Fresh off another failed relationship, Tristan is done with men, at least long enough to figure out why his love life keeps collapsing. He knows his own flaw, that he leads with his heart instead of his head, and he doubts that will ever change. A few weeks into his self-imposed break he feels almost steady, until Alex Wells walks into the Harborside bar where he works and scrambles everything. Alex is carrying far heavier baggage. Eight years in the Army, months in a hospital bed, and a lifetime of hiding his sexuality have left him angry, damaged, and reluctantly up for a medal tied to the incident that nearly killed him. All he wants is to leave that world behind and finally live openly, and the confident bartender heading his way looks like exactly the temptation he cannot afford. But the closer Alex gets, the higher his walls rise, and Tristan is about to learn that the deepest scars are the ones no one can see. Told from both men's points of view, this standalone romance follows two guarded people testing whether trust can outlast old wounds.