Open Water by Dylan Joseph

One photo. Two campuses. One secret that won’t stay buried.

For a year, Alex Harrington and Liam Moore have kept the most dangerous thing in their lives in the dark—stolen mornings on a hidden bench, a relationship neither of their worlds will allow. Rival schools. Rival lives. A Kingswell legacy and a Riverside scholarship kid who were never supposed to want each other this badly.

Then someone hits send.

The photo goes out to every phone on both sides of the river, and the door they spent a year holding shut blows wide open. No more hiding. No more pretending. No more dark.

For Liam, it means everyone he’s spent a year hiding from is about to know exactly who he is—a team, a town, and the only future he’s ever clawed his way toward, all of it suddenly hanging on whether he can survive being seen.
For Alex, it means the phone call he’s spent his whole life dreading. Because Thomas Harrington doesn’t lose his son to a working-class boy from across the water. He has a name to protect, a plan already in motion, and a price for Alex’s silence—and he has never once lost.

Now Alex has to decide what he’s willing to burn down.
And Liam has to decide whether he can stay for a boy who’s one phone call away from choosing his last name over him.
They’re finally out of the dark.

That’s exactly where it gets dangerous.

Inside you’ll find:
Rivals to lovers (with history)
Forced out of the closet—and into the fire
Old money vs. everything to prove
First-time, open-door heat
MM slow burn romance
A disapproving father with real teeth
Found family, fierce loyalty, and a love worth losing everything for

Varsity Heat Crew follows one couple across a bingeable, fast-paced serial—each book delivers a complete emotional arc with real payoff, and the obsession only deepens from here. This is Book Five.