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

shore. But they had to take Donnie home first, or—
    The other car came out of nowhere. Blinding lights. Grinding brakes. A snapping motion that engaged the airbag and bloodied her face. Tree limbs scratching at her arms and face. And the screaming, high-pitched and panicked in the dark.
    “Summer? Summer?”
    Something cold stiffened her spine. The voice came from somewhere over her shoulder, and she would have tried to see where, except she couldn’t move her arms and she couldn’t find her legs and all she could hear was her little brother looking for her—
    Summer sucked in air and tried to stop her heart from leaping out of her chest.
    “Why is this happening?” Her head dropped onto the steering wheel, and this time she gave in to the tears.
    Stupid question . She knew the answer. Everyone in the town knew. Three miles from this spot, ten years ago, her world had shattered. Her brother—gone. The life she’d known—fractured. She’d spent a decade trying to piece herself together again, but being back in Pine Point was stirring her up in ways she’d never dreamed possible. Summer pressed her lips together to try to keep her weeping at bay. She tried to recall her brother, the other driver, what had happened when the cops arrived. She couldn’t. She only remembered the blinding beam of a flashlight moving over the car. Sirens. Gabe’s hand in hers.
    And a lot of questions she couldn’t answer.

Chapter Five
    Summer eased her car into the last open space on the Hunter lawn, wondering again why she’d agreed to come to Rachael’s lake party. She had no time for this. She had less than a week before she left Pine Point, and if she could work a small miracle, she’d be gone even earlier. No more dizzy spells or memories of the accident since the other night at the motel, thank goodness, and that one she was chalking up to fatigue. Still, fear laced the hours now.
    “Summer!” Rachael Hunter waved from the front porch of the ivy-covered house.
    Summer climbed from her car and looked toward the oak that hid the water. I climbed that tree . I sat in the branches and spied on Cat and his friends until the sun went down. How many days had she spent here, basking in the warmth of Rachael and her family? How many times had she fled the emptiness of her own home, left her father sitting alone while she tried to find a place to feel normal? And why hadn’t she come back at least once in all the years since to visit her most loyal childhood friend? Because I couldn’t cope. Not even with seeing Rachael. Suddenly she felt much older than twenty-eight. She palmed the car keys and locked the doors before she remembered she was in the middle of farmland, not downtown San Francisco.
    “God, ten years, Summer. Look at you! I can’t believe you’re really here!” Rachael met her halfway and flung her arms around her best friend.
    “Me either.”
    Rachael gave her a long look up and down. “You look good. Too thin, but good. How long are you staying?”
    “Only a few more days.”
    “You’re kidding.”
    “I have a ton of work at the museum.”
    “C’mon…you haven’t been back here since high school. Can’t you take some more time off? You’re still running that museum, right? You’re not dealing with anything that’s going anywhere.”
    “Stop it.” Summer bristled. She hated when people spoke about her job, about the way she’d chosen to spend her life, like that. As if centuries long gone were somehow less significant than what happened in the here and now. Without understanding the past, she always explained to the doubters, people had no business living in the present. Everything linked together in a beautiful, complicated chain.
    “Sorry. I just mean that the exhibits aren’t going to grow legs and walk away if you stay another week or two in Pine Point,” Rachael added. “I’ve missed you.”
    “I’ve missed you too.”
    Rachael blew platinum blonde strands of hair from her eyes and