The Things We Bind

Clara Smith knows how to help people find a home. She's stopped believing she'll find someone to share hers.

At forty-six, the small-town coastal realtor has built a quiet life around work, grown children, and the hard-won peace she found after a devastating relationship. She has no intention of risking her heart again.

Then a broken family recipe book brings her into Julian Mercer's bookbinding shop.

Handsome, thoughtful, and quietly guarded, Julian awakens feelings Clara thought she had put away for good. Coffee becomes a moonlit walk. A kiss at the marina leaves her wanting more than she feels safe admitting. Beneath Julian's composure, he is falling just as hard-and hiding heartbreaks of his own.

But Clara's best friend, Sienna, doesn't trust the romance. Her warnings carry the weight of years of loyalty, along with a jealousy neither woman wants to acknowledge. Caught between the friend who helped her survive and the man who makes her feel alive, Clara begins to question her own judgment.

When an old love letter feeds her deepest fears, Clara retreats. Then she finds Julian collapsed on his shop floor, and the future she was afraid to want becomes one she could lose in an instant.

As Julian recovers, a financial crisis threatens the business he loves. Helping him means facing difficult truths about pride, friendship, and the ways fear can masquerade as protection. Neither of them can promise a life without heartbreak. They must decide whether they can trust each other enough to build one together.

Set in the close-knit seaside town of Bellwether, The Things We Bind is a deeply emotional, sensual romance about love in midlife, friendships tested by change, and the courage to believe happiness is still possible.