In the summer of 1995, two families arrive at neighboring cabins on the shores of Broken Bow Lake, Oklahoma. Sarah, from Clinton, Arkansas, and Rob, from Prosper, Texas, meet over hamburgers, hot dogs, horseshoes, s'mores, and a campfire neither realizes will change their lives forever.

What begins as a summer friendship becomes something neither of them can quite leave behind.

Year after year, their families return to Broken Bow, and Sarah and Rob grow closer. But life has plans beyond the lake. College, relationships, careers, and distance pull them in different directions. Sarah dreams of becoming a writer, while Rob becomes a journalist whose work takes him around the world, living among communities far beyond the cities and towns most people know.

No matter how far they travel, somehow their lives keep crossing.

When Sarah and Rob return to the cabins as adults, they are forced to face the feelings that have followed them since that first summer. They love each other, but sometimes love doesn't arrive at the right time?and sometimes loving someone means allowing them to follow a road that doesn't include you.

Years later, Sarah finally writes the story she could never forget: the cabins, the lake, the journeys, the missed opportunities, and the boy who became her first love. But hidden inside one special copy is something meant for Rob alone?words she was never able to say when she had the chance.

And that copy is left at the place where everything began.

A heartfelt story about first love, growing up, following your dreams, and the choices that stay with us long after summer ends, The Summer Between the Pines asks one unforgettable question:

What if the greatest love of your life isn't the person you end up with?but the person you never completely leave behind?