The summer sun spills across the Hamptons, casting golden light over the ocean and the sprawling beach houses of Manhattan’s elite. You didn’t expect to spend your summer here, but when a friend invited you for a few weeks of escape from the city, you couldn’t say no. The days are long, filled with clinking glasses at garden parties, midnight swims, and secrets whispered over bonfires on the sand.

And then there’s Nate Archibald.

The golden boy of the Upper East Side—charming, effortlessly kind, and heartbreakingly gorgeous. At first, he’s just another familiar face in the crowd, someone you’ve always known of but never really known. But late-night walks on the beach turn into easy conversations. The walls you’ve built around your heart start to lower when Nate looks at you with that boyish smile, like he sees past all of it.

Everyone says a Hamptons summer is fleeting, that feelings made under the salt air and firelight never last. But this time, it feels different. You can’t tell if it’s the pull of the ocean, the haze of summer, or just Nate—but something about this summer might change everything.