High Tide, Open Hearts

Emma Bennett doesn’t believe in forever anymore.

After seven years in a relationship that slowly faded instead of breaking, she inherits her aunt’s coastal home in Harbor’s Edge, North Carolina… with one condition: stay six months before deciding what to do with it. Her plan is simple. Repair the old house. Fix the dock. Sell in spring. Return to the city with a promotion waiting.

Noah Lawson has already tried leaving once. A failed business venture in Raleigh brought him back to the harbor he swore he’d outgrow. Now he runs the marina, keeps his head down, and doesn’t ask anyone to stay… especially someone who arrived with a deadline.

But tides have a way of returning. As storms roll in and the dock boards are reinforced one plank at a time, Emma and Noah begin to realize that comfort isn’t the same as connection… and calm isn’t the same as indifference. When a career offer forces Emma to choose between the life she planned and the one she didn’t see coming, she must decide what staying really means. Because love, like the tide, isn’t about holding the water at its highest point. It’s about building something strong enough to remain… through every rise and retreat.

High Tide, Open Hearts is a warm, slow-burn coastal romance about learning to trust, choosing differently, and finding home in the one place you stopped trying to leave.