After losing her mother and walking away from everything she knew, Merritt Ryan is finally ready to start living for herself.
Returning to the islands that once offered her refuge, Merritt takes a job at Shorebird's, a beloved Sanibel bar owned by a retiring potter named Crocker and now run by his grandson Justin. With a small apartment upstairs and her guitar in hand, she begins building a life on her own terms—playing music, making friends, and discovering who she is when she's not taking care of everyone else.
When her friend Paula asks for help reaching her brother Ray—a veteran battling PTSD who's pushed everyone away—Merritt agrees, drawn by the hope that music might do what words cannot. But Ray wants nothing to do with her, and Merritt must learn the difference between offering help and losing herself in someone else's pain.
As she navigates Ray's resistance, her deepening friendship with Justin, and the gentle wisdom of the Captiva friends who believed in her from the start, Merritt discovers that building a new life means embracing both the joy and the risk of truly belonging somewhere.
Sometimes finding home means learning to stay.
Genre: Romance
Returning to the islands that once offered her refuge, Merritt takes a job at Shorebird's, a beloved Sanibel bar owned by a retiring potter named Crocker and now run by his grandson Justin. With a small apartment upstairs and her guitar in hand, she begins building a life on her own terms—playing music, making friends, and discovering who she is when she's not taking care of everyone else.
When her friend Paula asks for help reaching her brother Ray—a veteran battling PTSD who's pushed everyone away—Merritt agrees, drawn by the hope that music might do what words cannot. But Ray wants nothing to do with her, and Merritt must learn the difference between offering help and losing herself in someone else's pain.
As she navigates Ray's resistance, her deepening friendship with Justin, and the gentle wisdom of the Captiva friends who believed in her from the start, Merritt discovers that building a new life means embracing both the joy and the risk of truly belonging somewhere.
Sometimes finding home means learning to stay.
Genre: Romance