TO THE HEART

One date shouldn't change your life. Should it?

 

Thirty-one-year-old marketing executive Carter Hastings knows how to sweet-talk clients and women. Letting someone get close is another matter. His co-worker Sadie Brown knows it firsthand: he’s disappointed her romantically and keeps failing her as a friend. When a broken promise to Sadie tests their friendship and his best friend Drew gets engaged, Carter starts to question if he’s the problem.

 

Then he meets Emily Taylor, a quiet, animal-loving editor at a dog magazine who draws out a softer side of him. For once, Carter makes a genuine effort. They go on a proper date, and for the first time, he wants to see what might happen if he stays.

 

But, before he gets the chance, Emily dies on her way home.

 

Reluctant to attend the funeral of a woman he barely knew, Carter is nevertheless drawn into the fight to save her struggling disabled-dog shelter in Virginia. Seeing an opportunity to help, he pitches the shelter to his boss and secures funding by concealing its debts, convinced he can fix the problems before anyone discovers the truth.

 

When the investment fails, Emily’s family faces losing her cottage to repay the debts. Determined to undo the damage he has caused, Carter risks losing Sadie as he becomes consumed by Emily’s shadow. To make things right, he must confront the childhood wounds behind his fear of intimacy and ask himself: why is it easier to get close to the dead than the living?