Now, if you’ll lend me your ear for a moment, I’ll tell you a curious little tale from the murky waters of the Chesapeake Bay, where the wind whispers old legends, and folks speak of Chessie, the elusive sea monster, as if it were as real as yesterday’s supper. Some say Chessie’s as rare as love itself—extinct, even—but let’s not be hasty. Enter Robert, a man who’s worn the heavy coat of widowhood for longer than he’d care to recall. Life had left him with a heart as closed as an oyster shell, until, by some twist of fate or folly, Chessie slithered into his world. Now, you see, it wasn’t just the mythical creature that shook up his quiet existence—it was love, that strange, untamable thing, creeping back into his life when he least expected it. But love, like a good storm, rarely comes without complications. Robert, being a man of the Bay, was tangled up with the local watermen, who saw things a certain way. And then there was his daughter—a sharp-eyed teenager who couldn't quite wrap her head around the idea of her father loving anyone besides the ghost of her mother. This here short novel, set in the fine town of St. Michaels, weaves a tale of love and legend, where the whispers of Chessie still ripple through the hearts of the people. For in these waters, some say, both love and monsters still swim, and perhaps neither is as extinct as we’d like to believe.