When I was two, I was left in the basement of an old community center, all alone by my own mother. She never came back for me.

When I was five, a man came for me, claiming to be my father.

When I was eight, I gutted my first fish alone.

When I was thirteen, I was mostly running my own business.

When I was fifteen, I murdered a man.

When I was twenty, I became the literal definition of a wh*re.

After every single thing that’s ever happened in my life, Gus liked to say with a wink, grin, and kindness in his tone, “Now that was a true story."

Tru Story.

That’s my name, not the beginning of a narrative. A name that has amused, frustrated, and followed me every day of my entire life.

Now at twenty-one, I've found my place in Selk, content with who and what I've become.

Until that one summer... the summer when the North family, in the form of Kyler and his dad Hans, came to Selk, and from the moment they drive their matching corvettes through our streets... nothing is the same.

For anyone.

But most especially... me.

********

Kyler North follows his dad to the small fishing hamlet on the very tip of Washington State called Selk, in order to build another of their resorts. Only this location means more to his dad than he can figure out. He finds in Selk, h*ll on earth; seasickness, disgusting fishing adventures, with nowhere to go, and nothing to do, so he's dying of boredom.

Until he meets the person town people call affectionately: The Gut Girl. Turns out she cleaned fish on the docks for a living and her name is Tru Story.

She's odd, strange, beautiful and the only interesting person he had in his sights at the moment.

Until it becomes obvious he's not the only who thinks so.