This Summer by Katlyn Duncan Read Free Book Online Page A

year old girl. Why was I a bumbling mess around him? And that accent? If it didn’t mean him disappearing from my life without another word I wouldn’t regret that extra detail that made my insides twist every time he spoke.
    A knock on the door broke the spell. My hip bumps against the desk and my pen jar clatters to the wood surface. I scramble to pick it up and the door opens. Mom’s bleary eyes meet mine. Her dirty blonde hair sticks up at all angles and she’s in her robe that has more holes than fabric. Her favorite.
    “Good morning,” she says. “I heard you talking.”
    I point to the window as I put the last strewn pen back in its place. “Will.”
    Mom’s eyebrows shoot up. “I see you’ve fallen back into your routine.”
    I focus on the corner of my desk as heat rushes up my neck.
    “Well,” she says breathily. “I’m going to start breakfast. Dad has to leave in a few.”
    “Okay,” I say, thinking of snow and glacial frost, anything to release the heat from my cheeks.
    Calm down you idiot.
    She leaves the door cracked open and I let out a breath as I hear her pad down the hallway. She’d given me the third degree about Will at dinner, Dad apparently keeping that gem from the entire family. But he dutifully shifted the conversation to the cruise and Mom had a lot to say about that.
    I didn’t want to make a big deal of Will being home, but she was my mom. I told her everything. Sometimes Lily got a bit too interested in detail, even on the hard topics, so Mom was a happy medium. She was there when I made an embarrassing mess of myself crying over Will those years ago. Only after months of her listening to me snuggled up in my bed did I start to feel silly. Turning off all thoughts of Will was my idea but she never pushed for anything I didn’t want. That’s what I’d have to do again, at least for the next two months. It would be easier for everyone if I was able to just be friends with him like I chose to do with Carter. At the end of the summer we will all go our separate ways and move on with our lives. I inhale deeply and let it go slowly, my body relaxing with each passing second.
    I grab my phone from the charger and turn it on. Dad has a strict “phone off” rule at night. He knew Lily’s habits of staying out late and calling or texting me in the early hours of the morning. I hadn’t protested at all, I liked sleep as much as he did.
    I tuck the phone into my pocket and grab my purse on the way out of the room. Halfway down the hall the phone explodes with nearly a dozen texts. I scroll through them as I descend the stairs. Lily had gone out the night before with the new kid at her non-summer job at a coffee shop on the local campus. Apparently a college guy who stayed on campus over the summer. I knew more about him from those texts than I wanted to that early in the morning. Or ever. But the one that makes me pause in the kitchen doorway is from Carter. Just three words.
    I miss you.
    My heart squeezes. The timestamp was 1:48 AM.
    “Is something wrong?” Mom asks.
    I look up at her. She’s leaning against the counter blowing into her steaming mug of coffee.
    I shove my phone into my purse. “Nope. Just Lily.”
    Mom shakes her head, smiling. “I just hope she’s careful.”
    “She is, Mom,” I groan. As much as Mom loves Lily, some of the things Lily did were not mom-approved and I could almost hear the gears in her head spinning, wondering if her daughter would ever be that careless. But she had to know better. I never broke curfew and never had a date with anyone except Carter who had been a perfect gentleman in front of my parents. Thinking of him made his text message pop into my mind again. In a way I was grateful that he took the job at the pool. I’d only have to see him for an hour a day which would be enough space for us. And hopefully he would get over our relationship soon enough. It should have bothered me that I was over it quicker than he was, but for some