There’s a moment in life—sometimes more than one—when you find yourself caring deeply for someone who just can’t meet you where you are.

Maybe it’s fear. Maybe it’s timing. Maybe it’s something they haven’t yet said out loud, even to themselves.

That’s the emotional terrain explored in Still Here, one of the stories in my upcoming collection Threads of Light. It follows Liam—the same Liam readers met in The Second Coming of Grace—through a deeply personal chapter of his life: the aftermath of being outed at his high school graduation, and the quiet, complicated connection he begins to form with someone new in Toronto.

His name is Rowan. And he’s not ready.

Still Here isn’t a love story in the traditional sense. It’s about showing up for yourself even when someone else can’t show up for you. It’s about the way healing and hurt sometimes hold hands. And it’s about those rare people who strike a chord in you—so deeply, so unexpectedly—that walking away isn’t simple, even when it’s necessary.

But it’s not a tragedy. Because Liam doesn’t disappear into someone else’s fear.

He stays.

The story is also about staying—with yourself, with your truth, and with the possibility that someone else’s no right now doesn’t mean no forever. In a world full of ghosting, delay texts, and emotionally unavailable almosts, Still Here is a story of quiet defiance. It’s about choosing not to run.

And if you’ve ever loved someone who wasn’t quite ready—or if you’ve ever been that person—you may find something familiar in Liam’s journey.

Threads of Light releases July 28. And when it does, I hope Still Here offers a little comfort, a little clarity, and a reminder that being the one who stays is a strength—not a flaw.