Waiting For Summer

“Why the heck did I even come to this shindig?” she said quietly to herself. She knew when it was time to make her exit. There was only one reason she’d come to the reunion. Only one reason she’d decided to throw herself into the line of fire with the couple who’d just walked away.

Although they still talked every now and then, Aiden Chase had once been her best friend. Her biggest supporter. Her trusted confidant. When he’d asked her if she was coming to the reunion, she’d told him that she wasn’t going to make it. But although he was usually traveling outside the country for his job as a fashion photographer, he’d informed her that he was attending the reunion even though he didn’t want to. Something about needing footage for a documentary being done on him.

It wasn’t like her to do surprises, but after some careful thinking, she’d driven back to town in hopes of having her first face-to-face conversation with Aiden in six years. Maybe we’ll finally meet up, like we’ve been trying to do for a while. Anything had to be better than staying at the reunion. She wasn’t even sure he was still coming.

Summer waved a few goodbyes and stepped out of the building—right into a guy with a camera.

“Sorry, miss. I didn’t see you.”

“That’s okay,” she said, before her eyes locked on a couple standing near the end of the parking lot. The couple had their backs to her, but she’d know that guy anywhere. Aiden Chase had finally shown up to the reunion, and by the looks of it, he was still dating the marketing director he’d told her he was no longer with.

Did they get back together? She didn’t know what to make of them being together, but he had never lied to her. Aiden Chase was truthful to a fault. The fact that he was also charming and a genuinely nice person meant that people often accepted his brutal honesty.

“Miss? Miss? Did you hear me?”

Summer shook herself out of her daze. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“I asked if you went to school with Aiden Chase.”

“Yes, I did.”

“Great! We’re doing a documentary on Aiden and we’d love to capture your interaction with him before he walks into the building.”

Oh, my goodness, do they know we used to be best friends?

“How well did you know Mr. Chase?”

Good. Mr. Camera Guy doesn’t know. She laughed out of nervousness.

“Fairly well.” She left out the part that most of the Claysville population assumed they’d dated in high school.

“Great! Let’s have you reconnect with Aiden on camera.”

Her heart dropped out of her chest and slammed into the pavement as she listened to the camera guy talk into a walkie-talkie. Wait! Reconnect with Aiden? On film? In front of a small filming crew and his ex-who-may-not-even-be-his-ex girlfriend? There was no way that was happening.

Luckily for her, she knew the school better than camera guy did. There was a janitor’s closet to the right as soon as you entered the school. She quickly opened the door and slid back into the building. She all but leaped to the closet and twisted the knob.

“Are you kidding me right now?” The door was locked. It was just her luck the school no longer kept it unlocked, like they had years ago.

Summer wasn’t surprised when people started gathering in the hallway. It wasn’t every day that a camera crew came to Claysville. The front entrance door opened and she immediately knew the crew was looking for her for whatever greeting scene they wanted to portray. She didn’t even see Aiden walk in, but she could feel her body heat with awareness. She needed to get out of this hallway, but she knew they would spot her. She looked around for possible exits.

Thank God for small corners. Summer slipped between a locker and the wall, praying that the cameraman who’d spoken to her didn’t see her. As the crowd grew larger, the crew quickly forgot about her and took interest in some other possible interactions with Aiden.

Taking advantage of her small escape window, she slipped through the crowd until she’d reached the door again. Just as she was stepping out, she glanced behind her shoulder and saw him. Right there, directly in her line of vision. Their eyes briefly locked and Summer wondered if Aiden would rat her out to his crew but quickly disregarded the irrational thought. She couldn’t think such foolishness about the one man in her life who knew more about her than even her own girlfriends.

His eyes cut right through her in a way that made her feel uninhibited. Man, I miss him. She’d missed him for a while, but the small glimpse of him made the feeling even more prominent.

His lips curled into a smile as he mouthed the word hi to her. She returned his silent greeting before slipping completely out the door. She didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until she was safely in her car, on the road with the music blasting.

She heard her phone ding indicating a text message. She knew who it was, but waited until she was at a stoplight to briefly glance at the message.

You didn’t tell me you were coming. I wish you would have stayed so that we could’ve caught up. I really miss you, Summer.

She placed her phone back in the cup holder and continued her drive out of town. Oftentimes she thought about how their friendship would be now if things had been different back when they’d walked away from each other. He might have missed her, but she missed so much about him and the friendship they used to have. In fact, she wasn’t sure there was anything in the world that she missed more.

Chapter 1 (#u89a5cdfa-d887-5d32-b9d9-e10a2ec16cc4)

Present day...

If she could pick one superpower in the whole world, there was no doubt in her mind that Summer Dupree would pick the ability to read minds. If she could read her friend’s mind right now, she’d know the best way to respond to her question.

“Summer, who’s the guy in the photo?” Or maybe a better choice would be the ability to erase people’s memories so that Danni could forget she saw the photo in the first place.

She glanced over her shoulder at her friend Danni Allison, who had arrived in Miami three weeks ago to help with the opening of the new Bare Sophistication lingerie boutique. The original location in Chicago, Illinois, was thriving under the watchful eye of her sisters, Winter and Autumn. As store manager, Danni had played a major role in the success of their Chicago store; however, Summer was hoping that opening another location in Miami would prove to her sisters that she could further their success. She’d made Miami her permanent home three months ago and had found the perfect Miami Beach location for her boutique. The white brick building had just the right amount of chic and vintage flare.

Although she was confident in her ability to make Bare Sophistication Miami a success, she was glad that Danni had agreed to stay with her until the grand opening the second week of December.

“I don’t know who he is. I must have accidentally taken the wrong box out of Winter’s storage room.” She quickly closed the box and pushed it to the side. “Guess I’ll have to ship that box back to Chicago.”

“Hmm, you only kept a few things in Winter’s storage room and photos weren’t in those boxes.”

“How do you even know what was in my boxes?”

“As manager of Bare Sophistication in Chicago, I had to know everything.”

“Or you were being nosey.”

Danni scrunched her nose. “When Winter asked me to help her clean her storage room, I may or may not have stumbled upon a few of your boxes. They were already lying open on the floor. And I’ve seen photos of Winter when she was a little girl. That wasn’t her.”

Summer shrugged. “Oh, really? Must be Autumn, then.”

“Not her, either. Autumn showed me photos of all three of you, so I know it’s you in the photo. What’s the big deal?”

Summer grabbed the tape from the counter and walked over to the box she’d just pushed away. The boutique was still under construction, so cartons were in an unorganized mess around the wooden floor. Of all the boxes she could have accidentally labeled for the shop instead of her condo, the one containing her photos was the worst one to make that mistake with. Danni was like the female Sherlock Holmes.

“Is he an ex or something? Is that why you won’t show me the picture?”

“No, he isn’t an ex. Just a friend.”

“If he’s only a friend, why are you being so secretive?”

After she’d finished taping the box back up, Summer stacked some unopened boxes on top of it. She admired Danni’s determination when it came to Bare Sophistication customers. However, in this case, she wished she’d drop it.

“I’m not being secretive. I just prefer not to discuss it.”

“Not being secretive?” Danni walked over to Summer and reenacted Summer’s reaction to the box when she first opened it. “If you hadn’t looked like your hand got caught in the cookie jar, I never would have asked who was in the photo.”

Summer was still trying to formulate a response when Nicole LeBlanc and Aaliyah Bai came strolling into the boutique.