The Second Half Starts Now

At fifty-eight, Eddie Nolan loses the job that defined him for more than three decades and suddenly has no idea who he is without a badge, a schedule, and people depending on him. His marriage is already over. His grown daughter has learned not to expect too much from him. And the future he spent years avoiding has finally arrived. With his aging dog, Gus, beside him, Eddie retreats to his late father's weathered cabin in the Adirondacks, telling himself he only needs a little time away. Instead, he finds a second chance he never planned for. A damaged cabin, an old canoe, a struggling small town, and a collection of stubborn neighbors slowly pull Eddie back into the world. Among them is Nora Bell, a sharp, independent woman fighting to keep her family's business alive and completely uninterested in becoming another problem for Eddie to fix. That becomes a problem, because fixing things is the only way Eddie has ever known how to prove he matters. As the seasons change, Eddie begins repairing more than broken boards and old tools. He faces the daughter he disappointed, makes peace with parts of his past, reconnects with people he pushed aside, and helps create a community workshop for people who thought their best years were already behind them. But second chances are messy. The cabin nearly burns. Gus disappears into the woods. Nora's future becomes uncertain. And Eddie is forced to confront the hardest truth of all: being needed is not the same as being in control. Then, on the most important night of everything he has rebuilt, Eddie must choose between the life he is creating and the daughter who once spent years waiting for him to show up. This time, he chooses differently. Set against the lakes, mountains, back roads, and hard winters of the Adirondacks, The Second Half Starts Now is a warm, funny, emotional novel about family, regret, friendship, old dogs, late-in-life love, and what happens when the life you planned falls apart. Because sometimes losing the life you thought you needed is exactly what makes room for the one you were meant to live.