Sun-Kissed Summer

by Marta Brown

  On the first ring, Betty answers the phone. Her normally laid-back tone is full of concern. “Hello?”

  “Hi, Betty. It’s me, Oliver,” I say as the lights and television finally succumbs to the relentless winds and wink off. “I just wanted to check in and make sure everyone is okay and see if you need anything.”

  “Oliver, oh, thank goodness. I’ve been worried sick over here. Gerald went to the restaurant to board up the windows over an hour ago, and he and Katie still aren’t home.”

  Rushing to the dining room window, I glance at the boardwalk in the distance and see a few lights still remain, but not many, and by the looks of it, not the Griddle’s.

  “Well, it looks like the power is out down there, too, so it’s probably just taking them a bit longer than normal in the dark. Remember how long it took Gerald and me two summers ago when the power went out?” I say with a light chuckle to help reassure her everything is okay. “I’m sure he and Katie are fine, but I’ll be happy to run down and help them out since it’s getting pretty gnarly out there, okay?”

  “No, honey, Gerald’s by himself. That stubborn old man.” She huffs. “I told him to call you, but he said he didn’t want to ruin your night. Said Katie told him a bunch of you were going to a party or something at the hotel,” Betty says, her voice cracking with each word. “She isn’t with you?”

  The rain pounding outside is nothing compared to the sound of my heart pounding in my ears at the realization she’s not at home yet. And she’s definitely not with me. With another glance out the window, I see the normally well-lit island just offshore is as inky black as the water surrounding it. She can’t still be out there. Right?

  “Um, no, she isn’t with me,” I say lightly, trying not to panic Betty despite the alarm bells going off in my mind as I make my way through the dark apartment to grab a flashlight and my rain jacket. “I wasn’t feeling so hot so I skipped the party, but I know where it is. How about I go grab her and I’ll even check on Big Pop on the way, okay?”

  “Oh, dear. Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Betty says as she pulls in a deep breath, her tone already a million times lighter. “You’re a real hero, you know that, Oliver? But promise you’ll be careful out there.”

  “I promise,” I say, already out the door and running full speed down the street.

  …

  “Gerald?” I try to shout above the howling wind, the noise almost deafening when combined with the rain hammering the tin roof of the Griddle. “Gerald? You in here?” I call out again, casting the flashlight around the darkened room as I hurry through the back office and into the dining room.

  In the dim light, I catch a glimpse of Big Pop hunched outside the front entrance of the restaurant trying to secure a large sheet of plywood over the glass windows. Rushing out, I set the flashlight on the ground and curse that I didn’t think to bring my headlamp. But to be fair, the only thing I was thinking about was helping Gerald and finding Katie.

  “Here,” I call out, snatching the heavy sheet of wood from Gerald and holding it up while he screws the wood to the building to protect flying debris from crashing in. “Why didn’t you call me? You know I would have taken care of this for you.”

  Big Pop shakes his head as the wind whips his yellow rain jacket like a flag behind him. “I wanted you and Katie to have a fun night… you know, after today and all,” he yells, securing the last screw in place. “And you already do so—”

  “Watch out!” I scream before shoving Gerald into the small, protected nook of the front door entrance, flattening both our bodies and narrowly escaping a piece of twisted metal flying through the air.

  With his hand pressed to his chest, and rain dripping down his normally tanned face, Gerald draws in a few deep breaths, and for a second, my own heart stops, worried he’s having another heart attack, until he lets out a deep, loud chuckle. The color returns to his face.

  “Now that,” he nods out towards the boardwalk as more wind, rain, and debris fly by, “was one for the books. I think you may have just saved my life.”

  “Nah.” I nudge his arm with my elbow and smile, my own breath labored as I peer out at the ferry dock, waiting for it to arrive so I can catch the next one out and get Katie. “I figured I just saved my own, because I’m pretty sure if I let something happen to you, Betty’d do much worse than anything an ol’ rusty sheet of metal could do to either of us.”

  “Don’t you know it,” Pop says, clutching his potbelly and breaking out into a full-on laugh, despite the fact he’s probably right. That piece of metal could have done some real damage.

  But then again, so am I. Betty might be all about peace and love, but there’s no doubt that if something were to happen to Gerald, or worse Katie, she’d be the first one beating the war drum.

  And by the looks of it, she’s going to have to get in line because Brad just got off the ferry. Alone.

  Without a thought to flying debris, hurricane-force winds, or the stinging rain, I sprint across the boardwalk with my mind focused on one single thing. Finding Katie.

  Scanning the small crowd as they disembark the ferry in the black of night, I squint against the rain pelting my face to make sure I haven’t missed her before rushing Brad. “Where. Is. She?” I growl over the sound of my heart pounding louder than any war drum ever could.

  “Who’s that?” Brad asks with a tight-lipped smirk, goading me into a fight I’m already itching to have.

  I grab his jacket by the collar and twist until the fabric is tight against his neck. I don’t have time for his bullshit. “You know exactly who I’m talking about. Where the hell is she?”

  “That depends.” Brad narrows his eyes and smiles, looking almost as ready for a fight as I am. “Do you mean your tease of a girlfriend—or whatever the hell you two are—or your slut of a mom? Because I’m pretty sure both of them spent the night on their knees, regardless of where they were.”

  With the force of a hurricane’s eye wall, where the most violent and deadly winds form, I wrench back, tighten my fist, and smash it into Brad’s jaw, sending a deafening crack echoing into the night. “Don’t you ever talk about them like that again,” I manage to say between clenched teeth. “Ever.”

  Crouched over and holding his face, Brad spits blood onto the wooden dock. “Thanks for that, bro.” He laughs sadistically. “That’s gonna make it so much easier for my dad to justify dumping your mom now that he’s got the exclusive contract for the hotel all shored up. Couldn’t have planned that shit better if I tried. So, at least someone got screwed tonight.” Brad stands to his full height as he rocks his jaw from left to right and winces. “But then again—the night is still young.

  “And just so you know…” He turns around and nods his swelling face towards the dock. “That was the last ferry for the night, so good luck trying to get to your precious Katie,” he says like a punch in the face before stalking off into the night, leaving me feeling like it’s my jaw that’s been cracked open and I’m lying on the boardwalk in a pool of rain and blood.

  Thomas used Mom for the contract. And Katie is all alone in the middle of a hurricane.

  Trying to keep my footing as waves barrel over the slippery boards, I rush down the dock, hoping Brad is full of shit. But he’s not.

  “Please, Frankie, one more trip. I need to get over there,” I beg as the portly old man, who has run the ferry boat to Sunset Key for as long as I can remember, finishes securing the boat’s lines to the dock. “You don’t understand. Katie is over there. Alone.”

  “You know I’d do anything for Gerald and Betty,” Frankie says, attempting to keep the hood of his bright yellow rain slicker on his head, but failing when another band of wind rips it off. “You too, Oliver, but I can’t. It’s too dangerous out there. Trust me. She’s safer out there on that island all alone than you or I would be trying to get to her. I promise you, kid.”

  No. I don’t accept that.

  I made my own promise. And until I know Katie is okay
, I’m not giving up. “Fine—if you won’t take me—I’ll take myself,” I shout over the crashing waves, determined to get there, no matter what it takes.

  Barely registering his response, I scan the marina for anyone, or anything, that can get me across the angry ocean and to Katie, but I find it’s as desolate as the sea itself right now—dark, empty, and ominous.

  “Shit,” I half yell at myself and half up at the sky as I turn in a circle and let the stinging rain pound against my skin. “What in the hell am I going to do now?”

  The storm answers with a loud clap of thunder that sends me spinning on my heel as a rare flash of lightning illuminates the entire boardwalk and the only race flag that has managed to remain standing in the gale-force winds. I stop dead in my tracks. It’s mine and Katie’s flag.

  That’s it.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Gerald asks in a panic when I rush into the restaurant, book it to the back office, and grab my kite and board. “You can’t go out there, Oliver. And why in the Sam Hill would you want to?”

  I slip on my life preserver, latch on the safety hook, and give Big Pop the only answer there is. The only reason I’d do anything.

  “For Katie.”

  Chapter 31

  Katie

  “There, that’s better,” I say to myself as I finish lighting the vanilla-scented candles I managed to find scattered around the room before my cell battery died, taking with it my flashlight app.

  With a deep breath, I lay down on the bed and let the soft glow of the flickering candlelight trick me into feeling like I’m in some romantic story and not at all like I’m in the eye of a storm. Which if the roaring winds, eerie darkness, and relentless rain surrounding the small bungalow is any indication, I fully am.

  But at least I’m alone—which, in my book, is way better than being stuck in this tiny room with Brad for the rest of the night. Not after the things he said.

  Glancing down at my hand, still pink almost fifteen minutes later, I can’t help but swell with pride. Not that slapping someone is a good thing, but sticking up for myself—now that—that is a great thing. And something I would have never done before the whole luggage mix-up/act-more-like-my-sister-to-have-a-summer-romance debacle.

  I guess that’s the one thing I can take away from this entire experience. I found out Jessica isn’t the only one in the family with a voice. And boy, did Brad get an earful after accusing me of being a tease. Well, an earful, followed by a hurricane-force slap across his left cheek that sent him storming off into the dark, muttering something about scoring easier tail on a shark.

  The memory of his face when he realized I wasn’t just going to roll over—both literally and figuratively—and give it up because he’s Brad-freaking-Garrison causes a small bubble of laughter to break free and echo throughout the room. Until a loud bang against the door startles me off the bed and to my feet, drawing my breath up short and cutting my laughter off completely.

  “What part of I never want to see you again did you not get?” I say, stomping to the door, unchaining the lock, and flinging it open.

  My narrowed eyes widen when it’s not Brad standing, soaking wet and desperate outside, but Oliver, with one arm wrapped tightly around his board. His normally sandy-blond curls are matted to his rain-soaked face, and his kite, almost in shreds, lays at his feet.

  “Oliver?” I murmur in shock, and not just at the unexpected boy standing on my doorstep, but at the way his body looks beaten and bruised, a long gash above his eye in desperate need of stitches. “How… how did you get here?”

  “The only way possible,” Ollie says, dropping his board to the ground with a thud as he takes a slow, shallow breath and then winces in pain. “I saw Brad get off the last ferry coming or going for the night, so I knew you were out here alone, and—”

  “Wait…” My mouth falls open as his words finally soak in. The only way possible? “You kite surfed here? In the middle of a hurricane?”

  He presses a hand to his ribs, shrugging like it’s no big deal, despite the fact I know it’s a huge deal—and not just because of the storm.

  “But… why?”

  Oliver drags his hand through his wet hair and sighs like the answer should be obvious. “What part of I love you did you not get?” he says low and gravelly, the simplicity of his question sending butterflies soaring all the way from my stomach to my heart. “And I know we’re just friends, but—”

  “I love you, too,” I blurt out, unable to let him continue because one more second of him not knowing how I feel is a second too long.

  He snaps his head up and cocks it to the side like he’s somehow misheard me. “You… what?”

  Closing the distance between us, I step out into the rain and let a slow smile spread across my face as I stare up at my best friend. The moments we’ve shared over the last few weeks pour over me faster and harder than the rain now soaking us both.

  “What part of I love you too don’t you get?” I finally say, a small bit of teasing in my tone.

  Ollie’s deep green eyes rake over my face for a fraction of a second before he slips his hands deep into my hair, skims his thumbs across my smiling cheeks, and then crashes his lips to mine, stealing my breath with the depth of love he pours into our kiss and ruining every book from now until forever. Because nothing will ever top the way I feel right now.

  “I…love…you…so…much,” Oliver breathes out between kisses as he wraps his arms around my waist, lifts me off the ground, and carries me out of the rain and into the soft glow of the warm room.

  The storm is all but forgotten as we share a night we’ll never forget.

  “I love you, too, Ollie. I love you, too.”

  …

  The squawk of a seagull wakes me from the best night’s sleep of my life. Well, not that I slept all that much. But what I did manage to get was amazing—just not as amazing as Oliver. Or the night we shared.

  Keeping my eyes closed tight, I snuggle into his side and let the warmth radiating off his skin start to lull me back to sleep as memories of last night play in my mind like a foggy dream. His hands. His lips. His body. Our kiss in the rain.

  A shiver runs down my spine as Oliver shifts beside me, and for a split second, I hold my breath. Not wanting every whispered word of love we shared under the charged night sky to blow away with the early morning clouds and the clarity the bright morning sun can bring.

  “Well, I figure I either just had the best dream ever, or I’m dead,” Oliver says, his voice deep with sleep while he tightens his arms around my waist and pulls me closer. “Because I’m pretty sure it has to be one or the other if I’m really waking up with you in my arms.”

  I roll over to face him and let out my held breath, along with any worry I had that in the bright light of day things might be different than they were last night. “I could always pinch you to prove it’s not a dream,” I offer, running my hands up his chest, across his broad shoulders, and then down his tanned, cut arms. “But considering you’re lucky you’re not actually dead after kite surfing through a flipping hurricane to get here, I think you have enough bumps and bruises to confirm you are very much alive.”

  Oliver brushes a stray hair from my face before leaning in and kissing me softly, turning every inch of my body into a bigger puddle than the half inch of standing water the storm surge blew in last night that covers the bungalow’s tiled floor.

  “Totally. Worth. It. Although,” Ollie stops, leaving me aching for more as he gives me a lopsided smile. “I’m afraid if we don’t get you home soon, that whole ‘lucky to be alive’ status might change, since I’m pretty sure Big Pop is probably ready to send out the Coast Guard for us any minute. That or a firing squad.”

  Giggling at the way his smile falls, like he truly is worried what Pop will do if we don’t get home soon, I press closer to his body, not wanting to rush out of his arms just yet.

  “Considering the circumstances, I think we’re okay,” I say to reas
sure him. “Big Pop and Grandma Betty aren’t going to care about anything other than the fact we’re safe and sound. And…” I give him a flirty smile before trailing kisses along the stubble of his jaw, down his neck, and finally to the tight muscles of his chest, his sharp intake of breath as I move lower spurring me on. “What’s a few more minutes anyway?”

  Ollie hooks his finger under my chin and lifts my face ever so gently until our lips are mere inches apart again. “A few more minutes, huh? Well, that’s a change.” He brushes his lips against mine, sending a rush of goose bumps racing across my skin. “Looks like Latey-Katie has an all-new meaning now.”

  I smile up at him through my lashes at the nickname he once used to tease me about how much I hated to be late, because he’s right. I have changed. And so has he.

  So have we.

  “No, you’re right,” I say, lifting the covers over our heads and creating our own little fort. “A few more minutes definitely isn’t long enough.”

  “If you ask me, forever wouldn’t be long enough,” he says before leaning down and sweeping me up in a kiss that is all things epic, summer, and romance—all wrapped up into one.

  …

  “Well, well, well, look who the cat dragged in,” my sister says from the kitchen counter when I tiptoe in the door almost two hours later, my lips pink and swollen and my heart deliriously happy. “Or should I say who the hurricane blew in?”

  “Jessica?” I squeal, dropping my shoes—or I guess hers—at the front door and making a beeline for the kitchen. “I thought you weren’t coming back until tomorrow?”

  Wrapping me up in a tight hug, my sister laughs into my hair. “And miss my sister traipsing in at half-past dawn for the first time? Never.”