Just Not Him! is a contemporary romance novella of 18,000 words, perfect for a single afternoon on the beach. Set in St. Augustine's salt-stained surfboard shacks and lifeguard towers, this summer beach romance delivers enemies-to-lovers tension, opposites-attract heat, and forced proximity in a small coastal community. When a guarded Polish immigrant who swears off charming Latin men keeps crossing paths with a lifeguard who warns himself about Slavic girls, neither plans to fall for exactly the type they despise most.

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Xenia has one rule: no charming Latin men. She's seen the type before—easy smiles, gold chains, a new girl every summer. She paints surfboards at The Painted Shack, keeps an aquamarine stone in her pocket, and tells herself she's free. She's been running since she was sixteen. She's very good at it.

Ricky has the same rule in reverse. He watched his best friend get wrecked by a Slavic girl who left without looking back. He's not about to make the same mistake. Then he pulls a dripping-wet Polish woman from the Atlantic—she wasn't drowning—and she looks at him like she already knows his whole story. Her accent thickens when she tells him to let go. He does. But he can't stop thinking about her.

A coquina shell on a found family table. Labradorite catching market light. Seven minutes in a dark wardrobe where neither of them plans to kiss the other. But they do. And neither regrets it.

Now they're circling each other in a small beach town where everyone knows everyone. Diego keeps inviting them to the same sandwich place. Annie keeps finding reasons to send Xenia to the shore when Ricky is on duty. The fire is burning. Neither is naming it.

Then his best friend Marco shows up at a sandcastle contest. He sees how Ricky looks at her. He knows that look. He's worn that look. And Ricky panics. He says three words he shouldn't say. Xenia hears everything. The look on her face—cold, flat, Polish—tells him he just lost her.

Now he has to decide: protect his friend, or fight for her. She thinks he's a player. He thinks she'll leave. Both are wrong. But will she even let him explain?

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This is the beach read that actually hurts. Real prejudice. Real fear. Two people who swore off each other's "type" and fell anyway. No tidy third-act breakup you see coming from page one—just a real wound earned by real baggage. If you love slow burns with heat, tension, and a hero who has to earn his second chance, Just Not Him! delivers. One-click this novella and cancel your evening plans. You won't put it down until you know whether Ricky gets the words right.

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