She kept the pie window lit on the fish-house dock. He kept a promise he never told her about.
At fifty-seven, Deenie Vann runs the Two Sisters pie-and-coffee window at the end of the Steinhatchee fish-house dock, the little window she started with her sister Junie, back before she lost her. Two years a widow, she has made a careful peace with early mornings, a full coffee urn, and a life she keeps small on purpose. She is not looking for a second chapter. She is only trying to get through scallop season with her heart in one piece.
Cap Sully Fontaine has run the scallop boat Loretta May out of that dock his whole life, and he has been quiet since he lost his wife. He is Boone Tolliver's oldest friend, the man who mends what breaks and never asks for thanks, and forty years ago, one summer, he was the boy Deenie almost stayed for.
Now a smooth developer wants the fish house, the ice plant, and the fuel dock for a gated marina, and the one thing standing between Deenie's window and the wrecking ball is a secret Sully has carried, alone, since the week her husband died.
As the whole village fights to save its working waterfront, two people who thought their best years were behind them start finding their way back to each other under the old catch bell. But some promises cost more than money, and Deenie has spent a lifetime letting other people decide things for her.
A sweet, clean, slow-burn second-chance romance with no spice and a guaranteed happily-ever-after. Welcome to Steinhatchee, where every book is a new couple, a fresh start, and a happy ending.
