Summer in the City: The perfect feel-good summer romance

by Emma Jackson

  ‘Are you asking if we can date again, or if you can come to another family barbecue?’ I smiled and it came up from my sneakers, filling me with a glow that beamed out.

  He smiled back but it was still tinged with concern. ‘Both?’

  ‘Well, I guess it’s up to Mom and Dad about the barbecue…but yes, Stephen, of course I’d like to date you again.’ I swallowed. ‘It was point four on the de-idiotising plan wasn’t it?’

  He wrapped his arms around my waist and tugged me against him. I could feel his breath shuddering in and out of his chest, like he’d run a sprint to get to this point. ‘This time I want to make you promises, Noelle. Small ones and big ones. You just have to ask.’

  ‘Okay. Here’s my first one…promise me you’ll shut up talking now and kiss me.’

  ‘I promise.’ He pressed his lips to mine. First tender, the relief of permission, the bitter sweetness of missing each other there in the gentle pressure…and then came the hunger. Falling into each other, deep and desperate, my arms entwined around his neck, the huge sun hat clutched in my left hand like a shield. I dropped it and we swayed together, his hand splayed on my back, firm, sliding down, making me weak—

  ‘Yeah, yeah, okay, break it up, I need to get upstairs,’ Sam’s voice shattered the haze and Stephen and I pulled apart to see him glaring at us with equal parts annoyance and embarrassment.

  Stephen took my hand and walked me down the steps towards the door, neither of us capable of speaking quite yet.

  ‘You got to be somewhere as well, remember?’ Sam tapped his imaginary watch on his wrist before he went up the stairs two at a time.

  ‘Oh yeah, babysitting.’ I leaned into Stephen’s arm, revelling in the feel of him, the bliss of being so close again. ‘I don’t suppose you want to join me again?’

  ‘Another time. But that’s not what we’re doing tonight.’

  ‘We’re not?’

  ‘No.’ He curled his hand around my jaw, stroked his thumb along my cheek. ‘I’m taking you out, to the drive-in.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘It’s all arranged. I’ve hired a car and that’s why I wanted to pick you up from here. I want to take you to a drive-in movie and make out with you, the way you should’ve been taken out when you were a teenager.’ He grinned, wide and more heart-stopping than any teenage crush I’d ever had. My inner wallflower rejoiced, and I drew in a shaky breath.

  ‘Stephen, that’s so…’

  ‘Charming?’ He rolled his eyes and feigned a sigh. ‘I think I can live with it.’

  I tiptoed up to plant another kiss on his gorgeous mouth, because I was sure I could live with it too.

  Epilogue

  Dear Lila

  I want to introduce myself to you. I’m Stephen and I’m your half-brother, who you have most likely never heard of before. I only found out about you this summer, so I’m sorry, I know this might come as a shock that leaves you feeling off-balance, angry and sad. I felt all those things too.

  I’m thirty-three years old and I’m British, like our father, Trevor. He left me when I was three and I only tracked him down this year because my mother, who passed away recently, left him something. Actually, that wasn’t the only reason I tracked him down. I also wanted to draw a line under my connection to him. His reputation has haunted me my entire life. The way he let my mother and I down has haunted me all my life too. I don’t like him. I don’t think I can ever forgive him, and I wanted to look him in the eye and show him that he missed out and that his leaving was actually the best thing that ever happened to me. I wanted to show him he didn’t matter to me in the slightest and then move on and forget about him.

  But then he told me about you. About how he’d done the same thing, all over again to another woman and another child in New York. That I had a sister. And I was livid – not just because he had been so irresponsible and selfish again, but because he had made it impossible for me to forget and walk away. I already have a brother; his name is Nick and he’s five years younger than me. My mum remarried an amazing man called David, who showed me how a real dad was supposed to act, and Nick came along shortly after.

  I don’t know if you have any other siblings but, for me, the relationship I have with my brother is something so valuable to me, it’s inconceivable for me not to want to reach out to you and tell you that I’m here. Nick and I argue and clash, but ultimately, no one understands me the way he does, no one gets what it was like to grow up in our house, with our family, what things spark nostalgia, what things bring back bad memories, and who our Mum and Dad (the dad who raised me) truly were behind closed doors, tucking us in at night or telling us off. I know we can’t ever have that shared bond, but we understand something about each other that no one else can as well.

  We know what it’s like to have a biological father like Trevor, who didn’t deserve us.

  I would love to meet you and get to know you, but I will also understand if you never want to even think about me, ever again. I’m going to be working in New York for the rest of the summer but my girlfriend lives here in New York so I will be visiting as much as I can. Let me know a time and place and I’ll do my best to make it happen.

  If you decide not to, I wish with all my heart that you have a good life and that you don’t let Trevor’s treatment of you and your mother taint your view of yourself or the world. And if you ever need me, I’m just an email or a phone call away.

  Stephen

  I folded the letter and slid it into an envelope, copying the address of Lorna Smith from my phone. I didn’t know if my sister still lived with her mother, but there was no way Lorna could know this was from me, so hopefully she’d pass it on. It was a first step. If I heard nothing by the end of the summer perhaps I’d try visiting the apartment again. Or I’d embark on another search across the city. I had the perfect partner to help me with my mission after all.

  ‘All done?’ Noelle looked up from her laptop, seated beside me at the table in the apartment, where she was working on the line edits of her book.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Wanna go mail it?’

  ‘No time like the present—’

  Both our phones started ringing at the same time. We looked at our screens as they vibrated on the table beside us.

  ‘It’s Beth.’

  ‘It’s Nick.’

  We grinned at each other. We both knew what this meant. Like we were reaching for our guns in a shoot-out, we lifted our phones and answered.

  ‘I did it, she said yes.’ I heard Nick’s voice, slightly shaking down the phone to me. But only just because the end of the table where Noelle was on the phone to Beth had erupted in squeals. Noelle was on her feet, practically hopping up and down.

  ‘That’s amazing. Congratulations,’ I told Nick as I walked to the other end of the living room, trying to hear him better as he explained that he’d waited for the summer fete in the village and danced with her to the same band who had played at the Christmas fayre, before going down on one knee.

  ‘Mum would have liked Beth wouldn’t she?’ Nick asked.

  ‘Of course she would. She makes you happy. That’s all she ever wanted for us.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Nick agreed. ‘I’d better ring Nan now.’

  We hung up and I had to wait another ten minutes for Noelle to finish on the phone to Beth. Apparently, there were a lot more vital details that Nick had neglected to tell me and I’d been remiss not to ask about.

  ‘Shall we go for lunch after I’ve posted the letter?’ I asked when she came over to hug me, full of delight for her friend and my brother. ‘Celebrate for them?’

  ‘Oh, you are on. I’ve got fifty pages left and a break right about now would be perfect. Lemme go fetch my hat.’ She winked at me and hurried up the spiral staircase to my bedroom.

  We walked to the nearest mailbox and there were some jitters in my stomach as I grabbed its blue metal handle, hot from the sunshine, but not enough to make me hesitate as I dropped the letter in
to the cool black space inside.

  I couldn’t control the outcome of this, and I was okay with that. I used to think I had to keep everything locked up in box to avoid people being hurt, but I wasn’t sure I even owned a box anymore. It had burst open and now it was time to figure out how to live life with all the messy emotions out. I didn’t want to stuff away the way I felt anymore. I’d given that up when I realised there wasn’t a building, let alone a box, big enough in Manhattan to fit how I felt about Noelle.

  So, if my half-sister decided she didn’t want to meet me, I could understand that. I had family who loved me, and it was more than enough to be grateful for. But if Lila did decide to find out who her mysterious older brother was, I knew I could make space in my life and my heart for her.

  Noelle linked her fingers through mine and hugged my arm a little. ‘So, what now? Where shall we head for lunch?’

  ‘Actually, I’ve already booked somewhere.’

  ‘Really? You sly old dog. Am I dressed appropriately?’ She smoothed a hand down her sleeveless blouse, and I dropped a kiss on her forehead.

  ‘You look perfect.’

  We caught the subway as the restaurant I booked was all the way on Madison Avenue. It wasn’t too busy, but we stood up because there were no seats spare together. I held on to the rope and Noelle held on to me, as she told me all about the two ideas she’d had for the books she was going to pitch to her editor. One being a romance about a history teacher and a former student who meet again years after she had a crush on him and wrote sordid fan fiction about him, the other being a dark thriller, surrounding a disappearing apartment. This was a new part of the process I was getting to witness with her, so different to the way she’d disappeared into her edits. She was alight with ideas and possibilities, beautiful and fascinating.

  We bumped into Alfie and Teddy when we got off the subway and they were about to invite themselves along for lunch but Noelle told them, firmly and kindly, that we’d see them tomorrow at Brigid’s christening and they were not going to gatecrash our lunch.

  We arrived at the building for the restaurant, taking the lift upstairs. Noelle frowned at me, concern in her grey eyes. ‘Did you know this was a rooftop dining place?’

  ‘I did.’

  ‘And you’ll be okay?’

  ‘I think so.’

  When we got upstairs the indoor part of the restaurant was full and they showed us out to a spare table I was lucky I reserved on the roof. Outside was like the ruins of an old church with high arches, a warm red brick to match the small patterned tiles under foot – but there were no windows in the arches, they were just skeletons, creating a picturesque frame for the blue sky beyond. Between that and the smells of spice coming from the kitchen, I could see why this was a popular place.

  We took our seat by the one of the tallest pillars of the wall and I noted that about now, I would normally start getting nervous. Noelle leaned forward on the table, putting her hat beside the wine glasses and speared me with a searching look again. ‘Are you sure you’re doing okay? We don’t have to stay; there are plenty of other places to eat.’

  ‘I’m okay.’ We thanked the server who came over with our menus and I leaned over the table again. ‘You remember that night at the bar on Fifth Avenue?’

  ‘I could hardly forget it.’

  ‘I was only talking to Logan because it was an excuse to stay inside, rather than go out on the terrace. And I didn’t recognise you because you were by that big window that I couldn’t bear to look at. Even when I did get some Dutch courage to go outside and you waved, I couldn’t go over and talk to you like I wanted, because you were standing right by the wall. I was too scared.’

  She took my hand across the table. ‘It’s okay. Things worked out. Everyone has something they’re scared of.’

  ‘Come with me.’ I stood up, pulling her to my side and walking her over to the large archway nearest to us. As I got closer I kept my breathing steady, five seconds in and five seconds out, and even though I felt a tingling of nerves at the pit of my stomach, it was hard to know if they were there because I was scared or because I thought I should be.

  Noelle stared at me as we stopped right next to the archway, the wall only as high as our hips, with sixty feet between us and the ground below.

  ‘Oh my God, Stephen, what’s happening?’ She tucked her free hand into my waistband like she needed to reassure me – or herself.

  ‘You know how I’ve been busy with those lunch meetings on Thursdays the last few weeks?’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Well, the meetings have actually been appointments with a CBT counsellor.’

  She immediately jumped to the right conclusion. ‘To get over your fear of heights?’

  I nodded. ‘It’s early days but look, no clammy hands, no hyperventilating. My first step was being able to stand at the window in my office and look down, properly down at the street below, and then I opened my Juliet balcony doors, and now this…’

  ‘That’s amazing. I am so proud of you.’ She hugged me tightly, leaning back to look up at me with that familiar spark of an idea in her eye. ‘You know what this means don’t you.’

  I nodded again.

  ‘Another Coney Island visit!’

  ‘Er no.’

  ‘Oh, maybe that is a bit soon.’ She tried her best not to pout and I laughed and pulled her in closer.

  ‘Eventually, we’ll go to Coney Island. But most importantly…I’m not prepared to let my fear hold me back from being at your side anymore.’ She looked up at me, and I felt it, the thing that Nick had said to me, the pressure that insisted on being released filled my chest. ‘I love you, Noelle.’

  She smiled up at me, her face full of sunshine, the freckles dancing across her nose, the sky blue and the tall buildings of New York lined up behind her like witnesses.

  ‘I love you too.’

  I bent my head down to kiss her softly. To anchor myself in this moment, because Nick hadn’t told me about this part; the feeling you might float away with happiness when the person you loved, said it back.

  Acknowledgements

  I’d like to thank my editors, Victoria, for her wonderful expertise, unflagging enthusiasm and support, and Helena, who I really hope I don’t drive insane with my inability to remember how to hyphenate appropriately and many other bad grammatical habits.

  To the RNA members for sharing their knowledge so generously. The fantastic ‘Bar Babes’, the fabulous #UKRomChat crew and the Chick-Lit & Prosecco Facebook group, (run by the amazing Anita, whose pep-talks have lifted me up on more than one occasion) and all the members of the online writing and reading communities. Your friendships have come to mean so much in this time when social media is a bridge across the distances between us.

  To Tanya, Charlotte, and Wendy. To Mum, Dad, Kel and the Quirk’s. I can’t wait to give you all the hugs.

  To Dan, my unbelievable partner and resident IT expert, and my two gorgeous daughters, Lily and Penny.

  At the Everdene Hotel, snowflakes, romance and mayhem are in the air …

  A cosy hotel in a sleepy, snow-covered village should be the perfect setting for a Christmas to remember … But for Beth, returning to her childhood home after a disastrous break-up looks more like a festive fiasco.

  With her mum stranded in a blizzard and most of the hotel staff off sick, Beth is forced to take the reins, impress a mystery hotel reviewer, and somehow find a way to work with Nick, the very grumpy – and very gorgeous – pilot who is staying for the holidays.

  Between mince pie emergencies, deadly decorations, and two dozen disgruntled guests, Beth might just find a miracle under the mistletoe this Christmas …

  Heartwarming and hilarious, this is the perfect festive romance to curl up with this winter. Perfect for fans of Heidi Swain and Sue Moorcroft.

  Available in ebook now!

  About the Author

  Emma Jackson lives with her partner and two daughters in East Sussex, not far
from the village of Alfriston, the inspiration for Loganbury. Her short story ‘On the Edge’ was published in September 2017 in the United in Love romance anthology and her debut novel, A Mistletoe Miracle was published in 2019. Summer in the City is her second romantic comedy, with another one coming in 2020.

  https://esjackson.co.uk/

  @ESJackson1

  Copyright

  AN ORION EBOOK

  First published in 2020 by Orion Fiction

  Copyright © Emma Jackson 2020

  The right of Emma Jackson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN: 978 1 4091 9943 4

  The Orion Publishing Group Ltd

  Carmelite House

  50 Victoria Embankment

  London, EC4Y 0DZ

  An Hachette UK company

  www.orionbooks.co.uk