the empty beach chair

Natalie Howard-Neiman is a successful trauma specialist at New York Memorial. She and her husband, Paul, an investment banker, are well on their way to establishing themselves in their respective careers, living an idyllic life in Manhattan. Until the evening of their fifth anniversary changed everything for them.

It should have been the anniversary of a lifetime, but because of one broken promise, it was the very opposite.

Two years later, she sold her condo, and left for St. Simons Island, on the southern coast of Georgia, for a six-month trial period at a small-town medical clinic. Hoping the change of scenery and the opportunity to work with her mentor will give her a new perspective on life.

The moment she crossed over the F.J. Torras Causeway and onto the two-lane road, bordered with majestic oak trees draped with luscious Spanish moss for as far as the eye could see, Natalie knew the trip to St. Simons Island was well worth the fourteen-hour drive.

Upon her arrival, she met Jake and Rosie. Jake, the tall and handsome contractor, who exuded an air of arrogance and self-importance that she detested, nevertheless...there was something in the way he moved through the diner that she found impossible to ignore. How could she even look at another man while grieving the loss of her deceased husband? And Rosie, the eccentric owner of the local diner.

After several weeks, the beach became her sanctuary as she sorted through her memories of her deceased husband, and the clinic’s work pace proved exactly what she needed to clear her mind and get her life back on track. Realizing the need for friendships, Jake and Rosie soon became her small network of friends-her people. The people she turned to as she learned to navigate the island and begin a new life. But she soon realized that friendships aren’t always as they seem on the surface--people’s public personas are sometimes vastly different from their secret lives.