Summer People

Monhegan, Maine: a luscious island located twelve miles from land.

Population: sixty eight. Well, sixty nine if you count me, Elizabeth Sweet, Monhegan's newest resident and retired child star.

When I first step off the boat, I'm ready to be charmed by the island that holds the sweetest memories from my childhood. A place so remote that even the pesky media won't bother to look for me here. What I get instead is exasperation.

"Summer people." It's grumbled like a curse, a growl of sorts. No one seems to want me here, least of all the grumpy sheriff who seems affronted by my mere existence.

He's stupidly handsome, goes nowhere without his beloved golden retriever Bing, and speaks in nothing but grunts.

Unfortunately for Fisher Jones, I'm not going anywhere. In fact we're neighbors. And his niece Sutton, like every other eight year old in America, is obsessed with me.

Summer in Monhegan isn't at all what I expect, but neither is Fisher. I haven't quite figured out why he's so miserable, but I'm also not volunteering what I'm running from.

All I know is the Islanders aren't the only ones worming their way into my heart. Though, I suppose it won't matter how I feel, if my past catches up to me. Maybe I'm destined to be nothing more than summer people.