The Summer of Us

by Moreland, Melanie

  The Summer of Us

  Melanie Moreland

  SUMMER OF US by Melanie Moreland

  Copyright © 2020 Moreland Books Inc.

  Copyright #1161725

  ISBN Ebook 978-1-988610-33-7

  Paperback 978-1-988610-32-0

  All rights reserved

  Edited by

  Lisa Hollett—Silently Correcting Your Grammar

  Cover design by Moreland Books Inc

  Photographer Eric D Battershell

  Model Nate Asch

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any

  means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information

  storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, events, and places portrayed in this book are

  products of the author's imagination and are either fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any

  similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Dedication

  For Janett -

  Who loved books.

  May your spirit fly high, my friend.

  For Beth -

  The champion of ship identifying.

  You nailed it.

  For Karen -

  Because you loved them and wanted more.

  And my Matthew

  Because of what you are.

  The beginning and the end of my world.

  I love you

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for selecting book 1 in the Mission Cove series.

  The Summer of Us Part I was featured in the One Hot Summer anthology. I have added content in Part I. However, if you had read the previous short story and are anxious to find out what is next for Linc and Sunny, you may navigate to Part II.

  Be sure to sign up for my newsletter for up to date information on new releases, exclusive content and sales.

  Always fun - never spam!

  xoxo,

  Melanie

  Contents

  Part I

  1. Linc

  2. Linc

  3. Linc

  4. Linc

  5. Sunny

  6. Linc

  7. Linc

  Part II

  8. Linc

  9. Linc

  10. Sunny

  11. Linc

  12. Linc

  13. Linc

  14. Linc

  15. Linc

  16. Linc

  17. Sunny

  18. Linc

  19. Linc

  20. Linc

  21. Linc

  22. Sunny

  23. Sunny

  24. Linc

  25. Sunny

  26. Sunny

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  Books By Melanie Moreland

  About the Author

  Part I

  1

  Linc

  “What?” I frowned in confusion. “A job? I already have something for the summer. Why do I need a different job?”

  My father’s cold eyes studied me over his thick-rimmed glasses. “Because I said so, Lincoln.”

  “But, Father…”

  “You aren’t spending it fucking around, drinking with your friends, sleeping the summer away, and spending my money. You’re going to work.”

  I gaped at him. “When the hell have I ever done those things? I spent the last three summers volunteering at the local animal shelter.”

  He scowled. “Watch your tone. Walking dogs and feeding cats teaches you nothing.”

  “It teaches me responsibility and to care for other creatures.”

  He waved his hand. “It’s making you soft. I need to toughen you up.”

  I wanted to argue with him and tell him how wrong he was, but I knew there was no point. Franklin Thomas didn’t do feelings. Or care about anything. Animals were on the earth to feed him and for him to place bets on at the occasional horse race. You didn’t love them.

  According to him, it was better never to love anything. Including me.

  “You’ll be working at the summer camp. My company is sponsoring it this year, and I want a Thomas there representing me. You’ll be assisting the head of the camp with whatever he requires you to do.”

  I held back my groan. I didn’t want to work at the camp. I wanted to be at the shelter—learning and soaking up as much knowledge as I could.

  “Father, I want to be a vet. I told you this before, many times. Volunteering at the shelter will look good on my resume in a few years.”

  He shook his head. “We’ve discussed this, and I told you no. You’ll be joining the firm. Forget that stupid dream. Your mother put that idea in your head when you were a kid—one of her many idiotic thoughts—and it’s time you grow out of it.”

  I curled my hands into fists at my sides. I hated the way he spoke of my mother. As if she meant nothing. When, in fact, it was the opposite. She had meant everything to me and had been the bright spot in my world.

  That died when she did, and my life was never the same again. My already distant father became cold and unfeeling. His entire world revolved around one thing—money. Happiness didn’t matter. I didn’t matter—a fact that he made perfectly clear.

  I tried one more time. “Father, please—”

  He stood, slamming his fists onto his desk. “There will be no arguments, or it’s all gone, Lincoln. The car, your allowance, any freedom I allow you—everything.”

  I knew he was serious.

  “When do I start?”

  “You report day after tomorrow. I’ve decided you can stay there, but you come back every Sunday to report in. You keep your eyes open and your nose clean. Camp ends mid-August. If you do a good job, there’ll be a reward.”

  I frowned. My father never gave rewards. “Sir?” I asked.

  He smiled—one of his cold, unreal smiles that unnerved me. “I won’t shut down that fucking animal shelter you like so much. Fuck this up, and I’m pulling the lease.”

  I turned and left, not wanting him to see my disgust. I headed out the door and hurried down the path to the cliff that overlooked the water below. I sat on the edge, drawing my knees up to my chest and resting my arms on them.

  I knew my father owned the building the shelter was in. Hell, he owned most of the buildings and businesses in town. Not that anyone knew it. His maze of numbered companies kept that hidden. Rents went up, people lost their homes and businesses, and he sat back, not caring, enjoying the sick, twisted game he played with people’s lives. Laughing at the fact that it was him pulling the strings so often, moving people around like pieces on a chessboard. To most people, my father was a well-respected businessman. He owned several companies in various towns, along with a lot of real estate, including some huge holdings in Toronto. He sat on the chamber of commerce board, the council, and was tight with the mayor and the police here in Mission Cove. He duped them all.

  I despised him.

  I had been looking forward to spending the whole summer at the shelter. Caring for the animals, picking the brains of the vets who volunteered their time there. I had hoped to convince one of them to let me volunteer at their clinic so I could learn more. It would have looked great on my application to veterinary school. It was hard to get into, and I would need all the help I could get.

  Except my father had just crushed those dreams, hadn’t he? The same way he crushed everything else I hoped for. Everything I loved.

  I knew it looked like I was the kid who had it all. I drove a new car, wore nice clothes, and I always had money in my pocket. My grades were good, and I was well-thought-of b
y my teachers and peers alike.

  They all saw what I allowed them to see.

  None of them saw the emptiness of the huge house I lived in. The meals I ate alone since my father couldn’t be bothered to sit down with me. No one knew of the holidays I spent by myself, the forgotten birthdays, or the constant criticism I lived with. They didn’t know the strict rules my father enforced on me—or the punishments I suffered if I broke them. Franklin Thomas demanded perfection in everything I did, and when I fell short, he liked to show his displeasure.

  With his fists.

  I had a small social circle, very few friends, and a life I hated.

  Except for one thing.

  A secret I kept hidden from everyone, loathing the fact that I had to, but needing to do so to protect her. To protect us.

  The image of rich brown eyes and long, soft curls the color of the sunset filtered through my mind.

  Sunny Jenson.

  The first girl I had ever liked—had liked for as long as I could remember. When my mother was alive, she thought it was the sweetest thing and encouraged it. My father knew nothing about it.

  Sunny was my best friend in grade school, my sidekick in junior high, and now so much more. It happened naturally, without fanfare or thought. People were used to seeing us together. I knew they talked, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was her.

  I walked her home one night after a school function, knowing she didn’t like the dark. We stopped at the park, and she sat down on a swing.

  “Push me!”

  I settled my hands on her hips and shoved her forward, stepping aside to let her go as high as she wanted. She laughed in the darkness, soaring up and back, slowly letting the momentum die and returning to the sand where I waited. I reached out and gripped the metal chains, halting her movements.

  “Fun?” I teased.

  She grinned, her eyes shining in the moonlight. Suddenly, I noticed things I had never seen before. The swell of her tits, the way her hair tumbled over them. How soft her skin looked. How much I wanted to touch it. Our eyes met and held, and before I knew what I was doing, I bent down and kissed her. Fumbling, awkward, and perfect. When I pulled back, she smiled.

  “Be my girl,” I begged.

  She wrapped her hand around my neck. “I already am, Linc. I already am.”

  Sunny Jenson became my own personal ray of sunlight. I was her protector, her best friend, and the boy head over heels for her.

  She was a five-foot-nothing dynamo with eyes like melted chocolate. Tiny and delicate, she looked as if a strong wind could blow her over. But my girl was as tough as nails. Smart, funny, and sweet.

  I had been looking forward to being at the shelter, which was around the corner from the diner where she usually worked all summer, in addition to her shifts at the grocery store.

  My father detested her—anyone like her. Anything good and right, he looked at with derision and loathing, and with his announcement, he had just stolen that bit of happiness.

  I wanted to talk to her, to call her and vent my frustrations. Hearing her gentle voice would help calm me down, but I couldn’t do that.

  Sunny came from the wrong side of the small town where we lived. Her mother worked as a maid at the large hotel on the edge of the city limits. Owned, of course, by my father. A lot of the care of her two younger sisters fell on Sunny, and she adored them. Between school, her two jobs, caring for her sisters, and her volunteering at the shelter, it was hard for us to find time together, but we managed. Money was tight for her, and Sunny didn’t come with the trappings that other girls her age did. There was no expensive clothing. She didn’t wear makeup. She rode her bike, took the bus, or walked everywhere she went, and she didn’t own a cell phone. Every penny she made went toward saving for university tuition and helping her mother.

  I wanted to get her a cell phone, but my father tracked all my bills, and I couldn’t risk him finding out about her. He would end it and make life hell for her mother. I wouldn’t do that to her or her family. Sunny wasn’t someone he would ever approve of. She wasn’t the “right” kind of people.

  I remembered the day he walked into my room, without knocking or caring he was interrupting me. He tossed a box of condoms onto my dresser.

  “You’re fifteen. I’m sure you know how to use your dick. Wrap it. I don’t want any other mistakes ruining my life.” He paused in the doorway. “Dip your wick wherever you want, but don’t bring them here and don’t get attached. I have plans, and you’re going to fucking carry them out.”

  I looked at him, struck silent in shock.

  “I saw you walking with that girl. The waitress. She isn’t part of your future, Lincoln. Fuck her and forget her. I don’t want to find out you’ve been seeing her. If I do, you know the consequences.”

  Then he walked out. Typical of my father. He told me how to live every day. What to think, who I should like. How I should act. He never let me forget how my mother’s pregnancy changed his life. I was the reason for everything that went wrong. How I robbed him of her attention and time. How her shifting focus angered him. How if I hadn’t come along, she might have been a good wife instead of his finding her constantly lacking. He even found a reason to blame me for the aneurysm that took her from me.

  It inconvenienced him.

  My mother’s family had been well-off, but her parents’ will, and then hers, made it impossible for my father to get his hands on the money. Another reason he hated me.

  I wished, more than once, I could get access to the trust fund to help out Sunny and get away from my father. But it wasn’t available to me until I was nineteen.

  Two more years.

  Two years and I would walk away from this town and the man who made my life miserable. He thought I would work for him. Do his dirty work. However, I had other plans that I kept to myself.

  Once I had that trust fund, I was gone. Wherever Sunny wanted to go, I would take her. Her mother and sisters as well. Whereas my father thought of people like the Jensons as trash, they were nothing but kind to me. Sunny’s mom always welcomed me to their small house with a hug and kiss on the cheek, clucked about me being too thin and that I needed to eat. Her fussing warmed something long dormant in my chest. I tried to help out in small ways—repair broken things or carry out the garbage. Sunny’s two younger sisters, Emily and Hayley, treated me like a big brother. They loved hugs and cuddles and smiled in delight at the chocolate bars or cookies I would bring. I loved spending time there. The house was run-down, small, sparse, and on the wrong side of town, but it was a home. Unlike the huge, vacant rooms of my house, their place was filled with love. I could be myself there, and it was okay. They expected nothing and asked for nothing but for me to be Linc. And I accepted them.

  Sunny’s dad had caused a scandal by walking out on them when she was young and abandoning them completely. He lived openly with a hairdresser, who had deserted her husband, until a couple of months later when they were killed in a head-on collision with a semi on the highway. With no life insurance and no money, Sunny’s mom had to move the family to a smaller place, went to work cleaning offices, leaving Sunny to look after her much younger sisters. Eventually, they moved in with her grandmother to help with expenses. The scandal passed, but Sunny’s mom never got over it. She stopped cleaning offices and went to work at the hotel when it opened. She kept her head down and raised her kids, ignoring the whispers and stares, proving herself to be above them all. I thought she was fucking amazing.

  Once I had that money, we’d all start a life together that didn’t include Mission Cove, my father, or the gossips.

  One where I didn’t have to hide or pretend. Where Sunny, her mom, and sisters could start fresh.

  I stood and looked down at the water, the waves breaking against the rocks, deciding to go into town. I felt like some ice cream.

  If Sunny happened to be behind the counter at the diner, that would be even better.

  2

  Linc

&nb
sp; My father’s car was gone when I went back to the house. I was glad I didn’t have to see him again. I grabbed my keys and drove into town. Our large, rambling house was set on the hill overlooking the small town my father ruled—a gaudy, shiny symbol of his wealth and status.

  I went to the diner, sitting patiently in the corner booth no one liked. It was somewhat hidden and closer to the kitchen, the smell of the grease from the fryer lingering in the air. The old air conditioner that hung over the front door didn’t have the force it needed to reach this far into the room, so it was warmer than the rest of the place and the booth was usually empty.

  Lucky me.

  From my vantage point, I watched Sunny in the diner, filling coffee, scooping ice cream, always smiling and friendly.

  She was so pretty. Her hair was caught up in a high ponytail, the bright strawberry-blond gleaming under the artificial light. Despite her lack of height, you noticed her. Her smile and laughter, the kindness she treated everyone with.

  She approached my booth, a mischievous grin pulling up one corner of her mouth and her eyes dancing.

  “Hey, Lincoln. Didn’t expect to see you in here today.”