Trace Richardson guards the beach at La Jolla Shores.
At twenty-four, he commands his stretch of sand.

The car accident happened when he was eight. The titanium rod in his leg reminds him every day. The scars run deeper. He's gruff. He's professional. He protects what's his. The small town knows him as Mister Formidable.

They don't know about the billion dollars waiting for him at age thirty. They don't know that he must pay his way until he is thirty, and he likes it that way.

Dr. Sarah Blake arrives from New York City. Marine biology research. Independent. Driven. She studies seals. She doesn't know small towns. She doesn't know his rules.

She gets too close to a mother seal's pup. The mother attacks dangerously. Trace has to save Sarah. The town watches. The enemies are made.