He came back to bury the past—not uncover it. Rowan Hale has no intention of staying in the coastal town he once fled. With his estranged father gone, all that’s left is a house full of dust, unanswered questions, and memories he’d rather not touch. Get in. Clean it out. Leave. Simple. Until the storm. When Rowan finds an unconscious girl washed ashore in the middle of the night—alone, unexplainable, and very much alive—his plans start to unravel. She doesn’t remember how she got there. She doesn’t act like anyone he’s ever met. And the longer she stays under his roof, the harder it becomes to ignore the feeling that she doesn’t belong on land at all. She, on the other hand, knows exactly where she came from. Stranded far from the ocean she calls home, she’s left navigating a world that feels as strange to her as she does to it—and the one person determined to keep his distance is the same one she can’t seem to leave alone. But the town is watching. The past is catching up. And buried in his father’s belongings lies a truth Rowan isn’t ready to face: Some stories aren’t stories at all. And some things the ocean gives back… were never meant to be found.