Stand Clear

By Scarlet Ibis James

Stand Clear: Sometimes the life you're meant to live is the one you build when you finally stop running.

Julie's life in San Francisco is measured in billable hours and carefully constructed success. Three years ago, she ran from New York, her heart, and Damon-the man who asked her to choose "us" over her career. As an Italian-Nigerian woman who refuses to soften herself for anyone, Julie thought she had left the past behind. But when a crucial board presentation brings her back to the city in December, a fleeting glimpse of Damon across the subway tracks unravels her carefully ordered world.
Damon has spent the last three years building a life out of the ashes of his grief. Guided by the memory and spiritual nudges of his late brother, he has opened a successful salsa studio in Washington Square and found love again with his new wife, Sofia.

When Julie takes a leap of faith and walks into his dance studio on January 5th, she is confronted not just with the man she left behind, but with the life he has built without her. Blending island sensibility with urban realism, Stand Clear is an emotionally grounded story about what happens after attraction becomes responsibility, the weight of the heritage we carry, and the difficult, beautiful truth of second chances.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HG3MD4WG
• ISBN13: 9798997240028
• Release Date: September 2026
• Publisher: Scarlet Ibis James
• Length: 88 Pages
• Weight: 0.21 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.0" x 8.0"