Stay

Summary

If only life were as simple as checking things off a list.

Clara Mar is a world-renowned cellist. As a sought-after soloist, her life has been planned and executed by a team of professionals since she was eight years old. Now, reeling from a messy and public breakup with a fiancé she never loved and the fallout from an explosive family lie, Clara arrives in Bodega Bay as the unexpected recipient of her grandfather’s historic inn.

Well, half the inn.

Dylan Pace is Bodega Bay’s own hometown hero. From working Search and Rescue to picking up shifts as a paramedic with the local fire department, his life was the job. Until he blew out his knee for the last time. Scrambling for a new direction, Dylan is shocked when Mr. Levinson, his recently deceased mentor, leaves him part of the famous Inn by the Bay.

Clara and Dylan quickly discover the inn comes with a series of last requests, specifically six months under the same roof. Determined to make the best of things, they begin ticking off the list before the summer reopening. But, reconciling an unshared past with attraction neither can deny, and Clara’s anticipated return to the spotlight forces them to grapple with expectations, old wounds, and what it means to stay.

Below are courtesy content warnings to the best recollection. They cover the major topics/themes but may not be as nuanced as other trigger/content warning sites.

• alcoholism recovery, infidelity, childhood poverty, parental emotional abuse