Evvie Drake Starts Over

Nearly a year after her husband's death in an automobile accident, Eveleth "Evvie" Drake, a recent widow, hardly leaves her huge, sadly empty home in a quaint coastal town in Maine. Everyone in the community, even Andy, her closest friend, believes that sadness keeps her trapped, and Evvie doesn't argue with them.

While all is going on, in New York City, Andy's boyhood best friend, Dean Tenney, a former Major League pitcher, is struggling with what depressing athletes living out their worst fears call the "yips"—he can't throw straight anymore and, worse, he can't find out why. An offer from Andy to remain in Maine seems to be the ideal way to start over for Dean as the media maelstrom intensifies.

The two agree that Dean won't inquire about Evvie's late spouse and that Evvie won't inquire about Dean's baseball career when he moves into an apartment behind Evvie's home. But rules have a strange way of being violated, and sometimes what begins as a chance relationship develops into something more. Evvie and Dean will need to face their pasts in order to go on—the friendships they've ruined and the secrets they've held—but just like in baseball, there's always a chance—right up to the very last out.