Between You & I (Still Beating, #1)

Sloane Mercer has always preferred the quiet certainty of water.

At thirty, she spends her days inside the aquarium’s dim, glass-lit corridors, caring for fragile ecosystems that still follow rules. It’s easier than facing the slow unraveling of her own life—easier than admitting she’s been standing still for far too long.

Callan Ward exists on the edges of her world.

Steady. Distant. Familiar in the way only someone you see every day can be. He understands the aquarium like it’s part of him, like he’s been preparing for something no one else can see.

Then the world outside begins to collapse.

What starts as rumors becomes sirens. Silence. Absence. The aquarium—once a refuge—turns into something else entirely. Cut off and running out of time, Sloane and Callan are forced into a desperate escape, following nothing but instinct and a half-remembered promise of somewhere safe.

Somewhere hidden.

Somewhere meant to survive the end of everything.

But isolation changes people. Strips away the lives they used to live and leaves behind only truth. And in the fragile quiet that follows, Sloane begins to see Callan differently—not as the man she worked beside, but as the one standing between her and the dark.

Because survival isn’t just about outrunning what’s out there.

It’s about facing what’s been waiting between them all along.

And sometimes, the most dangerous place to be…

is alone with someone who truly sees you