Come a Little Closer

Seven years after running from the life she could no longer bear to face, Rose returns to a small North Carolina church carrying more regret than she knows what to do with. She tells herself she only needs to walk through the doors—to prove she can finally confront the ghosts she left behind. But when she finds a familiar man standing where her father once stood, the past she has spent years outrunning suddenly becomes impossible to avoid. What begins as an awkward, reluctant homecoming becomes a reckoning with grief, forgiveness, and the people who can love us even after we’ve lost ourselves. Because sometimes coming home isn't about returning to who you were. Sometimes it's about finding the courage to come a little closer to the life that has been waiting for you all along. Inspired by Dierks Bentley’s “Come a Little Closer,” this original story is part of Songbook: Country Music, Reimagined—a serialized fiction podcast transforming beloved country songs into unforgettable stories of love, loss, longing, and second chances.