From rural Virginia to coastal Carolina ~ Sometimes the biggest risk is in playing it safe... Lilliane Moore leaves the forests and rolling hills of her rural Virginia hometown, Cub Creek, to accept a temporary job as a companion to an elderly man who lives at the beach. It's a risky move that's out of character for her, but her thirties are passing quickly-she feels like she's closing in on forty fast-plus she's got a hole in her roof and no AC. The big payday she's been promised for this short-term assignment will fix a lot of what's wrong in her life. The job is at the beach in North Carolina, in a place called Emerald Isle at the end of the Outer Banks. She's never seen the ocean before and she'd like to, but what's the catch? Because there's always a catch, isn't there? Taking a job in a home with someone she doesn't know and so far from her own home may be a risk-but the biggest risk for Lilliane may be the unexpected-including leaving the home and hometown to which her heart and past are irrevocably tied, and to which she must return-no matter what happens while she's away.