The Summer We Fell (The Summer, #1)(93)

“You have no idea how wrong you are,” he says, pulling me close. He’s damp, but I don't care.

His mouth hovers over mine. “As for the pregnancy thing, I’ve heard a rumor that sex can sometimes move things along.”

I laugh. He mentions this “rumor” several times a day. “I feel like I’ve heard that somewhere too.”

I pull him to the hammock he hung between two trees and he lets me climb in first, awkward now, before he joins me, sliding an arm beneath my head. We sway in the breeze, watching the sun paint the world with color. In a moment, I’ll take him upstairs so he can make us pancakes. Perhaps we will check out that rumor he’s heard one more time. But not just yet.

I don’t want to be anywhere else.





THE END


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THE SUMMER I SAVED YOU





HOPE


2004

My aunt wasn’t happy.

I’d only met her once before, this woman who’d raised my father, but as she waited on her front porch, watching me tug a beat-up suitcase behind me, she looked no more impressed than she had the first time.

I wasn’t all that happy either. I’d thought she might live in a mansion, like my father did. I’d hoped to go back to school with photos to rub in Krystal Duncan’s face. But this place wasn’t going to do me any good at all.

“I still don’t understand why this is necessary,” my aunt said to my mom. “He paid you a settlement. What did you do with the money?”

My mother’s eyes narrowed. “Kids are a lot more expensive than you think.”

I’d seen my father before, in magazines or on TV, standing beside his pretty wife and their son. I couldn’t fault my dad for choosing them over us: he’d met them first, and they were always smiling and wore much better clothes. I guessed I’d have picked them too.

“And how long is this work emergency of yours going to take?” demanded my aunt.

My mother’s gaze jerked to mine—a warning to keep my mouth shut. “A couple weeks. We’re busy, so I might not be able to answer when you call—speaking of which, I need to head back. This drive took forever. Be good, Hope.” And then she was hustling back to the car as fast as she possibly could.

“Didn’t even shut the engine off,” my aunt muttered, before she turned to me with a mix of disdain and pity on her face. “It’s going to be very dull for a seven-year-old, you realize. You’ll need to stay inside. I can’t have your father knowing you’re here.”

I nodded. My mom had been paid to keep my existence silent, so I was used to it. “I’m very good at keeping secrets.”

She raised a brow at that and I wondered if she knew I was keeping a secret from her too. My mom didn’t have a work emergency—she didn’t even have a job. She was going to Disney with her boyfriend, and if I kept it to myself, they’d take me with them next year.

My aunt sighed, grabbing my suitcase. “Well, come on, then,” she said, leading me into a house with peeling wallpaper and a damp smell, like wet dog or the sink at school.

Krystal Duncan had gotten a full princess makeover when she went to Disney—Ariel dress, the hair, everything. Her birthday invitations used the photos she’d had taken.

Maybe I could get a picture dressed like Ariel when I went, use my photo on a birthday invitation.

My mom would need to get a house first, but she said that might happen soon if we “played our cards right.”

“If I send out the same birthday invitations as Krystal Duncan, will she say I was copying her?” I asked as we walked up the stairs.

My aunt frowned. “You’ve got bigger things to worry about than birthday invitations. You’re in here.”

The room she referred to faced the neighbors’ house, but I could see the lake to the left, with a dock jutting out onto it and a bunch of older boys standing on its edge. I walked to the window and watched as they flipped into the water, one after the other, howling and yelling and so…free.

“You can watch, but don’t open the window and don’t even think about going out there,” my aunt warned. “Your father would kill me if he knew I was doing this. I need to get back to work. Stay here and be quiet.”

I nodded. It was something I heard often enough at home, too. “I’m very good at keeping quiet.”

My aunt’s shoulders sagged. “I’ll just bet you are,” she said, walking to the door.

I turned to watch the boys again. They were all happy, all lean and tan and glowing with good health, but for some reason my gaze landed on just one of them and refused to stray.

The sight of him called to me. As if he was saying, “Hope, find me, you belong here,” though he had no clue I existed.

I decided to watch him carefully, whenever I could. If he was drowning, I’d go save him, like Ariel saved Prince Eric.

I was weirdly certain that one day he’d need me to do it.

Coming Sept 7, 2023

Available for preorder here.



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks so much to my amazing beta readers: Entirely Bonkerzz, Michelle Chen, Katie Foster Meyer, Nikita Navalkar, Jen Wilson Owens and Tawanna Williams. Love you guys to the moon and back.