High-powered Manhattan financier Matthew "Brand" Brandltey has had it. Ten years, three girlfriends, two fiances and one ulcer is enough. Besides, he has more than enough money to start his dream business. It'll be a dirty, sweaty job but he's determined to open his water sports rental store. Yeah, jet skis, scuba tanks and pleasure boats are in his future, and Mimosa Key's. It'll be tough watching the bikini-clad beauties hop on and ride his equipment.

Dixie Rose Wallace has other plans. She's minding the store for her honorary uncle and the store is her dream come true. The Gulf Coast Dog Kennel sits right off the beach south of Barefoot Bay and the town of Mimosa Key. Peace reigns and she is in charge. No more house full of six squabbling siblings. No more riding the thresher or backhoe on the family farm. Nothing and no one will keep her from eventually owning the Gulf Coast Dog Kennel.

Neither of them has any idea what one untrained dog loose on the beach does to change their lives in ways the couldn't imagine.