Heart Like Eyes

A boat. A heart. A promise.The Feisty Fiona hasn't left her dock in nearly twenty years. Her captain, Sean O'Dea, a curmudgeonly bachelor now facing a fatal diagnosis, is on another downward spiral when his wayward, eighteen-year-old niece, Marin, shows up out of nowhere. With his life once again thrown off course, he reluctantly invites Marin to stay with him for the summer. While Sean navigates his new normal and a burgeoning friendship with his doctor, the recently widowed Laura, Marin ends up befriending Laura's adopted son, Teddy, an intellectual headed to Harvard in the fall. As an African American raised by white parents in a predominantly white town, he feels kindred to Marin in a way he's never before experienced. Born with a heart condition, a miracle delivered him through infancy. His deep philosophical thoughts, longing to find his birth parents, and the feeling he's never fully belonged, forges an even stronger bond between him and the shy, artistic Marin.During this summer of enlightenment, Teddy's bigoted grandmother, Shirley, is experiencing her own awakening and redemption. But a dark secret and a decades-old promise cause their worlds to collide in a way beyond mere serendipity, and edging on destiny, as each realizes what it truly means to be part of the bigger world where we're all connected, and we all belong to one another.