The Lightkeeper

Nell Hartigan has kept Gull Harbor's lighthouse burning for three generations of her family, and she has kept one truth in the dark for even longer.

Grumpy, guarded, and sixteen weeks from losing the light station to a condo developer, Nell has zero interest in the sunny Chicago fundraiser the historical society has hired to save it. Junie Abara is warm, talkative, out and proud, and infuriatingly good at getting a whole town to fall in love with a crumbling tower. She's also, Nell realizes far too late, impossible to stop looking at.

Junie knows better than to fall for a woman who flinches at the word girlfriend. She's been someone's secret before, and she swore she'd never be one again. But after a storm night on the gallery, a held breath, and a first kiss that rearranges everything, "never" starts to feel like a much smaller word than "please."

So they make a deal: quiet nights, closed doors, and a promise that Nell will tell her mother and the town before the lantern is relit on the winter solstice. It's supposed to be simple. It's supposed to be temporary. But secrets have weight, love has a clock, and when Nell's fear finally costs Junie more than she can give, the only way back to the light is the one Nell has spent her whole life avoiding: being seen.

The Lightkeeper is a swoony, steamy, heart-tugging slow burn about grumpy hearts, sunshine that's tired of dimming itself, and the courage it takes to stop hiding. Standalone, with a guaranteed happily ever after.

Tropes: Secret Relationship, Fear of Public Exposure, Slow Burn, Grumpy/Sunshine, Healing Romance, Pining/Unrequited Crush