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Entangled Summer by Michele Barrow-Belisle
Nora Dultry has dreamed of a mysterious guy for years, but when he walks into her waking life, she must untangle the past from the present to know if he’s her dream come true, or her waking nightmare.
Love Me Like You Do by L.Kirk
Daisy Philips jumps to the defense of mysterious loner. Jason Lancaster is a lost soul. Their budding romance hits a snag when a tragedy pulls them apart. Can they find a way to mend their broken hearts?
Chase by Elena Dillon
Rylan Maguire has run from danger...right into Chase Sullivan. But his past tangles with hers, making Rylan wonder if she's strong enough to love him.
My Best Friend’s Ex by Tina Gayle
She loved him first, but her best friend married him. With their divorce, Brooke must choose between her best friend and the man she loves.
The Good Girl by Tracy Reed
When Gabriella accepted her new assignment, she didn’t know it also included a chance for love with her boss, the hot and elusive, Phillippe Marchant.
Betrayal at Crater’s Edge by Kathleen Rowland
Marchand wants to show Yardley he loves her, but he has bigger problems. Venus is heading for a catastrophe, and only he can save their world.
Random Acts of Violet by Geralyn Corcillo
Cautious loner Violet Parker needs a new playbook when her quiet summer on campus collides with an unexpected eight year-old, a monster in the attic, and Noah...
MICHELE
BARROW-BELISLE
ENTANGLED SUMMER
Copyright ©2015 Michele Barrow-Belisle
Bar-Belle Publishing
ALL RIIGHTS RESERVED
No reproduction in any manner without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations for articles and reviews.
www.michelebarrowbelisle.com
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9782009-2-3
E-Book ISBN: 978-0-9782009-1-6
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ALSO BY MICHELE BARROW-BELISLE
FAERIE SONG TRILOGY
(optioned for a movie)
Fire And Ice (Faerie Song Trilogy 1)
Bittersweet (Faerie Song Trilogy 2)
Darkest Light (Faerie Song Trilogy 3)
For everyone who loves my books…
And for my amazing family and friends…
I adore you all
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
FLING Boxset
Chapter One
“A puppetry camp. That’s your idea? I tell you I need a summer job to pay for Granddad’s hospital bills, and you bring puppets to the table. Really?”
I folded my arms and stared back at Kenzie’s doe-eyed innocent smile. It was one I knew well, since I’d been on the receiving end of it since junior high. Back before my life had blown to hell and back. Picking up the pieces was hard, but she’d always been there to help. Who knew putting them back together would be virtually impossible?
Kenzie rolled her eyes, and dropped down on my thrift store sofa, releasing a cloud of dust. “Did you at least look at the pay? Tell me you checked that out.”
I glanced down at the brochure’s rainbow hued page, looking for something that didn’t awaken my childhood fear of clowns.
She snatched if from my hands. “See right there, do you see all those zeroes? It’s a very elite, very private summer arts school Nora. One that multi-millionaire celebrities send their little brats to, so they can fly off on their private jets to celebrity rehab.”
Hard to believe she was a drama major, and desperately wanted to be one of those celebrities.
“Uh-huh. And what would I be doing to earn all of those zeroes. So help me, if the next words out of your mouth sound even remotely like wear a red nose, this conversation is over.”
She leaned back and crossed her tattooed legs at the angles. “You don’t dress up. The puppets do.”
“The puppets do.” I nodded. “Do you have any idea how crazy you sound right now?”
She flipped her cornrowed hair back over her shoulder impatiently. “Just go to the interview. I went out on a limb here for you. They only hire people with theater experience or who major in the arts. Getting you in on just a sculpting major on a deferred Barnes admission took some creative spinning.” She said.
Future, because I had to pass up my first year of college to look after Granddad. Once he was hospitalized, there was no time for school, not when I had to get a job to pay his medical bills. None of that would buy me a break with Kenzie. Guilt trips. They were what she did best, and I felt one coming.
“I’m allergic to nature Kenzie. Literally allergic.” I said. “And I don’t even like kids. Neither do you for that matter. Remember that year you volunteered to babysit the neighbor’s twins? You took them to the mall and ditched them there the second a hot guy walked by?”
Her dark brows furrowed. “Hey, I left them in a toy store and I came back for them.”
“Yeah. Four hours later. The security guard wasn’t impressed.”
“No, but he was hot too.” She smirked. “Anyway, that was then, this is now. You owe me at least a drive by. Feel it out. It could solve a lot of your problems.” The scratching sound caught her attention, and she made a face. “Including the fact that the rats beat you to the pantry every morning for breakfast.” She tucked her feet up under her.
I glanced toward the cracked wall beside the pantry. The droppings I had to clean up every day were definitely more mouse than rat, but she was exaggerating for effect. It wasn’t a palace, but it was all I could afford with the medical bills I had to cover. Granddad was my only living relative, since Grandma had passed. No way was I not going to do everything I could for him. If it meant slumming for a few years til after college, then so be it. They’d sacrificed everything for me. Least I could do was return the favor.
“Fine. I’ll go to the interview. But...”
“You’ll go and it’ll be great. I promise. They have cool art classes, music, drama. Even telekinesis and telemetry, whatever the hell those are.”
“Telekinesis. Seriously. Is that even a thing? What else do they teach? The art of hypnosis? Dream analysis 101?”
“Who knows. Point is it’s weird... you like weird.”
I sighed. Way to state the obvious. “I like you don’t I?”
She laughed and then flipped me the finger. “We’ve got an hour. And it’s a twenty minute drive so...” she tapped on her watch. “You’re gonna freak when you see how many hot guys work at these things.”
My eyes narrowed. “I thought we were going for the money.” Money was something I had use for. Desperately. Hot guys, not so much. In fact the last thing I needed after my botched entanglement last year was another one of Kenzie’s attempts to get me into bed with another hot guy. No thanks. Not when I dreamt about the guy of my dreams every night, a guy no one in real life ever came closer to surpassing.
She hopped off the couch and headed for the fridge. It took a few hard tugs to get it open, and it squealed in protest as the rusty hinges gave way. Her shrewd blue gaze scanned the bare shelves before she slammed it shut. “Money, sex... why are you so opposed to having loads of both. Seriously, most twenty-one-year olds get the keys to the city, and you’re still holding the keys to your chastity belt.” She gestured to the rusted, empty fridge. “What do you live on? No wonder you’re bone thin.”
Another exaggeration considering my hourglass shape. Sure living lean did wonders for a flat stomach, but I’d take a decent meal over washboard abs any day. Plus I had a sugar habit to keep me fed, and none of that needed refrigerating. I followed her into the kitchen, which was more of a kitchenette really. “Leave my sex life out of this.”
“Come on Nora. It’s not like it’s normal to be romantically involved with a guy who literally lives in your dreams.”
I poked around in a cupboard and found two cans of warm cola. Tossing one to her, I popped open the other. “I’m not romantically involved with him. He’s not real.” Plus the dream never had a happy ending. It always ended with him dying in my arms, leaving me with an ache in my heart that felt pretty damn real.
“Okay, but you’ve dreamt about him every single night. For years. No wonder no other guy has gotten anywhere close to you. All your nights are spoken for. You’ve fantasized your own real life Mr. Darcy and no real guy can touch that fantasy. It’s not normal, that’s all I’m sayin.”
“I hope it’s all you’re sayin, because I really don’t want to hear any more of your analysis. I have a recurring dream. End of story.” I took a swig of cola and swallowed. Warm soda is gross but I couldn’t bring myself to waste it, not when the free refills at the variety store were all I could afford.
“Now, if you really want me to go to this thing, you’ll give me ten minutes of peace so I can get changed Freud.” I marched into the bedroom and shoved open the sliding closet door. The left corner came off the rails. Again. And I ignored it. Again.
Kenzie leaned against the bedroom door jam. “Don’t go changing to try and please me babe.”
“You’re hilarious,” I shouted, digging though my closet for my only interview-worthy skirt and blouse.
“I’ll wait for you in the car.”
An engine back fired, setting off a string of car alarms.
“On second thought,” she said, peering through the hole in my curtains, “I’ll wait for you here. After all, you’re the one with the mace.”
Chapter Two
Kenzie’s foot pressed on the gas, accelerating her mom’s second-last husband’s sports car, to highway speed— four miles before we hit the highway.
Pushing limits, stretching boundaries, breaking the rules, that was always more Kenzie’s thing than mine. I always secretly wanted it to be my thing, but I was never very good at doing anything but the right thing.
Kenzie and I had been friends for as long as I could remember having friends. She'd been there for all of my bad girl shame moments, for first kisses, and first ditches, with unwavering support. She looked like the love child of Lenny Kravitz and Pink, if they’d ever hooked up. Her infamous Kiss-My-Asterix shirt impressed me, cause it totally matched her attitude. I still remember the day we met. A few years after my parents had died, and I’d switched schools after moving in with my grandparents. Fifth grade, Davie Chalmers had nicked my pencil case again, and Kenzie marched straight up to him in the middle of math class and demanded that he give it back, before she did indescribable things to parts of his anatomy neither of us had even come close to seeing in real life. He handed it back and I spent an hour after school with her in detention hall, just to say thanks. That was Kenzie. Guess her the-whole-world-can-suck-it attitude still impressed me today. But right now, pretty much everything about my butt-kicking best friend was making me want to wring her meddling neck.
“Now, just pretend you love kids and nature and puppets and all that crap, and you’ll do fine.”
I propped my stiletto heeled feet up onto the dash. “You're insane. Have I ever told you that before?”
She glanced over. “Once. Maybe twice.”
“Well good.” I scowled through the window. She meant well, I know. But I was dressed up like hooker Barbie for a job I had no chance of landing, and my feet were already killing me in her killer shoes.
“Okay, so here’s how it goes. There’s a series of interviews. You know the standard fair. Who are you, why do you want to work here, if you could save the orphans and the whales how would you do it, blah blah blah.”
“They could ask that?” It had been a while since I’d been on an interview. Not since tenth grade when I’d applied for a job at the market. The owners had been friends of my grandfather’s. The only question they’d asked was if I could work Sundays. This sounded a lot harder. My stomach knotted as I listened to the rest of her drill. I’d run lines with her countless times, this felt the same, only in reverse. I was the one doing the rote memorization. With a lot more at stake.
“Now repeat after me. I love working with children.” She sang, her perfectly manicured fingers hugging the wheel.
I rolled my eyes, but repeated the blatant lie. Not that I had anything against them. Kids were great. Maybe it’s because I never had any younger siblings around to get used to and didn’t do any babysitting either, or maybe it had something to do with my own less than normal childhood. But for whatever reason, they made me uncomfortable.
“If you make it past the first round, then you move on to the second and finally the third. Word is that if you make it to three, you’re golden. But the first round is the hardest.”
Her foot smashed the brakes at a red light, jerking us to an abrupt stop. Immediately she fished out a tube of lipstick from inside the cup holder.
“Shouldn’t I have had more than thirty minutes to prepare for this?”
“Don’t sweat it. I emailed them your resume last night.”
I shot her a look. “My resume. I don’t have a resume.”
She beamed, pausing her lipstick application for a second. “You do now. You’re welcome.”
The light changed and we continued driving for another fifteen minutes before Kenzie steered the jeep off the main highway onto a dirt road.
I slumped back against the seat. I wasn’t a huge fan of the country. Too quiet, and not enough going on to distract me from my thoughts. Granddad said that if you listened hard enough, you’d hear the voice of God in the woods. Not sure if that’s true or not. Either I never listened hard enough, or the voice of God sounded an awful lot like my own personal demons.
At some point along the drive, I must have nodded off, because I was roused by an elbow to the ribs.
“Wake up sleeping beauty, we’re here.”
I yawned and stretched, before opening the car door. Once we stepped outside, I froze. This was no regular summer camp. It was like the set straight out of a movie. Hogwarts meets Camp Half Blood. Twelve foot irons gates locked behind us, lined with a thick row of hedges which made seeing inside, or escaping, virtually impossible. Inside it was like a small village. Meandering paths, through wild grass and massive log buildings, with intricate architecture. It was more like a summer retreat than a school.
“Come on,” Kenzie urged, when I�
��d been gaping too long. “Punctually counts.”
We followed the lighted path toward a massive building with a tall steeple.
Two boys with nearly white blonde hair and the strangest eyes I’d ever seen, stood on either side of massive double doors. They smiled as we entered. It wasn’t until we walked past them I noticed they each had one silver eye and one brown one. I smiled back a little fazed, not by their appearance, but by the eerie way they both moved in exact synchronization. When we entered the main hall there was a large waiting area. And in it sat at least two dozen people, all likely hoping for the same job we were applying for. Summer school instructor to the super rich.
Some had guitars, and nose rings. Others had tattoos, piercings and green hair. One girl with strange markings on her neck had brought an entire easel, a fistful of brushes and a palette loaded with oil paints.
“See,” Kenzie whispered, “we fit right in.”
I fingered my bone straight black and teal hair, wishing I hadn't given up the red. I’d chopped it to shoulder length when grandfather got sick. And then ombre-dyed the ends blue when he went into hospital permanently.
Kenzie with her tattoos and me with my blue hair, we seemed just the sort of misfits this place was looking for and that made me relax a little. But these people were someone I wasn’t. Prepared. The school had dozens of creative classes that ran over the three month summer session.
A tall slender woman with bright green eyes and red hair stepped out into the middle of the crowd.
“Welcome everyone, to Wanderlust Academy Summer Arts Program Recruitment.” She spoke with a slight accent. “We’ll be calling you by your appointed time slot, so please pay close attention.”
I noticed the way her gaze kept locking with mine. It was unsettling, as if she knew me or something. Which I can pretty much guarantee she didn’t. Even Kenzie noticed.
Entangled Summer Page 1