When thirty-year-old Julia, mourning the death of her husband, decides to sell the Santa Cruz beach house they owned together, she sets in motion a final summer that will change the lives of all the families who rent it year after year. Teenaged Chris discovers the bittersweet joy of first love. Maggie and Joe, married sixty-five years, courageously face a separation that even their devotion cannot prevent. The married woman Peter yearns for suddenly comes within his reach. And Julia ultimately finds the strength to rebuild her life—something she once thought impossible.

With equal measures of heartbreak and happiness, bestselling author Georgia Bockoven's unforgettable novel tells of the beauty of life and the power of love, and speaks to every woman who has ever clung to a child or loved a man.

The quaint little beach house perched on the Pacific's edge is a haven for those seeking refuge from life's tempests. This season the tenants renting the secluded cottage by the sea are different -- yet each is searching for something. A young mother wracked with guilt and despair over a tragic death; a beautiful, successful lawyer denying the passion she's never known...and always desired: a little boy with no laughter in his life; a man and a woman parted for twenty year, who never stopped loving each other, This is where they bring their pain, their broken hearts, their courage, and their dreams. And in this magical summer, this is where their dreams will come true.

With those words, Julia's husband stepped into his taxi and was gone. Evan McDonald. Julia's lifeline—and the doting father of her two beautiful children. From the moment she'd first spotted him in high school so many years before, Julia had known they'd always be together.

Now…Evan's business trip to Colombia becomes deadly when he's kidnapped, and Julia is thrown into a tailspin of horror…and waiting.

For five tortured years Julia does whatever it takes to bring Evan home. Despite her grief and rage at losing the man she loves, she vows to keep struggling. Until she receives a call that shatters her hopes of Evan's return. But then…

After years of being alone, Catherine Miller thinks she's finally found happiness. Engaged to an adoring, successful executive, she lives in a luxurious house, and her beautiful fifteen-year-old daughter, Linda, is on the brink of college and adulthood. Then, Catherine's rose-colored world is shattered. Her daughter is burned terribly in a freak accident, and just when Catherine needs him most, her fiancé abandons her. Now Catherine must call on every ounce of courage and strength she has to help her beloved daughter recover. Fortunately, she's got help in fire captain Rick Sawyer, an expert burn counselor. Ruggedly handsome, appealingly down-to-earth, Rick is like no man Catherine has ever met. But Catherine made the wrong choice before. How can she trust her emotions--especially when it's not just her heart at stake but her daughter's life, too?

In the tradition of Barbara Delinsky comes this poignant, moving story of the bonds of family, the strength of love, and the courage to dare.