They were inseparable once-Hayden and Chase, best friends since childhood, bound by the kind of pure, effortless connection that only exists when you're young. But at seven years old, Chase moved away to California, leaving behind a friendship that time slowly turned into nothing more than a distant memory.
Now, years later, everything is different. The summer before senior year, Hayden receives an unexpected invitation: a chance to spend the summer at Chase's house. A chance to reconnect. A chance to see if the pieces of their past can still fit together.
But people change. Time rewrites who we are. And the boy Hayden once knew is now a stranger with secrets she can't quite unravel. Chase is guarded, distant, hiding behind walls she doesn't remember him having. And as much as she wants to believe that their friendship can be picked up where it left off, she quickly realizes that some things are easier said than done.
As the summer unfolds, so do the layers of their past and present. Old wounds resurface. New feelings ignite. Lies blur the truth. And the love that should have been easy suddenly becomes the most complicated thing of all.
This is a story of first love and lost innocence, of nostalgia and heartbreak, of learning that sometimes the past isn't as perfect as we remember it-and sometimes, the future is more uncertain than we ever imagined.
A coming-of-age novel about love, loss, betrayal, and the journey of finding yourself when the past won't let go.
