What happened in It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey - Recaptains

The basics

Title: It Happened One Summer

Author: Tessa Bailey

Series: Bellinger Sisters #1

- It Happened One Summer (2021)
- Hook, Line, and Sinker (2022)

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Goodreads Summary:

Piper Bellinger is fashionable, influential, and her reputation as a wild child means the paparazzi are constantly on her heels. When too much champagne and an out-of-control rooftop party lands Piper in the slammer, her stepfather decides enough is enough. So he cuts her off, and sends Piper and her sister to learn some responsibility running their late father’s dive bar... in Washington.

Piper hasn’t even been in Westport for five minutes when she meets big, bearded sea captain Brendan, who thinks she won’t last a week outside of Beverly Hills. So what if Piper can’t do math, and the idea of sleeping in a shabby apartment with bunk beds gives her hives. How bad could it really be? She’s determined to show her stepfather—and the hot, grumpy local—that she’s more than a pretty face.

Except it’s a small town and everywhere she turns, she bumps into Brendan. The fun-loving socialite and the gruff fisherman are polar opposites, but there’s an undeniable attraction simmering between them. Piper doesn’t want any distractions, especially feelings for a man who sails off into the sunset for weeks at a time. Yet as she reconnects with her past and begins to feel at home in Westport, Piper starts to wonder if the cold, glamorous life she knew is what she truly wants. LA is calling her name, but Brendan—and this town full of memories—may have already caught her heart.

Here is a spoiler summary of what happened in It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey to help refresh your memory before you read the sequel. If you need help remembering what happened in It Happened One Summer then you’re in the right place.

What happened in It Happened One Summer?

• Piper Bellinger is a spoilt rich woman from Los Angeles who breaks into a hotel to throw a pool party. She is trying to distract herself from her most recent breakup.
• Her stepfather and the source of all her riches sends Piper off to a village called Westport in Washington to learn to be a normal person. He knows there’s a bar there which was owned by Piper’s biological father, and he wants her to learn to run it and therefore also learn some responsibility.
• Piper and her sister Hannah head off to Westport and plan to stay for three months, just long enough to prove to their stepfather that they can be sensible adults.
• They arrive at the bar and find that the local community are looking after it.
• A fisherman called Brendan tells Piper that she’s not welcome in Westport and that she should go back to Los Angeles.
• Brendan starts to become drawn to Piper and gets to know her better. His wife died a while back so he hasn’t really been on the dating scene, but he’s now interested in Piper. He still wears his wedding ring, though.
• Brendan offers to help Piper restore the bar, and Piper is super impressed. The two of them become quite intimate, but Piper tries to keep some distance between them because she still plans to return to Los Angeles at the end of her stay.
• Brendan goes out to sea to go crab fishing. Piper’s father was also a crab fisher and he died on the job, so Piper is quite concerned.
• Piper starts working at the bar now that it’s in order. She meets her grandmother Opal.
• Brendan gets caught in a storm, and there’s an accident so Brendan is taken to hospital. Piper meets him there and they are intimate, and they realise they really like each other.
• Piper plans to have a Labor Day party at the bar.
• Brendan takes Piper to Seattle to prove to her that he can be fancy. Piper realises she’s in love with Brendan.
• Piper’s friend, Kirby, is planning a welcome home party for her back in Los Angeles.
• Piper pretty much decides she wants to stay in Westport but fails to communicate this properly to Brendan, who gets upset about her going back to Los Angeles. He walks out and goes on another fishing trip. Piper is unable to see him off.
• Piper reluctantly decides to return to Los Angeles because she feels like she and Brendan won’t work out.
• Brendan drives to Los Angeles and shows up at the welcome home party. He confesses that he loves Piper and wants to be with her. Piper gets emotional and decides to move to Westport permanently. The pair confess their love to one another.

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