Sun-Kissed Summer Read online

  Copyright © 2018 Kae Nicole. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover and Formatting by Studio Four Twelve

  www.studiofourtwelve.com

  Edited by Briggs Consulting, LLC

  Chapters

  Playlist

  1. Ashley

  2. Ashley

  3. Jamie

  4. Ashley

  5. Ashley

  6. Jamie

  7. Ashley

  8. Ashley

  9. Jamie

  10. Ashley

  11. Jamie

  12. Ashley

  13. Jamie

  14. Ashley

  15. Ashley

  16. Jamie

  A Letter to Halle

  Afterword

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Playlist

  Now or Never–Halsey

  Sleep Talking–Charlotte Lawrence

  Happier–Marshmello, Bastille

  Let Me Go–Hailee Steinfeld

  All Time Low–Jon Bellion

  The Middle–Zedd, Maren Morris, Grey

  I like Me Better–Lauv

  Back To You–Selena Gomez

  First Love–Lost Kings, Sabrina Carpenter

  Feel Good–Gryffin, Daya, ILLENIUM

  No Promises–Cheat Codes, Demi Lavato

  Takeaway–The Chainsmokers

  if we never met– John K

  New-Daya

  Listen on Spotify

  This book is dedicated to my son.

  Without him this story would never exist.

  Change happens for you the moment you want something more than you fear it.

  -Eric Michael Leventhal

  CHAPTER 1

  Ashley

  I walk into the pool house with Halle dragging behind me, both of us annoyed and sick of summer already.

  "Why is this place so damn boring without the boys," I complain, looking back at Halle as she sits on the stool at the bar.

  "I really would like to think we were the life of the party, but it's only been a few weeks since they left and I am already bored of my life completely," she tells me, chuckling.

  "Your gymnastics has been on point," I tell her with a laugh of my own, poking fun at her over working in the gym since Brandon left for basic training. "I'm surprised I even got you out of the gym long enough to swim with me."

  She cuts her eyes at me. "Shut up; I've needed the distraction."

  "I know, I know," I tell her, walking around the bar. "I've needed a distraction too, but you'll definitely be winning all the meets with the training you've been doing."

  "I don't want to let myself get bored at all," she explains. "Boredom equals to my thoughts wandering and when they wander, they always seem to go back to him and all the time we spent together and it makes me sad, you know?"

  I nod, knowing exactly what she's talking about. I've been drowning in my thoughts of the last few months with Jamie. How he made me smile, how I couldn't ever quite grasp his mood fluctuations because they change so quickly, or all our petty little fights.

  I miss all of it and I know Halle feels the same about Brandon. Probably even worse since she can't even talk to Brandon right now.

  "Hey," I say excitedly, "I know something we can do to cure our boredom."

  "What?" She asks before taking a drink from her water bottle.

  "Let's throw a pool party!" I glance out at the pool and my smile grows as I think about the fun.

  "I don't know ..."

  "Come on, Halle, you know you want to," I say, trying to convince her.

  "I ..." She glances out at the pool before meeting my stare. "I think a party is a really good idea. I'll text Kai and tell him to get the word out to everybody. I don't want to deal with texting everyone."

  I slap the counter. "Yes! Text him and let's run to the store to get some stuff."

  "All we need is music and the damn pool. We can tell other people to bring stuff," Halle says, chuckling. "But okay, I guess we could get more floats or something."

  "Hell yeah, let's go."

  We both put our bathing suit covers on and hurry out the gate to the van my parents surprised me with last week. They knew I was super sad about Jamie being gone and considering how they’ve always used money to pacify me, they tried to buy my happiness with a car.

  Don't get me wrong, I love what they got me, and it will make it a lot easier to go visit him, but them buying me a new car doesn't rewind the last few months so I can relive them or anything. I know it sounds so stupid, but I miss him a lot more than I thought I would and honestly, it scares me.

  We get to the vintage VW van and as soon as we walk up to it Halle smiles widely.

  "I don't think I'll ever truly believe your parents got you this. I mean it has a freaking bed in the back." She scoffs with a smile before looking back to take another peek at the inside of the back of the truck. She’s done it every time we get in it.

  "They know we'll be leaving for college soon or whatever and they said it would be cheaper for gymnastics meets if we had this to drive to them. I'm really excited to go on road trips with you this year," I admit, starting the car and pulling out of my driveway.

  "It will make one hell of a college car," she says. I nod, daydreaming about how amazing it will be traveling anywhere I want in this van as the music Halle puts on plays loudly.

  By the time I snap out of my thoughts, we've arrived at the store, and head straight for the games and pool toys.

  "Have you texted Kai?" I ask as we walk toward the pool toys.

  "Yeah, he sent out a huge mass text and people are asking what time."

  I pull my phone out and see where Kai added me to the group message too, and I quickly respond telling everyone to be at my house by five o'clock.

  "We have enough time to finish up here, pick up some coffee, and get back to my house and get dolled up," I tell Halle, glancing up from my phone.

  "I'm not getting dolled up," she scoffs. "I don't want to sit on the edge of the pool and think. I want to be going off the diving board and down the slide."

  I laugh. "I can't even pretend like I didn't already know you were going to act this way. Busy body is your new name."

  She shrugs, grinning. "I'll take it. It beats drowning in my sorrows."

  I stick my tongue out at her, knowing the slick shot was her way of messing with me for not handling the guys being gone very well outwardly.

  "You know I'm here if you want to talk," she offers with a small smile. "We’re in the same situation but I've heard keeping it all bottled up isn't good."

  "I said that to you, butthole,” I say. “I’m not ready to talk yet."

  "Okay." She nods. "I just want you to know I'm here."

  "I know, and I'm really glad I have you. This is my way of overworking in the gym," I say with a grin.

  "Throw the floats out by the pool and let whoever wants to use them blow them up," Halle says, walking past me into the pool house with all the food dangling from her arms as she carries our iced coffees.

  Setting all of the bags I'm carrying down, I leave the ones with all of the different floats we picked up on the concrete poolside and pick the rest back up. I rush up the steps into the pool house and toss the bags on the couch.

  Halle empties all the food out onto the bar, and I go and help her. We got so much food and once we get it all out and set up, we go into the loft and spruce ourselves up in the bathroom.

  My camera system sends alerts to my phone when people start to pull into th
e driveway.

  "They're on time," I tell Halle with a smirk, holding my phone up so she can see the cars starting to park. Everyone knows to come to the side gate and as we both hurry out of the loft; Halle cuts the music on inside of the house and I jog to the pool house door.

  I stick my head out and call back to Halle. "Turn it up a little."

  Walking out as she cuts the music up a little louder, I notice Kai and Lina coming through the gate with a bunch of kids hot on their heels.

  Halle steps up beside me and smiles big while looking out over the pool. When she turns to face me, her eyes narrow and her smile grows sneaky. I already know what's about to happen, but there's no use in trying to get away at this point because I noticed a fraction of a second too late.

  "Let's party," she says before bear-hugging me and jumping into the pool, dragging me under the cool water with her.

  CHAPTER 2

  Ashley

  I lay back on the float Halle blew up for me as an apology for almost killing me and grin.

  “You know, I really could’ve died,” I tell her, trying to keep my face serious.

  She shakes her head. “Would you shut up already? You didn’t almost die. You got water up your nose.”

  “Exactly, and I almost aspirated the water and died,” I say jokingly, not doing a great job keeping my face straight any longer.

  “You’re so dramatic,” she scolds before pushing me off the float and back into the water.

  I hear her laughing while I’m under the water and when I come up again, smiling myself, I see her swimming across the pool to get away from me. I start to swim after her, pushing the float out of my way, but I'm side splashed by someone jumping into the pool.

  Thinking it's probably Tony, trying to buy Halle time, I splash in the direction he came from. There are squeals and loud talking all around us as he splashes me back. We go back and forth for a few seconds before his hands grip my torso, lifting me from the water.

  I squeal as I wipe my eyes, wondering why on earth Tony is picking me up. Once I get the water out of my eyes, I open them and my breathing hitches.

  In the worst way possible.

  I stare down at my ex and I almost scream as I claw at his hands, so he’ll release me. He lets me go and I rush to the side of the pool.

  “That's no way to welcome me home,” he chuckles, following me to the side and getting out behind me.

  “You are not welcome here, asshole,” I snarl as I wrap myself in one of the soft towels we have laid out around the pool. “You need to leave.”

  “Aw come on, Ash,” he says, his voice going soft when he says my name, how I used to love. His tricks don't work on me anymore. “I'm home for the summer, thought we could get what we used to have back.”

  I let out a dry scoff as people really start to notice the scene unfolding before them. They know it’s about to get a lot worse.

  “Are you fucking kidding me,” I ask, my voice a screech. “Get the hell out of my face.”

  “Whoa, babe, calm down,” he tells me, cockily, reaching for me.

  I move my arm away, quickly turning to my left as a body pushes by me hard. I watch as a fist connects with Lance's face. I get pushed back by the huge crowd and stumble trying not to fall. When I finally get back steady on my feet, Halle is running my way, her eyes wide and focused on the fight behind me.

  I glance over my shoulder at the chaos. It’s a little too close to the pool for my liking and I realize it’s Jamie is fighting Lance. Jamie punched him. Jamie is currently kicking my ex’s ass. Wait.

  Jamie is here!

  My eyes are huge as I push back through the crowd, Halle close to me now pushing too.

  “Jamie stop!” I scream, worried he’s going to kill him. I rush in and grab his arm and shout his name again, finally gaining his attention.

  He looks at me with wide eyes before quickly turning back to Lance. “Get the fuck out of here, bro, unless you want some more.”

  Lance stands, holding his face and starts to say something, but Lockheart pushes him back hard, moving him away from us.

  “Holy shit, Jamie! What the hell was that?” Halle asks dramatically.

  She walks closer to us as the shock starts to wear off for the people around us. They’re watching Jamie to see if he’ll go after Lance as he stares hard in the direction he went, but I latch onto his arm to make sure he stays right here.

  “He had it coming,” Jamie says, grinning and seeming to cool off as quickly as he got upset. “Brandon is going to flip when I tell him I got so many licks in. Fucking pussy.”

  I glance at Halle and she’s smiling and nodding, but I still see a sadness in her eyes at the mention of Brandon’s name.

  “Yeah, and you’ll never let it die that you got so many licks in either.” She laughs before hitting his arm. “But glad you made it…”

  She walks off and I watch her leave with narrowed eyes. When I find my gaze back on Jamie, he’s grinning from ear to ear.

  “Surprise,” he says, holding his arms open. All I can do is smile.

  He walks toward me with his arms still outreached and I put my hands on his chest as he wraps around me. Peering up at him, I couldn’t ditch my smile even if I wanted to.

  “Why are you back?” I ask, curiously. “It’s Tuesday, don’t you have practice in the morning?”

  “I came back to surprise you,” he tells me, kissing my lips between words. “You’re surprised right? Or did Halle ruin it?”

  I chuckle and shake my head. “She didn’t ruin it; I really had no idea.”

  “Good, well you have me until the weekend,” he tells me, with an even bigger smile than before, making me squeal.

  “The weekend?!”

  “Yep.” He nods. “Coach gave us the next few days off for the fourth.”

  I break out of his hug and jump up and down before kissing his lips. “How did you keep this from me? I bet you’ve known about it for a while.”

  He smirks. “I’ve known since our first week, but isn’t this the romantic kind of shit you like for me to do?”

  “Yeah, it is. I’m really glad you’re here.”

  He wraps me into another hug, letting his hands rest low on my back, and pulls me closer to him. “I am too. I’ve missed you.”

  I know we’re making a scene, and people are staring, but I can’t pull myself from his grasp. I’ve missed the way his fingers feel against my skin and the way the smell of his cologne sends chills up and down my spine. I want to get lost in him the moment I notice he’s around, every time.

  “Wanna go upstairs?”

  His smile falls into a smirk and his eyes lower as he watches me. “As much as I want to do that, let’s hang with everyone for a little while.”

  “Okay,” I draw out, and jokingly sigh. “I guess we can get you a drink first or something.”

  I turn around, still acting like I’m sad, and he laughs before throwing his arms over my shoulders from behind and walking with me as we head toward the pool house.

  “Oh hush,” he whispers into my ear. “Don’t be such a baby, you’ll get this dick in a little while.”

  I groan loudly at his vulgar words to hide how much I like it when he talks dirty to me. He holds onto me so I can’t push out of his arms.

  “You’re so nasty.” I tell him again, grinning. “Let me go.”

  He does and I glance back at him and chuckle as I open the door to the pool house.

  “And you love it,” he says before slapping my butt as we both get inside. I hurry away and cut my eyes at him, making him smirk. I move around a few girls near the bar and pull two cups from the stack as people start to crowd around him.

  He’s friendly with everyone, and I watch as I make his drink, wondering if any of the girls are going to try anything with me standing only a few feet away. Halle walks up next to me and chuckles.

  “They’re not delusional, right?” she questions, obviously reading my mind. I shrug.

  “I me
an, I don’t put anything past those trifling little girls,” I admit. “The thirst is real around here.”

  “Yeah, you’re right,” she says, agreeing with me. “Better hurry over to your man before they swallow him alive.”

  I shake my head at her as I finish making the drinks. “You’re crazy, but I’m totally listening to you.”

  I hear her chuckle as I walk away, heading straight for Jamie and all the thirsty little fan girls around him.

  CHAPTER 3

  Jamie

  I don’t even bat an eye in the direction of the other girls around me as I watch Ashley walk up. I can tell she's enjoying my attention and I love the glare in her eye when I know she’s jealous. It's like a wild animal is fighting to get from behind her big brown eyes.

  “Did you want to go back outside?” I ask and wrap my arms around her. Letting my hands fall low on her back against her bare skin, I rub gently with my fingertips and feel chills break out over her skin.

  “Yeah, let’s go out to the patio swings.”

  I smirk at her words, remembering all the fun times we've had down at the swings while I lead her outside. We walk past the pool and down the rock pathway to the area Ashley’s parents had multiple pallet swings topped with twin mattresses installed. The lights hung in the trees above aren’t on since it’s not dark enough, but the patio area is clean, and the swings are mostly empty.

  There are a few girls sitting on one swing on the far edge of the patio area, but everyone else seems to be a bit preoccupied with getting drunk or being in the pool. Perfect.