Wild Summer (14 page)

They’re your friends. What if they don’t like me?
Summer had asked when they’d first arranged this trip.

Why on earth wouldn’t they like you?
Crash had replied with a frown, because he knew, of course, they would like Summer.

Everyone they met liked Summer. Summer was sweet and charming and funny, full of light and life. He had whole classrooms of devotees at Sky’s school down the road from his flat where he taught sign language at lunchtimes. Sometimes he brought Crash along, and Crash, without knowing why, would tear up and be useless to do anything but watch him, and Sky would come and sit on his lap and tell him, without saying a word, how proud she was of her brother.

It was just a voluntary post at the school, though. Summer, despite how good he was at it, didn’t want to teach. He wanted to be a social worker—he always had. He wanted to help the kids the system had failed, and Estella had taken him under her wing, somehow got him on to a degree-level course that started in September—a few weeks away—and agreed to be his mentor.

Studying full-time wouldn’t pay Summer’s rent on his flat, but he’d applied for a student loan, and he was entitled to receive certain benefits. It would be enough to survive on, just, and he needed to show he could survive if the long-term plan of having Sky live with him was going to work.

At some point Crash was going to move in with him, but right now Summer needed the chance to find his feet
… find himself,
as Kay would say. She loved Summer too. Crash had always known she would.

All of this, the whole newness and independence of his life, even Ren being convicted of attempted murder—a charge he tried and failed to get reduced because of diminished responsibility—Summer took in his stride.

Meeting Romeo and Julian seemed to be the biggest deal of the year.

But it was hardly surprising, really. Those lonely years he’d spent while he was with Ren had left him so uncertain of himself when it came to friendships. For so long there had only been his performance-break conversations at the club with the lovely Tom.

Crash glanced at his watch.

The movement caused Summer to sit up. He took a deep breath, as if he were steeling himself. “Okay, let’s go,” he said, chewing his lip ring and trying not to grimace.

Taking his hand, Crash smiled at him.

“Relax. It’s going to be all right.”

Hand in hand they walked toward the copse and the disused railway tracks beyond it that led almost all the way to the sea. No trees swayed. There was no breeze—the whole world was still and beautiful, the air heavy with promise.

They saw the flowers before they saw the railway house—overlong and wild, they spilled out from the garden, covered in drowsy bees. Crash loved it here. Smiling, he felt some of the tension in Summer’s grip on his hand disappear, and when he caught Summer’s gaze, he knew from the look Summer was giving him that he was all right, knew that his worry was diminishing.

Sometimes words weren’t always needed. Sometimes a look was all that was necessary—whole conversations in the blink of an eye…. Sparks, that’s what they were, because there were always sparks between them, sparks that still made his skin tingle and lit up his world.

As it had once before, the light shifted around them, making everything at once clear and, at the same time, strangely indistinct, and the green tunnel of trees shimmered in the haze.

S
UKI
F
LEET
currently lives in the heart of England. Her childhood was quite unconventional and she spent some time living on a boat and travelling at sea with her family. Since she was very small she has always dreamed of writing for a living, but though she has written original fiction online for years and encouraged many new writers to keep going and follow their author dreams, it is only recently she got the courage to make her own dream a reality and actually send something off to a publisher.

By day she runs her own business selling fabric (her second love) and juggling family commitments, by night she weaves the stories that the characters in her head dictate. These stories often start with pain or longing but always end with love.

http://sukifleet.tumblr.com/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7919609/Suki Fleet

https://www.facebook.com/suki.fleet.3

http://sukifleet.wordpress.com/

http://www.harmonyinkpress.com

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ARMONY
I
NK
P
RESS

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Wild Summer

© 2014 Suki Fleet.

Cover Art

© 2014 Aaron Anderson.

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Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.

All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Harmony Ink Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or [email protected].

Digital ISBN: 978-1-63216-496-4

First Edition October 2014

Printed in the United States of America