The Summer of Us (Mission Cove 1)

I looked at him, struck silent in shock.

“I saw you walking with that girl. The waitress. She isn’t part of your future, Lincoln. Fuck her and forget her. I don’t want to find out you’ve been seeing her. If I do, you know the consequences.”

Then he walked out. Typical of my father. He told me how to live every day. What to think, who I should like. How I should act. He never let me forget how my mother’s pregnancy changed his life. I was the reason for everything that went wrong. How I robbed him of her attention and time. How her shifting focus angered him. How if I hadn’t come along, she might have been a good wife instead of his finding her constantly lacking. He even found a reason to blame me for the aneurysm that took her from me.

It inconvenienced him.

My mother’s family had been well-off, but her parents’ will, and then hers, made it impossible for my father to get his hands on the money. Another reason he hated me.

I wished, more than once, I could get access to the trust fund to help out Sunny and get away from my father. But it wasn’t available to me until I was nineteen.

Two more years.

Two years and I would walk away from this town and the man who made my life miserable. He thought I would work for him. Do his dirty work. However, I had other plans that I kept to myself.

Once I had that trust fund, I was gone. Wherever Sunny wanted to go, I would take her. Her mother and sisters as well. Whereas my father thought of people like the Jensons as trash, they were nothing but kind to me. Sunny’s mom always welcomed me to their small house with a hug and kiss on the cheek, clucked about me being too thin and that I needed to eat. Her fussing warmed something long dormant in my chest. I tried to help out in small ways—repair broken things or carry out the garbage. Sunny’s two younger sisters, Emily and Hayley, treated me like a big brother. They loved hugs and cuddles and smiled in delight at the chocolate bars or cookies I would bring. I loved spending time there. The house was run-down, small, sparse, and on the wrong side of town, but it was a home. Unlike the huge, vacant rooms of my house, their place was filled with love. I could be myself there, and it was okay. They expected nothing and asked for nothing but for me to be Linc. And I accepted them.

Sunny’s dad had caused a scandal by walking out on them when she was young and abandoning them completely. He lived openly with a hairdresser, who had deserted her husband, until a couple of months later when they were killed in a head-on collision with a semi on the highway. With no life insurance and no money, Sunny’s mom had to move the family to a smaller place, went to work cleaning offices, leaving Sunny to look after her much younger sisters. Eventually, they moved in with her grandmother to help with expenses. The scandal passed, but Sunny’s mom never got over it. She stopped cleaning offices and went to work at the hotel when it opened. She kept her head down and raised her kids, ignoring the whispers and stares, proving herself to be above them all. I thought she was fucking amazing.

Once I had that money, we’d all start a life together that didn’t include Mission Cove, my father, or the gossips.

One where I didn’t have to hide or pretend. Where Sunny, her mom, and sisters could start fresh.

I stood and looked down at the water, the waves breaking against the rocks, deciding to go into town. I felt like some ice cream.

If Sunny happened to be behind the counter at the diner, that would be even better.2LincMy father’s car was gone when I went back to the house. I was glad I didn’t have to see him again. I grabbed my keys and drove into town. Our large, rambling house was set on the hill overlooking the small town my father ruled—a gaudy, shiny symbol of his wealth and status.

I went to the diner, sitting patiently in the corner booth no one liked. It was somewhat hidden and closer to the kitchen, the smell of the grease from the fryer lingering in the air. The old air conditioner that hung over the front door didn’t have the force it needed to reach this far into the room, so it was warmer than the rest of the place and the booth was usually empty.

Lucky me.

From my vantage point, I watched Sunny in the diner, filling coffee, scooping ice cream, always smiling and friendly.

She was so pretty. Her hair was caught up in a high ponytail, the bright strawberry-blond gleaming under the artificial light. Despite her lack of height, you noticed her. Her smile and laughter, the kindness she treated everyone with.