Book excerpt: On the Crystal Coast of North Carolina, in the small town of Emerald Isle... Juli Cooke, hard-working and getting nowhere fast, marries a dying man, Ben Bradshaw, for a financial settlement, not expecting he will set her on a journey of hope and love. The journey brings her to Luke Winters, a local art dealer, but Luke resents the woman who married his sick friend and warns her not to hurt Ben-and he's watching to make sure she doesn't. Until Ben dies and the stakes change. Framed by the timelessness of the Atlantic Ocean and the brilliant blue of the beach sky, Juli struggles against her past, the opposition of Ben's and Luke's families, and even the living reminder of her marriage-to build a future with hope and perhaps to find the love of her life-if she can survive the danger from her past.