This Bud of Love

SamLoving Lil Harper felt so real it terrified me. Back when we were seventeen and playing Romeo and Juliet, I remember thinking, if this wasn't real, then I had no idea what real love would feel like.But we crossed lines we weren't ready for, and instead of facing it, I ran — into choices that numbed the guilt but wrecked me.It wasn't until college, when God pulled me out of the mess I'd made, that I finally understood what love was meant to be… and that I still wanted a future with her.LilSam Park was the boy who made me believe in gentle, honest love — until he walked away and left me with a heartbreak I didn't know how to carry.I tried to heal, but deep down I knew the truth: there was a wound in Sam I couldn't heal… only God could.Years later, every time our paths cross, the same quiet ache returns — familiar, tender, impossible to ignore.Now we're older.We've lived enough life to understand grace and the cost of real love.Maybe the question isn't what if anymore, but whether we're finally ready for the love God was growing in us all along.This Bud of Love is a clean, faith‑infused YA/NA romance about forgiveness, timing, and the kind of first love that becomes something deeper when you let God lead the way.