Lasting Summer - [Loving Summer 05] by Kailin Gow, Kailin Romance Read Free Book Online Page A

breath, getting
ready to get up to go ‘rescue’ Drew from the girls.
    “Can
a Peacock get any more vain?” A handsome young man about nineteen or twenty sat
down next to me. Although he was dressed in baggy skater boy clothes, the
laid-back casual California attire preferred by many of the guys in college,
with a cap scrunched over his bleached platinum hair; I could tell he was very
good-looking.
    Trying
not to turn my head to openly check him out, I glanced at him from the corner
of my eye. He was tall, had long legs and broad shoulders. Sitting next to
him, I felt his strong presence, although he himself seemed laid-back without a
single care in the world.
    I
laughed. “He seemed to be enjoying himself,” I said watching Drew charm his way
with the girls. I was about to go help him out but just watched him. He was
used to his Drew Effect on women of all ages, and he knew how to work it. One
girl was handing him a pen, while another was massaging his shoulders.
    “Yup,
he does,” the gorgeous man next to me said. “I’m surprised not all the women in
class are over there joining his harem. The guy’s one charmer, isn’t he?”
    “Yes,
if you’re into that kind of thing. I don’t do harems. A guy who seemed so into
himself like that just doesn’t do it for me.”
    I
watched Drew get kissed on the cheeks from a girl who I recognized as the
President of a sorority. Drew had belonged to a fraternity last year and been a
star quarterback on the football team on a scholarship and on early admission.
Of course he was prime meat for the prettiest and most popular girls on campus.
    I
clenched my hands into a fist as that kiss on the cheeks turned into a kiss on
the lips, and Drew seemed to have kissed her back. “Uh, would he stop this?” I
muttered. “I can’t believe him, after all he’d said to me last night, seemed
him being into me was a lie too.”
    I
wanted to get out and storm out of the room, but the gorgeous man next to me
placed his hand gently on my elbow. “He’s not worth it,” he said. “Don’t let a
man keep you from living your life. You’re here to learn, aren’t you? Then
don’t leave just because that guy missed out on an opportunity to show you he
is worthy of you.”
    Wow,
he seemed deep. I glanced over at the guy next to me to see his face, but he
was half hidden to me, as he looked straight ahead. All I could see was his
strong chin covered in a day’s growth of stubble, his aristocratic nose and
long eyelashes from his side profile. Without his cap, he’d probably be even
more gorgeous than Drew, but in a rock star kind of way. “I can’t watch him
like that,” I said.
    “Then
don’t,” he said. “Ignore him. He’s an idiot for putting on this kind of show in
front of you, if he thinks it’ll get your attention. How do you feel?”
    “Disappointed,”
I said. “I thought he grew up. I thought he turned over a new leaf, that he can
act more responsible, more of a man whom I can lean on and trust, that he could
be more like…” I stopped. What was I about to say? That I wanted Drew to be
more like Nat? All this time, that was what I loved about Drew?
    “What?”
the guy asked, suddenly turning to face me.
    “Oh never mind,” I said, blushing. “I
shouldn’t be telling you all this. We’ve just met, and now you must think I’m
some kind of emotional mess.”
    “Never,” the guy laughed. “If you’re an
emotional mess, you sure hide it well.”
    “Thank you,” I said. “I try. I figure
it’s the start of a whole new school year, I can try to start fresh, get more
involved in school than I did last year.”
    “That sounds promising,” the guy said.
“Always good to start fresh if you could.”
    “I’m Summer,” I smiled, offering my hand
to him.
    He turned towards me, looked me in my
eyes with his aquamarine eyes, mesmerizing me for a second. The shape of his
eyes, those long lashes that any girl would envy, the intensity of his direct
gaze…they