Curvy Girl Next Door and The Best Friend's Brother
(2026)(The seventh book in the Curvy Girl Love Stories series)
A novel by Emily Crescent
The joist was rotten. So was Lily's rule about never needing anyone.
She wants a home. He shows up with a tape measure, sawdust in his hair, and hands that never let go. He knows wood. He knows her. He finishes sentences and, lately, finishes her in ways she didn't plan for. Small touches. Big promises. A kiss under the floorboards that breaks the rules and stitches new ones in their place.
A city inspector threatens a stop-work notice. A residency offer in Portland dangles like a bright, dangerous promise. Deadlines collide. Contractors bail. Neighbors bring tools and empanadas. Family expectations press in. Everything Lily built alone is suddenly a reckoning: career or the home she’s fought to claim?
Owen offers to hold the loft. To call favors, pull plates, face inspectors. To keep her space hers while she chases what she’s meant to do. He asks her to trust him. He asks for her in small, stubborn ways—late-night texts, nightly calls, a repurposed washer on a leather cord and a promise bigger than a ring.
This is about more than drywall. It’s about learning to let someone in without losing yourself. About heat and longing and the slow, dangerous architecture of trust.
Slip on your boots. Crawl under the floor. Stay for the kiss. Dive into Lily and Owen''s story.
Genre: Romance
She wants a home. He shows up with a tape measure, sawdust in his hair, and hands that never let go. He knows wood. He knows her. He finishes sentences and, lately, finishes her in ways she didn't plan for. Small touches. Big promises. A kiss under the floorboards that breaks the rules and stitches new ones in their place.
A city inspector threatens a stop-work notice. A residency offer in Portland dangles like a bright, dangerous promise. Deadlines collide. Contractors bail. Neighbors bring tools and empanadas. Family expectations press in. Everything Lily built alone is suddenly a reckoning: career or the home she’s fought to claim?
Owen offers to hold the loft. To call favors, pull plates, face inspectors. To keep her space hers while she chases what she’s meant to do. He asks her to trust him. He asks for her in small, stubborn ways—late-night texts, nightly calls, a repurposed washer on a leather cord and a promise bigger than a ring.
This is about more than drywall. It’s about learning to let someone in without losing yourself. About heat and longing and the slow, dangerous architecture of trust.
Slip on your boots. Crawl under the floor. Stay for the kiss. Dive into Lily and Owen''s story.
Genre: Romance