Alissa A Arford
That summer in Ocean City, Maryland... What if starting over meant facing everything you thought you’d left behind?In Ocean City, the summer sun doesn’t just shine, it sparkles with potential. Sunrises over the waves, sunsets melting into the bay. The Boardwalk buzzes with energy. Ice cream melts too fast. Strangers meet. Hearts break and mend. And under the two watchful eyes of a pair of oddball seagulls, anything can happen. During a summer like this one, the possibilities feel limitless.Just a few blocks from the crashing waves and soft sand, in a quiet little bayside neighborhood on Seagull Street, three lives are about to tangle in ways that will change them forever.Ray Anders likes her quiet life as a cybersecurity analyst. After losing so much during the pandemic, she moved into her grandparents’ old beach house to hide away.But then Olivia McNalley moves in next door. A fast-talking, funny, fiercely loyal third grade teacher turned summer waitress, Olivia is trying to rebuild after a bitter divorce from a man whose left her shaken and constantly looking over her shoulder.Enter Evan Michaels: an Eastern Shore native, marketing manager by day, surfer by weekend, and friend-to-all by default. Newly single and learning to redefine his own story, Evan sees what others don’t: the way Ray flinches when someone gets too close, and how Olivia’s bright smile hides something darker.In a summer of second chances, can three unlikely allies rewrite their stories, or will everything they’ve built wash away before Labor Day?
