Selma Grace had experienced the power of true love once in her life. After losing her husband Linton to a tragic accident, she wasn't sure she would ever find it again, and was even less sure she wanted to try. Joe was a laid-back, womanizing, man of the beach. When he literally stumbled across Selma Grace on the beach one morning, lightning sizzled between them. Selma Grace wanted nothing to do with a beach bum after having the 'perfect man' in her husband Linton. Throw in an art class with the teacher being Joe's best friend, add a former student of Selma Grace's who loves the beach and encourages Selma Grace to explore its treasures, and you have the recipe for a perfect storm. When Hurricane Jorge hits Pensacola Beach and Joe ends up missing, Selma Grace realizes what she has lost. She is near panic fearing she has lost this man before she has even experienced life with him. What she does to find Joe is only outdone by Joe showing up unharmed and unarmed a few days later. While he was missing Selma Grace feared for Joe. When she knows he is okay and remembers he didn't call but left her worrying about him, her distrust of men and fear that she was wrong about him come flooding back. Engaged in their own on again off again friendship/love affair, they watch Paul and Madelyn fall naturally into one of their own. It takes a determined man with extraordinary tenderness and an all consuming passion to settle the heart of Selma Grace. Persistence wins out over a steeled heard and the fear Selma Grace has of experiencing the deep hurt she had in the past. On a soft moonlit night on the beach that Joe loves, they finally come together and experience passion that most believe exists only with the young.
