Run to the Sea (Reigning Hearts #1)

He’s a broken man searching through the past for answers.
She’s his childhood best friend he had no idea he was in love with.

Thomas Capshaw never thought he’d put his dreams of being a sketch artist on the back burner and end up working in New York City far from home. The very last thing he expects is the inheritance of his famous grandfather’s beach cottage on the sandy shores of Florida where he spent his childhood summers.

Emeline Fischer is an aspiring artist trying to make ends meet, working an assortment of odd jobs while painting her dreams on canvas in hopes of landing her own gallery show someday. When she is Thomas’s waitress during her shift at the local beach diner, she immediately recognizes her sensitive childhood friend who promised long ago to protect her from her unstable home life when they were teens.

The two friends take a journey into their past through a box of photos left behind at Cap Cottage and rediscover their mutual passion for art - and each other. Thomas doesn’t plan to fall in love with Emmy - but maybe he’s always been in love with her. Can he forgive himself for his past mistakes and start over in the only place that ever felt like home? Or will his guilt and the demands of his cutthroat, big-city career prevent him from following his heart and reuniting with the only woman he ever truly loved?