June First by Jennifer Hartmann

From the author of Still Beating comes another standalone forbidden romance turning something broken into something beautiful.

Want to know what happens to a man who barely claws his way out of a tragedy, only to fall right into the arms of the one girl in the world he isn’t allowed to love? Another tragedy, that’s what.
When Brant was six years old, his father made a choice that altered the course of his entire life. Because of what he did, the only girl Brant ever loved became the only girl he couldn’t have.

Though in a lot of ways, he did have her…
He had her first steps, her first words, her first smile. He had her milestones, her heartbreaks, her dreams. He had her heart so woven in with his, he didn’t know where she ended, and he began. Only, as the years pressed on, lines became blurred—and the blurrier the line, the easier it is to cross.

They say tragedy comes in threes. For Brant, that was true. The first one changed him, the second one broke him, and the third one healed him. But at the center of all that tragedy, there is a love story.
And at the center of that love story, there is June.