The Summer We Happened: A Novel

#1 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey is back in Westport with a small-town second-chance love story, the long-awaited third installment of her beloved Bellinger Sisters Series, splashed with special guest appearances from the fan-favorite characters of It Happened One Summer and Hook, Line, and Sinker.
Former fisherwoman Blake Rhodes’s love affair with Westport started with four guy friends and a shrimping boat...and ended when one of them broke her heart. Now in desperate need of a life reset, she returns to those familiar, worn docks and collides with Ledger Dunn, who was once the center of her universe.

Ledger has never stopped regretting the girl who got away. Six years earlier, Blake asked him one simple thing: Tell me to stay. But when a man’s past is heavy with abandonment, commitment is easier said than done. Now Blake is back and in need of a friend, a role Ledger embraces with gratitude, because he’ll never let her down again.

As Blake finds peace hauling nets on the open sea, Ledger quietly enlists the town in his plan to re-create the magical moments of Blake’s youth. What Ledger doesn’t realize is that he was always the best part of Blake’s summers. The fog may be thick in Westport harbor, but the past becomes clearer and brings Ledger and Blake closer than their friendship intended, leading to stolen touches and feverish nights. But will Blake give him a second chance to reel her in, or is this another case of catch and release?