Book excerpt: She led me to a rock overlooking the ocean. All was quiet except for the pounding of the surf below us. The moon was bright and shining, and it left a trail of light on the ocean in front of us that glimmered and danced on the water. Shayla put her arm around my shoulders. My heart started to dance like the light on the water. In 1966 Southern California, twenty-somethings Norm Supancheck and Shayla Strohmeyer make a heartbreaking decision not to get married. There’s just one problem: they are deeply, acutely, and irrevocably in love. Though they are separated, their lives will intersect over the years in uncanny ways. Shayla will give her heart to another man and marry him instead. Norm, who becomes a priest, will perform their wedding ceremony and bless their union. Shayla and her husband will raise a family. Norm will baptize their children. Shayla and her husband will move three states away. Norm will visit often and become an integral part of the family’s life. As the years advance, the dark finger of mortality will beckon to them both, and Shayla and Norm’s lives will intersect in one final, poignant and lasting way. Like a Nicholas Sparks novel, this book is powerful, lyrical, and beautifully surprising. It is for anyone who’s ever sensed that the call to love extends beyond anticipatable boundaries. It’s a story about being pulled between two worlds, about loving deeply and truly, but expressing that love in ways not first imagined. Father Norm Supancheck’s touching and monumental memoir will comfort and challenge you. More than that, this incredible true story will reinforce everything you’ve ever believed about the unshakable passion and devotion of a lifelong love. Ultimately, like true love itself, this story will never let you go.