Summer's Song: Pine Point, Book 1 by Allie Boniface Read Free Book Online

I can’t—”
    Summer yanked the door open and flung herself into the narrow motel corridor. The door swung shut behind her. A second too late, she patted her back pocket. No keycard for Room 101.
    “Crap.”
    It didn’t matter now. His voice wouldn’t disappear from inside her head. She began running down the hall. Her pulse jumped; she could feel it inside her wrists and at the base of her throat. Perspiration dotted her upper lip and the corners of her mouth, and she tasted salt. At the far end of the hall, just in time, she reached for the bar across the exit door and pushed. Hard.
    “Summer? I’m scared. Where’s Gabe?”
    Sweet mountain air flooded her lungs, and the voice vanished.
    Oh, God . She’d forgotten how good it tasted—or that air could even taste at all. A complex combination of pine trees and starlight and wet, steamy pavement fell onto her tongue. She skittered to a stop and looked up. There they were, the dark shadows that hugged Pine Point. They hadn’t changed at all. They still stood, half-gorgeous, half-ominous, and looked down on her in silence. She remained there for long moment and just breathed.
    Donnie. She laid one hand against her chest and willed her heart to slow. She hadn’t dreamt of her little brother in years. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d called up his voice inside her head. And yet just a moment ago, he’d sounded as though he sat right behind her, with anguish in his words. Tears filled her eyes and she pressed the heels of her palms to her face to stop them from coming.
    “I have to get out of Pine Point.” She’d been a fool to return in the first place.
    I’ll take a drive. Maybe that’ll relax me.
    Summer climbed into her rental and fumbled with the headlights. Ahead of her, at the end of Main Street, she saw the fading taillights of another car. Other than that, all of Pine Point looked deserted. She took the first left and followed Perkins Lane around the back side of town. Not much new here. She passed the same collection of low-slung homes and double-wide trailers set back from the road. Every other one had a basketball hoop hanging from its garage door and pots of impatiens on the front step. At the corner of Melody Lane she braked. Her mouth tasted chalky, and perspiration slid down her spine. Of course. She’d driven the familiar route without even realizing it. Her stomach turned over and she was glad she hadn’t eaten much for dinner.
    From here, she couldn’t make out the one-story house with the sagging roof. She couldn’t see the pine trees that grew together and closed in the windows. But she knew it waited, a short half-mile away. Her childhood home. The yard she’d spent so much time playing in, the stream she’d spent so much time digging around. She turned the steering wheel without pressing on the gas. She wanted to see. She didn’t want to see. Daisy petals plucked themselves off the stem in her mind. Yes. No. Still she kept her foot on the brake. Not tonight.
    “Wanna come over later?” Gabe’s hand, warm on her bare thigh, moved upward. “Celebrate graduation?”
    She cut him a glance. Not with my kid brother in the car.
    “What?” Donnie’s carrot-top head bobbed in the back seat. “What didja say, Gabe?”
    “Shh.” Summer turned up the radio. June-warm wind lifted the hair from her neck as the car darted along the empty roads outside Pine Point. She felt full, sated with the night and the happiness of finally leaving high school and the thrill of the guy in the seat beside her. Yes, she wanted to spend all night with Gabe. All of tomorrow too, and every day of summer until they had to leave for college.
    She hadn’t known love could make her feel like this, like a helium balloon filled up to bursting. She adored him. And yes, she wanted to celebrate with him. God, more than anything. She wanted him to run his hands over her, to peel her clothes off the way he had last weekend when his parents were at the