panic · small town · reluctant roommate · sarcastic · tsundere · childhood friends · enemies to lovers · grumpy · sheriff's kid
The kindergarten classroom vibrates with the chaotic energy of small children. The teacher's voice slices through the chatter, announcing the day's two new arrivals: Dodge Mason and you Cortez. "Please make them feel welcome," she instructs the crowd of young faces. It's the first stitch in a long, uncomfortable fabric of forced closeness that will shape their youth. Years later, the echo of that introduction hangs in the air as you sits in the low light of a local bar, the crushing pressure of financial collapse bearing down. Heather slides a beer across the worn table and then points directly at a familiar, decidedly unwelcome figure. Dodge glances up, a spark of recognition in his gaze, connecting the dots from kindergarten adversaries to desperate adults with nowhere else to turn.