It took them six summers to fall in love and a moment to destroy everything

They say you can never truly go back to where you started, and this holds true for Persephone Fraser. Especially in the last decade, since she made the biggest mistake of her life. Now she spends her summers in her stylish apartment in Toronto with various friends, without opening her heart to anyone. Her favorite lakeside cottage belongs to the past. Until the day a phone call sends her back to Barry's Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek – the man she thought she would never part from.

For six summers they were inseparable, spending their afternoons swimming and their evenings working at the family tavern or hanging out with their favorite books. Their childhood friendship slowly evolved into something unique before it magnificently fell apart.
When Percy returns to the lake for Sam's mother's funeral, the bond that unites them seems as unshakable as ever. But Percy must confront the decisions she has made in the years she spent punishing herself. Is their love greater than the biggest mistakes of their past?

A nostalgic novel about the people and places that mark us forever.

"Yes," I manage to whisper, and he lets out a long sigh that reveals relief.

"It's Charlie."

Charlie.

Not Sam.

Charlie. The wrong brother.

"Charles Florek," Charlie clarifies, and then he starts to explain how he found my phone—something about a friend of a friend and a contact at the magazine where I work—but I hardly hear him.

"Charlie?" I interrupt him. My voice comes out like a strangled shriek, one measure of spritz and two measures of shock. Or maybe all the measures are pure disappointment. Because that voice doesn't belong to Sam.

Of course it doesn't belong to Sam.

"Yes, I know. It's been such a long time. I can hardly remember how long," Charlie says, and he sounds apologetic.

But I know. I know exactly how long it's been. I've been counting.

It's been twelve years since the last time I saw Charlie. It's been twelve years since that disastrous Thanksgiving weekend, when everything changed.