No Prom, No Crown

Briar Reyes has two rules. Don't fall behind and don't need anyone. Then her mother marries the man who owns the biggest hotel on the island, and Briar inherits a stepbrother she never asked for — Ellis Delacroix, expelled from three schools, polite to a fault, and back for one last senior year. He starts showing up at her uncle's shop. Sweeping. Not talking. Then he asks her to help him prove his father has been running payroll through a shell company in the marina. She says no. Twice. Then she finds the ledger in a box she is unpacking for her mother, and says yes. A High School Dark Stepbrother Romance about night shifts, ferry fog, and two kids who never get a prom — they get a ledger, a flash drive, and a shop desk.