by Kailin Gow
Cutting/Self-Injury
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/self-injury/DS00775
http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/mental_health/cutting.html
Bullying
http://www.stopbullying.gov/
http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/problems/bullies.html#cat20139
Peer Pressure
http://teenadvice.about.com/cs/peerpressure/a/blpeerpressure.htm
http://teens.webmd.com/peer-pressure
Teen Pregnancy
http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/
Drug Use
http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/infofacts/understanding-drug-abuse-addiction
http://www.drugabuse.gov/
Alcoholism
http://kidshealth.org/teen/drug_alcohol/alcohol/coping_alcoholic.html#cat20139
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/alcoholism/DS00340
Self-Esteem/Self-Image
http://kidshealth.org/kid/feeling/emotion/self_esteem.html#cat20139
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/self-esteem/MH00128
Abuse
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/domestic_violence_abuse_help_treatment_prevention.htm
http://www.childhelp.org/
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EXCERPT
Falling for
Summer
kailin gow
A Loving Summer Novel
Prologue
Love hits you when you least expect it, grabs you, sucks you in whole, and twists you around until you could hardly breathe. Love hurts like a sucker punch, that's both glorious and beautiful. Falling for Summer was like that for me, every time. - Nat Donovan
Nat
Several Months After Summer
There are demons in my family.
I know that because of what came down during the summer we returned to the Pad in Malibu and stayed with Aunt Sookie and Summer several months ago.
.
Plenty happened, and that’s another story. What I’m here to talk about is what happened afterwards and how we’re all trying to pick up the pieces the best we can. By “we,” I mean me, my younger siblings, Drew and Rachel, who are fraternal twins, and my parents, who I refer to as Mom and Dad. We’re the Donovans, and although it seems we have the perfect family on the surface, it’s far from perfect. I’m the first to attest to that…as I’ve learned last summer. Me, Nathaniel Donovan, the oldest of the three Donovan siblings, the older of the Donovan Brothers, had a meltdown. It was brief, but it happened, and if it wasn’t for Summer being there, it would have been worse. She made things better by being there for me, like always, selfless and giving, very loving. Like her Aunt Sookie, she is the most giving person I know, emotionally and demonstrably.
And with Summer, also physically. There’s where I feel bad about the whole thing, like I’m not supposed to feel so attracted to Summer, but I am. I’ve known her since we were toddlers, but now it’s different, and as soon as I’ve tasted her mouth. It tasted like honey and cinnamon as soon as my tongue met hers, I couldn’t get enough of her. I wanted her, wanted to tear off her clothes and run my tongue up and down her body and fill her with all of me. By sheer will power I was able to pull back. But now there is that awkwardness between us, and that tension, and mostly that guilt. She was the angel who could calm my demons, yet arouse them at the same time, and I don’t think I will be able to hold back the next time we get that close.
So I’ve been avoiding her, except for an occasional email or text about how she’s doing or about Aunt Sookie’s Acting Academy, which she inherited. According to Sookie’s will, we Donovans have the obligation as partners to help out. But avoidance only makes my heart search harder, and although I’m trying to avoid her in all controllable aspects of my life, I can’t stop thinking and dreaming of her. As it is with the one I’m having right now.
The air around me is as hot and thick as a wool blanket pulled up over my face. Sweat glistens on my skin… I can feel the stickiness form a film where my skin is exposed to the cooling night air. It’s too hot, and so I work to kick off the sheets entangling my body, placed there a few hours earlier, more suitable for a cold fall evening in San Francisco. I’m too tired to keep my eyes open, caused by a marathon of all-nighters, preparing for my first semester exams. Except for the way my body’s reacting, I could sleep like a zombie, but I can’t. My body’s reacting too much to the dream. If I were awake, if I weren’t so damn tired, I could open my eyes and take control over the situation, but I’m not. So I’m still in the middle of that dream again…the dream that ends in a nightmare.
It’s the one where I’m with Summer in her room the night she has on that slinky barely-there peach dress going out to see that actor Astor Fairway at his house for dinner, and maybe something more. Yup, it’s that night a few months ago last summer when my life once again converged with Summer’s in such a way, it seems like the three years of not seeing her before, never happened. When you’ve known someone for so long, practically grow up with them, live with them, stay with them, every summer for a decade or most of your life as it is for us Donovans and Summer, missing three years, can be erased in a heartbeat.
And in its place is the same feeling you felt three years ago, at your last encounter. Seeing Summer this past summer, brought back all of my memories…the good and the bad, the ugly and the beautiful.
Seeing her dressed like that for some guy she just met, albeit a famous guy, just brought out the crazy side of me. It’s irrational, but I guess that’s what it’s like for me when I feel so much for her, yet I can’t have her. She may have a childhood crush on me, but she’s off-limits. Not like Drew is off-limits to her because Rachel wouldn’t want Summer hurt by Drew, but because she’s Aunt Sookie’s niece, and because Aunt Sookie has instilled it into my head to watch out for little Summer and the twins. That hasn’t stopped me from falling for her, though.
She was beautiful, possessing sparkling green eyes and soft-to-the touch silky chestnut hair, with gently sun-kissed caramel highlights. Growing up, I used to make excuses to touch her hair… hair so soft and silky, it lit up moonless nights and smelled like waterfalls and sweet flowers. Even as a seven-year-old, she had eyes that bewitched me, and made it hard for me to look away. At times, they were smiling. At other times, they were crying. But at all times, they bore deep into me, reaching depths as deep as the ocean where we shared countless sunsets.
Now my dream shifts to another time before that night she stayed over at Astor Fairway’s canyon home. Summer appeared before us at the airport last summer, where Drew, Rachel, and I laid eyes on her for the first time in years. Wow – just wow, how much she had grown.
Every part of me became well-aware of how Summer had grown. In three short years, she had blossomed into a stunningly attractive young woman. Funny how three years could alter so much. Like Drew, Summer has matured physically, from being a fun and cute girl with sparkling eyes, braces, dimples, and wavy, sometimes frizzy hair, to a jaw-dropping Victoria’s Secret beauty. Looking over at Drew, who seemed to have lost his voice for a second, it appeared I wasn’t the only one who had these thoughts.
For the Lothario that he was, he seemed uncharacteristically at a loss for words as we made our way over to Summer, where she was talking to Rachel. For a moment, I think he even took a deep breath before he stopped in front of her, his face flushed more than usual. His blue eyes staring at her with such intensity, it didn’t take a rocket scientist for anyone to see that Drew still had a thing for Summer.
I nearly laughed witnessing the irony. He had become the
man at school whom all the girls sought to tame, wanted to score with, had even been coined having a Drew Effect on. He was that male model you saw in muscle magazines with a face and physique that would make leading men blush. Chiseled, sculpted, and muscular, without an ounce of fat on him and having that perfect “v”, he could be the model for any Adonis statue. He’s that guy who women of all ages would drop everything to have sex with and not care whether or not he’d call her afterwards. He’s Drew, and he had that kind of effect on women…every one of them except Rachel and one girl -- Summer.
There was something about Summer that always seem to make everything better. She has that healing touch, that gentleness and loving nature that was so like Aunt Sookie’s. I had tried to avoid her and treat her like a kid sister but she had to grow up before my eyes and become a stunner like that. I avoided her alright, like a cold heartless fish…until the night she came out of her room, dressed as sexy as hell, and was headed out to have dinner at Astor Fairway’s house. Dressed the way she was, I knew it wouldn’t be just dinner Astor would have on his mind. Dressed like that, I wouldn’t be surprised if Astor would skip dinner and go straight to dessert…Summer being the decadent dessert any guy would crave.
To hell with all the reasons why I couldn’t be with Summer. All those years of resolve shot down with one glance at the curve of her breasts, her long tanned legs, her glistening lips. Damn, I couldn’t help myself, seeing her in that slinky silk dress that showed off her soft, golden tan skin…skin I have long to touch and kiss since that moment I saw her again at the airport. She was, for lack of a better word, stunning. So much so, all my resolve to keep my distance from her, dissolved. The well broke, and like a starving man who had kept his feelings and desire in for a long time (three years at least!), I had confronted her.
If she were a chocolate bar, I would have torn off the wrapper and eaten her whole, then go back and lick every last delicious bit of chocolate left clinging to the wrapper over and over again.
The dress showed off her curves and skin in a way I had to clench my hands to keep from wanting to reach out and touch her, to pull her to my chest and run my fingers through the caramel waves framing her face, and smash her luscious full mouth against mine.
With Summer, I’m wracked with feelings of intense desire and want. I’ve dated a few girls and even went far with them, but I’ve never wanted anyone in bed more than I wanted Summer, and I know it’s wrong. We grew up together. She’s my little sister’s best friend, and she’s Sookie’s niece. We’re like family. And she’s always looked up to me like an older brother. I know Drew really liked her in that way, too, but he’s Drew, and to him, he doesn’t have an issue with crossing boundaries. All girls to him, except Rachel, are fair game. But I’m not like Drew, and falling for Summer is something I have to avoid. It’ll be easy if I can shut my feelings off, easy if I just don’t care, but when Summer looks at me with those eyes, and she moves close to me and puts her hands on my shoulder or touches my face, it takes more resolve than I can muster up. She’s the part of me that I’m missing, the part of me that completes me. She makes me feel tenderness, gentleness, peace, and even a little bit of hope. She’s like a dove, but not quite a helpless defenseless dove, but a steady and strong lioness who has the gentleness of a dove. That’s a rare quality to find in a woman. I guess that’s another reason I fell for Summer.
****
That night I tried to stop Summer from going out with Astor dressed like that, didn’t end well, for me. She shot me down and went off on her date with Astor anyways, even staying over. Was it to spite me?
My mind tortured me with scenes of her with Astor, scenes of her kissing Astor, of Astor taking off that dress and doing everything to her that I wanted to do to her. I fell asleep dreaming of that as I was dreaming of it now. Only this time, instead of me feeling tortured, there was someone else. I saw another figure in that dream, watching Summer with Astor. Hidden by shadows. I couldn’t see his face, but I felt his pain. Somehow we were connected in some way, and it was a pain harder than mine…a pain deeper than mine. Was it me in the shadows?
When I turned around, the figure stepped out. It wasn’t I, but someone else.
It was Drew, and he had a gun cocked to his head with a look so full of pain and anguish, tears flowing down his face, right before he fired.
Falling for Summer (Loving Summer #2/Donovan Brothers #1) – New Adult Version Now Available through Amazon Kindle. Adult Version Coming Soon!