Becoming Us by Alex Cross

Noah Rossi met Atticus King in the worst year of his life.

While everything around him was falling apart, Atticus stood out like a lifeline. They were nothing alike, but Noah was drawn to him, to the quiet warmth he never believed he deserved.
Now, two years later, they’re finally finding their way back to each other. Picking up the pieces of a love that never really ended, Noah and Atticus are trying to move forward. But rebuilding trust doesn’t erase the wreckage left behind, and Noah’s past still lingers in the shadows of everything they’re trying to become.
As their relationship deepens, the story shifts between present day and the past, revealing the grief, trauma, addiction, and emotional scars Noah has spent years trying to outrun. Slowly, piece by piece, he begins to heal, not just for Atticus, but for himself.
A companion novel to Echoes of Us, Becoming Us is an MM story about recovery and redemption. About choosing love in the aftermath of destruction. About learning that you can be broken and still be worthy.

And that sometimes, the hardest person to forgive… is yourself.