Burnout and Desire

A burnt-out Physician’s Assistant and a fiercely independent entrepreneur walk into a baseball stadium… and immediately start fighting.

Shane needs a vacation, a therapist, and a clean break from humanity. He definitely doesn’t need to accidentally offend a pint-sized powerhouse of chaotic energy by mistaking him for a lost child. Shane is drowning in compassion fatigue, but his biggest flaw is his absolute refusal to ever ask for help or depend on anyone else—a defense mechanism that completely falls apart the second he meets Kieran.

Left to fend for himself from an early age, Kieran relies strictly on two things: his own sharp wits and his fiercely loyal best friend, Danny. He’s spent his life fighting the world’s assumptions about his short stature, working tirelessly to outrun his deepest fears of failure and poverty. He has zero time for a medical professional who insults his height and hides behind a wall of self-reliance, but their instant friction quickly sparks an undeniable fire.

By the time they make it to their first official ice cream date, Shane is hopelessly hooked. But falling in love means bringing Kieran into Shane’s loud, overbearing family universe—complete with a chaotic twin brother and a mother who doesn’t understand privacy.

Between aggressive farm animals, frantic twin-brother mix-ups, and the complicated realities of their separate professional lives, they are finally ready to build a future together. But just as the pieces are falling into place, a disastrous misunderstanding threatens to rip them apart before they ever have a real chance.

This MM romance features a disastrously funny meet-cute, heavy family interplay, a fiercely protective best friend, and dual POVs.

Because when you’ve spent your whole life on your own, learning to trust someone to stay is the hardest thing to depend on.