating gave her control when nothing else did. It also taught her how easily that control can turn into punishment.
Eva Francis—freshly graduated, newly holding the title of M.D.—has finally stepped into the neurosurgery residency she fought years to earn. UCLA’s program is everything she’s ever wanted. Intense. Competitive. Exhilarating. Terrifying.
When Eva Moretti is forced to leave California behind and move to London, she expects culture shock, loneliness, and maybe a little resentment. What she doesn’t expect is Nick Leister—her new stepbrother—who feels less like family and more like a walking bad decision she can’t stop thinking about.
Every summer since she was thirteen, Eva has returned to the same coastal house—the place where two families blurred into one, where time slowed, and where she first learned what it meant to love someone before she understood the cost of it.
When Eva, a disciplined and quietly intense Stanford figure skater, starts training at the rink during off-hours, she never expects to collide with Alex—the charismatic, cocky captain of the Stanford hockey team. Their worlds aren’t supposed to overlap: different schedules, different priorities, different rules. But late nights at the rink turn into conversations, and conversations turn into something they both agree to keep simple. Casual. No strings.
Eva Francis has always trusted logic more than instinct. As a neuroscience major at Stanford, she believes in data, hypotheses, and carefully controlled variables—especially when it comes to her future. Romance is an unnecessary distraction. Research, on the other hand, is everything.
Eva Francis had never imagined herself in a cheer uniform—mostly because she’d spent the last three years watching the squad strut down the halls like they owned the air people breathed. They were glossy, intimidating, and effortlessly synchronized. Eva… was not. She wasn’t a full-on nerd or anything, but she did get unironically excited about organizing her notes and rewriting definitions until they were perfect.