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

Rachael sighed. “That never stopped me, you know. Best way to get over sadness is a friendly little romp with someone who looks as good as Damian does.”
    “Well, I’m not you. And I’m not sad.”
    “Whatever. Did you at least kiss him?”
    “God, do I have any privacy around you?”
    “Not since I showed you how to use a tampon back in seventh grade, no.”
    Summer picked up her toiletry bag. She needed to fix her face, head back to the motel and meet with Sadie in less than an hour. She couldn’t sit here with her best friend and debate the finer points of kissing Damian Knight. “I’m not telling you. Use your imagination.”
    “Geez, lighten up.” Rachael vanished down the hall, and a moment later Summer smelled coffee brewing.
    Summer ducked into the bathroom and splashed water on her face. Take your own advice and stop thinking about him. So he kissed you. So what? She pulled her hair back from her face and dabbed concealer on the circles beneath her eyes. She had more important things to worry about than the lips of the guy she was about to evict.
    * * * * *
    Less than a half hour later, Summer rounded the curve in Sycamore Road. She adjusted the radio station and hummed along. “Ooh, don’t you got what I need now baby…”
    Damian’s face popped into her brain. Again. Makes you wonder how different our lives would be if, say, just one thing had changed… Her cheeks grew hot and she had to tell herself to unclench her hands before she squeezed the steering wheel in two. Sometimes when she told people what she did, they looked at her as if she were crazy to dwell in the land of yesterdays and make her living among ghosts. But not this guy. He got it. The hairs on her forearms lifted at the memory, at his expression as he watched in her firelight.
    She slowed at the stop sign where Sycamore met Main. A dangerous intersection shrouded by woods on both sides, this crossroads witnessed a few accidents every year as drivers blasted past the sign half-hidden by bushes. One winter when she was a child, a group of teenagers had collided with a snowplow. Four deaths, all under the age of eighteen. Pine Point had mourned for months.
    “Summer? It’s Donnie…I can’t find him…I can’t…Summer?”
    Blackness. A sliver of moon. Stars that hung too low and burned her eyes when the blood ran into them.
    “Summer?”
    Can’t find him? Summer blinked. That was Gabe’s voice. She pressed one hand against her forehead and tried to catch her breath. What does that mean? Were we looking for him ? That didn’t make sense. They’d all stayed in the car until the cops came. Hadn’t they?
    Her hands shook. Stop it. Stop thinking about it. She pressed her lips together until she tasted blood. After a long moment, the thoughts and the voices receded again. But God, how long would it haunt her?
    Today the sun blazed in the bluest sky and both roads stretched to the horizon without a car in sight. She forced herself to breathe. This was not the same intersection, and this was not ten years in the past. She was twenty-eight, stable and strong. She was not a girl lying in a hospital bed trying to understand why her brother wasn’t standing beside her cracking jokes.
    Summer turned right and headed for the motel. After her meeting with Sadie, maybe she’d try to find Damian at the house. She’d explain away her stupid comment of the night before. She could probably give him his last month rent-free to make up for the hassle of selling the property. Maybe that would calm him. Or convince him to kiss her. Or—
    Out of nowhere, a red sedan careened into the lane in front of her. A horn blared. Summer choked on her breath, and adrenaline poured into her veins, triple-time. With her heart frozen, she stomped on the brake pedal and slammed it to the floor.
    “What the—”
    She didn’t have time to honk her own horn or check her mirrors or wonder who the driver was or where he’d come from. With both hands clutching