Second Chance Summer: Menage Romance Novel (Midnight Cove Menage Book 1) (6 page)

This can’t be happening. Not again. I have to get out of here.
She crouched and scoured the floor, lifting up discarded pants and dress shirts. Underwear and socks. Her panties had landed in a corner between a surfboard and a life vest. Her bra? Flung beneath a chair.

God, they must have been animals. She closed her eyes and it rushed back. Primal. Intense. Everything she’d wanted.
Shit
.

She tugged on her panties and hooked her bra.
Now where the hell is my dress?

One of the men stirred and she froze.
Don’t wake up. Please don’t wake up.
She glanced over the edge of the bed at the tangled mass of men and sheets and comforter. Hard bodies she’d licked all over. Cocks she’d had inside her. Part of her wanted to say screw it and crawl back into bed. Face reality later.

But her best friend was getting married the next day and she had to be at the spa in…
Where the hell’s a clock?
She glanced at the bedside table.
Shit! Two hours!

She couldn’t miss out on a day with Mandy. Not when she was getting married. Summer hustled out of the room and into the hall. Her dress laid where they’d dropped it, crumpled in a heap.

God
. The walk of shame would be epic. She slipped the dress on and zipped up the back. Wrinkled didn’t begin to describe it. She picked up her heels and rushed to the front door.

Blake and Devin would understand. They’d have to. Summer found her purse by the front door and fished out her phone.
Please be up. Please.
She swiped it open and typed a text.

Any chance you’re awake? I need a favor.

She waited for Mandy to respond.
Come on. Come on.
Ding!

Awake. Not caffeinated. This better be good.

Summer snorted as she typed.
I slept with Blake and Devin. I need a ride to the Inn.

…Nothing. Summer chewed on her nail and paced in the hallway, glancing up every ten seconds at the dark bedroom doorway. At last her phone dinged again.

!!!!!!!! Be there in ten. You owe me coffee and all the dirty details.

Summer locked her phone and closed her eyes. She’d come back to Midnight Cove for a wedding. She’d ended up back in the bed of two men she’d spent four years trying to forget. Four years where she’d built a life across the country. Without them.

How could she risk all of that for one night? How could she be so selfish? She opened the front door and slipped out into the sun. A breeze hit her and the smell of the sea and morning glories in full bloom washed over her.

She clicked the door shut and exhaled.

What the hell am I going to do now?

T
he black BMW
pulled up and the passenger side window rolled down. “Quit standing there looking like a hooker and get in!”

Oh my God. Leave it to Mandy.
Summer shoved her phone in her bag, hustled up to the car and yanked the door open. “Way to make a girl feel good on her walk of shame.” She sunk into the bucket seat and pulled the door shut.

“Hey, just calling it like I see it. You’re a hot mess.”

Mandy pointed at the visor and Summer flipped it down.
Ugh
. Hot mess was charitable. Her hair was a ratty disaster, mascara made raccoon rings around her eyes and her dress—would dry cleaning ever get rid of those wrinkles?

She flipped the mirror shut and slid lower in the seat. “Please tell me there’s a drive-through somewhere. With coffee. Maybe a donut?”

Mandy nodded and pulled back out onto the empty road. “You’re in luck. Full Cup just put one in around the back.”

“Thank God.” Waiting on the street corner was one thing. Having to walk into that place would be a million times worse. She used to go there every morning, still half-asleep from closing the bar. Wearing ratty sweats and no makeup. The last thing she needed was to have someone recognize her. Chat her up while staring at her wrinkled dress and bedroom hair.

Mandy turned onto Main Street. “So spill.”

Summer crossed her arms. “Nuh-uh. No way. Not after you called me a hooker.”

“Hey! Just trying to lighten you up. You seemed pretty desperate when you texted.”

Summer turned in her seat. “I am desperate! I’ve made a complete disaster out of everything!”

“You have not. And no coffee without the details. Tell me everything.”

Summer blushed and looked out the window. Little houses turned into shops dotted the street. A baker. Bookstore. Hardware. All closed on that early Saturday morning. Mandy turned the corner to enter the drive-thru.

On any other day, Blake and Devin would be waking up and checking the weather. Maybe opening early. Or making coffee and reading the news. All she’d done was show up and throw a wrench into their lives. One that came with more orgasms than she could count.

Mandy slowed for the stop sign. “Come on, Sum. Tell me it was awesome. It was, wasn’t it?”

Summer sighed but didn’t turn around. “Yes. It was awesome.”

“I knew it! But, if it was so great, why the freak out? Shouldn’t you be back in bed, curled up and sleeping it off?”

Summer pulled her feet up onto the seat. “No. I shouldn’t. I never should have gone home with them. I’ve messed everything up.”

“Have not.” Mandy pulled into Full Cup’s parking lot and headed for the drive-thru. A few minutes later, she handed Summer a steaming latte and a warm croissant. “There. Eat some flaky pastry. Have some caffeine and then maybe your brain will start working.”

Summer nodded and pulled the croissant out of the bag. Warm and buttery. Flaky and filled with chocolate. It had to improve her mood. She took a bite as Mandy pulled into a parking spot at a lookout on the edge of the road. The ocean opened up before them, morning sun sparkling in the waves.

Mandy pulled out her own cheese danish and dug in. The pair of them sat in silence, eating and drinking and staring at the ocean.

After the last bite disappeared into her mouth, Summer turned to her best friend. “It’s just—I promised myself I wouldn’t go down that road. Not again. But one kiss and I’m falling all over myself like some sex-starved fiend and begging them to take me home.”

She wiped her mouth with her napkin and crumpled up the empty paper bag. “They must think I’m the biggest slut.”

Mandy tsk’ed her. “Last time I checked, all three of you were doing the nasty. Not just you.”

“It’s mortifying.”

“It doesn’t have to be.” Mandy angled herself in the seat and took a sip of her coffee. Her hair was piled up on top of her head in a rainbow scrunchy and curls popped out all over. She had on a raggedy flannel shirt and sweats.

Wow. I really did drag her out of bed.
Summer opened her mouth to apologize, but Mandy talked over her.

“I can’t believe you didn’t think this would happen.”

Summer frowned. “Of course I didn’t think it would happen. It’s been four years! They should have girlfriends. Be married with like eight kids or something!”

Mandy shook her head. “You don’t get it, do you?”

“Get what?”

“Maybe it’s not just you who’s hung up on the past.”

What?
“Don’t be ridiculous.” There was no way Blake and Devin were single because of her and one night all those years ago.

“Think about it. As soon as they saw you, it was like time stood still. You all were back right where you started, weren’t you?”

She thought back to walking in on them. How her heart sped up and Blake saw right through her. “I just don’t get it. I’m nothing special. Look at me.” She glanced down at her wrinkled green dress and bare feet.

Summer’d always been on the bigger side—breasts by twelve and hips by fourteen. When she was younger, she’d hated her figure. Girls like Ian’s girlfriend Ivy calling her chubby and fat and a million other things. The only good thing about New York was that she disappeared. One of millions, she could walk down the street in a sack and no one would bat an eye.

But in Midnight Cove? Where celebrities and their entourage came to vacation? Blake and Devin could have their pick of any number of blonde bombshells. A million Ivy McClellans parading down Main. Bopping into their shop. Asking for personal surf lessons. Summer couldn’t compete with that.

Mandy set down her coffee in a huff. “Stop it. Right now. You are gorgeous. You have been the whole time I’ve known you. And from the way you told it, Blake and Devin couldn’t agree more.”

She glanced out the window and tried to focus. The waves crashed onto the rocks and the wind sent sprays of water out in all directions. Salty bursts of foam disintegrated in midair.

The lighthouse perched on the edge of an outcrop, and from their view on the side of the road, it was all sparkling water and sandy shore. Midnight Cove hadn’t changed a bit since that summer.

Had she changed? Had Blake and Devin? People didn’t hang on for four years, did they? She turned back to Mandy. “Are you saying they waited for me? That there hasn’t been anyone else?”

Mandy bit her lip. “It’s been a long time, Summer.”

Summer’s face fell. “So the answer’s no?”

“I—well—Let’s just say, nothing’s ever lasted, okay?”

Summer nodded.

“Besides, people do crazy things when they’re sad.”

Summer cocked her head. “Did something happen?”

Mandy looked past her to the ocean and smiled. “How about you tell me about the gallery exhibit. You said it’s a major show, right? Palladium? That sounds so fancy.”

Summer nodded. “It is a major show. My first one. And my mother had nothing to do with it. It’s not one of the big galleries, but the owner likes my work. They usually do New York stuff, you know—a blurred painting of the Brooklyn Bridge, something like that. But they liked my landscapes. The show’s next week.”

“Oh, Sum. That’s great.” Mandy reached out and gave her arm a squeeze. “It sounds like all that hard work is paying off.”

“Thanks.” Summer just wished she felt better about the whole thing. A gallery in New York. Everything she’d worked and sacrificed to accomplish. But now it seemed so bittersweet. “I wish it weren’t so far away.”

“Me too.” Mandy’s eyes brightened. “But I’ll be out there to visit soon. I can’t stay here all alone, some restaurant widow while Richard gallivants all over Seattle.”

“Right.” Summer wasn’t about to tell the bride-to-be that it wasn’t her she was talking about. Not then, at least. “Come on, let’s head to the Inn. If we’re going to the spa, I’ve got to change.”

Blake rolled over onto his back in the hazy morning light.
Summer
. When he heard she’d be coming for Mandy’s wedding, he’d hoped. Let himself wish. But never in a million years did he think they’d all end up in bed.

Right back where they left off. Like she’d never left. Fours years of mistakes and regret and what could have been. Erased. He ran his tongue over his lips. He could still taste her.

“Wake up, man. She’s gone.”

“What?” Blake scrubbed his face as a ray of sunlight landed smack on his one open eye.
Damn it.
“What are you talking about?”

“Summer. She’s gone. Must have bolted in the middle of the night.”

Fuck
. Blake swung his legs off the bed and his feet hit the tile with a smack. Devin stalked in front of the open windows like a caged tiger. Hunched shoulders, wild hair. Unhinged and dangerous.

“Did she leave a note? A text? Anything?”

Devin paused. “If she had, I wouldn’t be about to punch the wall in, would I?”

Blake frowned. The last thing he wanted was a repeat of how it all ended. The best sex of his life with a woman who used to be his best friend. All for her to disappear into the ether the morning after.

He scratched his beard and tried to focus. “There must be some explanation. She wouldn’t cut and run. Not again.”

Devin opened another blind and stomped over to his dresser. “Why not? That seems to be her MO. String us along, get our hopes up, ditch us.”

Blake stood and hunted down his discarded clothes. He slipped on his boxers and balled the rest up under his arm. “You don’t know that. Maybe she had an emergency. Maybe Mandy called, said she needed some help. Summer is the maid of honor.”

“Then she’d have left a note. Texted. Something. Not just poofed into thin air. I swear, if I hadn’t woken up to you snoring, I’d be convinced I dreamt the whole thing.”

“But you didn’t. She was here. And better than ever. There’s got to be a reason she left.”

Devin pulled out a pair of boxers and shorts and tugged them on one after the other. “What if the reason’s us?”

“What do you mean?”

“What if she doesn’t want this? Can’t handle it? If she’d wanted to give it try—more than just a sweaty memory fuck—she’d have stayed.”

Devin shoved his drawer shut and pulled open another. Blake hadn’t seen him so worked up in years. Not since Ivy.

He leaned on the wall and waited for his best friend to cool down. They needed level heads. Not anger and fear.

“I think we need to give her some time. We’ll see her tomorrow at the wedding. We can ask her then.”

“It’s not worth it.” Devin’s confession came out thick and laced with emotion.

Blake pushed off the wall. “What are you talking about? Yesterday you were Mr. Optimist. So fucking cocky, Dev. Convinced we could win her back.”

His best friend snorted.

“What changed?”

Devin gripped the front of the drawer and the muscles on his back bunched into knots. “Nothing. That’s the problem.”

Blake exhaled in a rush. No way were they letting the weekend go to shit like this. Not after the night they shared. Summer was back and Blake wasn’t letting her go. Not without a fight.

“Can you open the shop without me?”

Devin turned around. “Yeah, why?”

“If she’s going to bolt, I want to know why. And I can count all the places she’ll be this morning on one hand.”

“Let me know what you find out.”

“First thing.” Blake turned toward the hall.

“And Blake?”

“Yeah?”

“Try and win her back.”

T
he door
swung open and Blake stepped out into the bright morning sun. Salt water on the breeze. A man jogging by on an early run. The perfect day in Midnight Cove. If only he had Summer by his side.

Damn her.
The more he thought about her running away, the more irritated he became. Leaving while he and Devin slept. No note, no message. Nothing. Just like last time. He balled his hand into a fist.

Only this time she had to stay in town. She was walking down the aisle the next day. Maid of honor in her best friend’s wedding. Not even Summer would shirk that responsibility.

He beeped the locks on his car and headed toward the black coupe when a beach cruiser swerved into the lot. Sirens wailing, lights flashing, it whipped into a parking spot and screeched to a halt.
Shit
.

Blake inhaled and braced himself.

A six-foot-five barrel-chested man with a scowl bounded toward him with springs for feet.

He stopped inches away from Blake and pointed at the ocean. “Tell me that is some practical joke. Tell me that by the time I get back there, the place will be filled with cameras, an announcer for some stupid TV show, and a gotcha theme song.”

Blake stepped back. He knew the man would be pissed. But furious? They’d all underestimated him. “Hey, Brad.”

“Don’t
Hey Brad
, me. I know this was you. Did Devin put you up to it?”

Blake stuffed his hands in his pockets. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Of course you do. Toilet paper. A whole case of it. All over the lifeguard station. Just like old times, huh?”

Blake bit back a grin.
You have no idea.
“I can wake up Devin. See if he knows anything about it.”

Brad’s brown eyes burned. “Cut the crap, Turner. I talked to the gas station attendant. He said you and Devin and some hot chick were all in there goofing off like teenagers.”

Fuck
. Blake blew out his breath and played the part. “So he saw us first hand, huh? What, did he leave the store and follow us? Spy on us with some cheap surveillance camera?”

Brad frowned. “He didn’t have to. I know it was you.”

Blake sighed and glanced up at the blue sky. Yanking Brad’s chain would only delay the bar. While he wasn’t thrilled with converting their upstairs into an all-night party spot, Devin had a point. They couldn’t just leave it empty. Waiting.

He met Brad’s ire head on. “How about we send someone down there to clean it up? Would that make you happy?”

Brad’s eyes bulged. “So you admit it!”

“I didn’t say that. I’m just trying to help you out.”

“Right. Like either one of you would ever go out of your way for me. If anything, you’d do exactly the opposite.”