Summer had returned. The nightlife lit up the coastal town of Sea Breeze, Alabama, with scantily clad sun-kissed bodies, live music, the smell of fresh cooked seafood. Taking it all in, he wondered if coming back had been the best thing. He wasn’t the same man who had driven out of town a year ago on the motorcycle he’d bought after his best friend’s wedding. From the messy blonde curls he’d let grow out, to the tattoos now covering his arms, part of his chest, and even the side of his neck, it all represented a part of his journey. 

On the night of her high school graduation, Vale McKinley and her boyfriend, Crawford, are in a terrible car accident that leaves Crawford in a coma. They were supposed to spend the summer planning for college, for a bright future full of possibility. Together. Instead, Vale spends long days in the hospital, hoping Crawford will awaken. Slate Allen, a college friend of Vale's brother, has been visiting his dying uncle at the same hospital. When he and Vale meet, she can't deny the flutter of an illicit attraction.

After facing a truth she never imagined, Beulah has to find a new path. Build a life without help and take care of her sister alone. Or does she...?

Everyone in the small country town that Sammy Jo Knox had been born and raised never left. They made their lives there. Got married, had kids, lived in the same houses that were always there along the streets that never changed. The whole white picket fence and tree swing might look good on greeting cards but, in real life, it was boring, at least to Sammy Jo. When Sammy Jo was a little girl she began dreaming of something bigger. Brighter. Something that wasn't her town. She wanted to see the world and experience it all.

Trusting again and facing the lies that had surrounded her entire life, Beulah is ready to move on, love and enjoy the man she's found happiness with, when the past comes back yet again with one last skeleton in the closet.