Boys of Summer: Men of Fall (Reverse Harem Second Chance Bully Romance) Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  About

  The beginning of the end...

  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

  Epilogue

  The End.

  Boys of Summer

  Men of Fall

  K.M. Raya

  Boys of Summer, Men of Fall: Copyright © 2019: K.M. Raya. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used simply for the purpose of furthering the storyline and do not represent the institutions or places of business in any way. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental or used for fictional purposes.

  About

  I've never not known my Boys of Summer. They've been right there every year—like steady trees standing strong and larger than life, rooted in the earth and just waiting for me to come back to them.

  Two long years have passed since I've visited the beach town they call home. The family my mother nannies for packed up and moved clear across the country and we followed. But after a chance encounter leaves my flighty mother with a new, wealthy husband, my life is turned inside out once again as I find myself standing on the shores of my childhood summers.

  I expected them to welcome me with open arms the way they used to... but I quickly learned that my sweet, sun kissed Boys of Summer have grown into the cold, unfamiliar Men of Fall.

  “You can love someone so much...But you can never love people as much as you can miss them.”

  ― John Green

  The beginning of the end...

  Two Years Before

  There’s something so final about watching everything you know in life fade away from the small window of an airplane.

  The California Valley grows smaller and smaller the higher up we travel, and yet I can’t help but feel pulled in a different direction. My eyes wander to the far-off horizon—where the vast golden foothills eventually meet with the Pacific Ocean somewhere too far for me to see. Squinting my eyes, I strain—trying to catch a last glimpse of the best part of my life and it hurts more than I thought it would. I wonder, not for the first time if they’ll miss me the way I already miss them.

  Summer is my season, the most wonderful time of the year and every single time we’re forced to return to our mansion in the valley, a small part of my soul remains on the coast. I can picture them now, my River and my Luca—waiting at the docks for a sixteen-year-old girl who’ll never come back. I couldn’t handle goodbyes, and my mom wouldn’t let me. To her, they were just a silly childhood infatuation that I’d be better off without. But I know better. They were my everything.

  Now I’m their nothing.

  Chapter One

  Clicking my phone off, I stare at the dark screen with blank, uncomprehending eyes. The bombshell of all bombshells hits me like a sack of potatoes to the face. My heart is racing, but not from anxiety. No, it races in sheer, undiluted excitement. Anticipation zings through my body like a current of white-hot lightning, making me want to sprint around this concrete jungle I’ve called home for the last two years.

  I ignore the uneasy pang of hurt that lances through my stomach at the... other little detail my mother threw at me before rushing me off the line. I mean, how dare she spring this shit on me over the phone? Getting engaged seems like something you’d announce at... I don’t know, dinner maybe? But that's mom for you, always leaping headfirst into the unknown—an annoying little trait she’d picked up the year my dad kicked the bucket. The fact that he died over ten years ago means nothing apparently. In all fairness, I do feel reluctantly happy for her. She’s been so alone for as long as I can remember.

  Life hasn’t been all bad though. Working as a live-in nanny for the Pembrokes has been an amazing adventure for both me and my mom, and for the last decade, it's all I’ve known. We get free travel, free accommodations, a built-in family and not to mention I’ve benefited from free tuition at one of the finest schools the district has to offer. My private school in New York was amazing. I struggled that first year with depression and loneliness, but it took only a few months for me to latch onto some pretty awesome friends while getting my grades up for once. I’d taken up some more dance classes senior year with my mom’s encouragement and now have a growing but small online following. New York is an amazing place for the artistically inclined to network and pretty much immerse yourself into the community of starving artists.

  Yes, I consider dance an artform.

  ‘I guess that’s all about to change now,’ I muse as I make my way through the front door of the Pembroke’s loft where I live with my mom and my dog, Cat. To call it a loft might actually be a bold-faced lie. It’s more like a penthouse. Mr. and Mrs. Pembroke actually own this building—this five-story monstrosity of a building that houses their six person family with my mom and I generously on the top floor.

  Mr. Pembroke is some sort of app developer, but comes from old, old money which helped to launch his company sky high. He and his wife decided somewhere along the way to squeeze out multiple children, so here we are—the beautiful and wonderful Elena Blair and her only daughter here to save the day. For years now my mom has watched those kids as if they were her own. I grew up alongside them and love them too. Which makes this news all the more jarring. For the first time in my life, I’m faced with the fact that this setup isn’t permanent. I mean, I guess I always knew we’d eventually leave and move on to a new family in need of a nanny, but it doesn’t make it any easier.

  “Tell me it ain’t so, baby girl!” Jax complains the second I step into my room.

  “You really need to stop doing that!” I admonish him as Cat squeezes around me and jumps onto my queen size bed next to my best friend. He just stretches out and runs a large hand along Cat’s fur and my traitorous dog sighs happily.

  “When were you planning on telling us, huh?” His blue eyes glare at me accusingly. Despite the teasing note in his voice, I can’t help but hone in on the sadness clouding his eyes as he watches me put my bags down on my desk. Jax and I have been friends since we were in elementary school. When mom first took this job and we met the family, Jax had been the one to take me under his wing, so to speak.

  He’s probably the best friend I’ve ever had or ever will have. Jax has that way about him though—that magnetic pull that makes you want to be somewhere in his atmosphere. It doesn’t hurt that he’s easy on the eyes either with gently waving, dark auburn hair that almost reaches his shoulders and sparkling baby blues. But Jax and I have never been like that with each other. Though we’re far from siblings ‘shudder’, I’ve kept things platonic for the most part. I’d be a liar though if I claimed I didn’t fantasize every now and then... I mean, can you blame me? The man’s an adonis. Okay, maybe I fantasize a little more than occasionally.

  “Don’t look at me, you probably knew before I di
d.” Kicking off my shoes, I roll my neck muscles after the long walk from the subway.

  His eyes narrow. “Are you for real right now?” He looks skeptical.

  Sighing heavily, I plop down next to him and Cat, my black Shiba. I named her Cat the day I found her huddling in an alleyway soaked to the bone and so small I’d mistaken her for a kitten.

  “Honestly I shouldn’t be surprised, you know how she gets.”

  Jax snorts. “But marriage? I don’t know, this seems like a big fucking thing for her to just keep from you like that.” I frown now that I think about it. “Did you even know she was seeing someone?”

  I chew on my lip. Come to think of it, no. I had no idea mom had a new boyfriend. With her though, it’s always up in the air. She’s a beautiful woman and unfortunately for the men of this poor city—she knows it. Grumbling, I throw my hands up in defeat. “Who the hell knows anymore...” Cat burrows her cold nose into my arm and whines. I pat her head lightly. “I know, baby girl, I’m sad too,” I coo... though ‘sad’ might not be the right word for what I’m feeling.

  “I can’t believe you're bailing on the show…” Jax complains, eliciting a groan from me. I reach up and rub my tired eyes.

  “Shit... there's no way I can do it, she says we leave Monday.” I roll my head to the side, meeting his blue eyes sadly. “I’m sorry, big man, I know how much this meant to you…” I trail off, trying to puzzle out a way to make it to the showcase.

  Lana Brice—one of the city’s most famous choreographers for contemporary dance offered Jax and I a small part in her upcoming showcase to launch the opening of a new dance academy. It isn’t much yet, but it’s nestled squarely on the Upper East Side—right out there with famous art galleries and theatres for the important New Yorkers to salivate over and gossip about.

  “What are you gonna to do?” he asks. “It’s not like you can just call up Lana and say ‘Hey, I decided to move to California last minute, sorry about the multi-million-dollar show…”

  Irritation and hopelessness rolls through me simultaneously. “Don't you think I know that?!” I groan, throwing my palm over my closed eyes. “Ugh, this is all so screwed up!”

  Jax and I take dance seriously, him almost more so. Jax is a natural talent despite his stockier muscles, and he's amazingly light on his feet. He pretty much helped me along every step of the way. He’s the main reason I stuck with it all these years... that, and the fact that I’m actually pretty damn good at dancing.

  He nudges my arm softly. I take my hand off my face and glance up. “You could stay here... if you really wanted to,” he suggests, flitting his eyes away from mine nervously. “You’re eighteen now, Nora, you don’t have to follow her around anymore.”

  I take a second and breathe in deeply, knowing that technically he’s right. I don’t have to follow her anymore, not really. “I’m not ready yet. I thought we had a few more years before I’d have to think about it.” I lower my eyes dejectedly and a little bit guiltily. “Living in New York is expensive, and if mom goes back to California, I have nowhere to go.”

  Jax huffs and crosses his bulging arms over his chest. I try not to stare, but it’s difficult when he insists on wearing muscle tanks around the house. “What the hell, stupid? You have a home right here, why does that have to change?”

  I eye him dubiously. “Uh, I’m not mooching off your parents after my mom quits.” No way no how. They’ve done so much for my mom and me. There’s no way I could justify it.

  He frowns, biting down on his lip. “It’s not mooching, you’ve lived with us for over a decade, I’m sure mom and dad won't care—”

  “That’s not the point,” I interrupt. “I can’t bail on mom, at least... not yet. Who the hell knows if this fling will even last. For all I know they could break up and we’ll be on the next flight back to New York.” My heart dips in my chest at the prospect. In reality, the thought of returning to the West Coast thrills me, even if the timing isn’t exactly ideal.

  As much as I do love the life we’ve made here in the big apple, my heart still lives in California. A part of me still regrets the way I left things. No, scratch that... all of me regrets it. I regret everything and want nothing more than to turn back the clock and redo the last two years and make it right. I hadn’t even said goodbye. I’ll admit though, I really thought I’d never see them again.

  Jax watches me with a pucker between his thick, expressive brows and I can tell he’s worried about something he isn’t saying. But that's how Jax is—always worrying about everyone but himself and always worrying about me. Leaving him will probably be the hardest part of this whole catastrophe. Even now, I feel sick with the thought of it. I’ve never tried to imagine a day without him somewhere nearby. All the times he’s slept in my room, holding me while I toss and turn with nightmares of my past... all the hugs, laughs and shenanigans. I’ll miss and crave it all the second my plane takes flight on Monday morning. I want to cry right now, but I keep it in. If I let the tears flow, Jax just might be able to convince me to stay... and I can’t have that.

  “Tell me you’ll visit?” I plead with my best friend while he just stares back at me with a clenched jaw. There’s a seriousness in his eyes that hasn’t been present in all the years I’ve known him. Some sort of veil is lifting and it’s as if he’s letting me see his real feelings that hide beneath his easy smiles and carefree attitude.

  Turning onto his side, the new position brings his face much closer to mine. I know this is a bad idea the very second my heart rate skyrockets. My hands feel sweaty and my mouth dries up instantly. I watch in morbid curiosity as his eyes briefly flit to my lips. I can’t help but lick my own in response. Bad move… his soft lips brush mine for the first time, sending a thrill throughout my entire body. My lower stomach heats as his big hand glides up my exposed arm before drifting up into my long hair and clenching the strands in his grip. Leaning in further, he brings his body flush with mine and I can feel every hard line and ridge of his body. I feel like my soul is on fire as his lips devour mine. I’ve imagined this exact situation a million times, but we’ve just chosen the exact worst time to act on it.

  Still, I kiss him back like a glutton for punishment with everything I have in me until he’s pinning me down to my soft mattress. His tongue tangles with mine and I can taste the mint on his breath. I sigh and he groans before pulling my hair tighter. This is a goodbye kiss. I can feel it. The ache in my heart extends to my bones and up through my skin. It tumbles out into the air until I’m sure he can feel it too. My neck arches back in a way that allows his lips to drift from mine and trail down to my collar bone. Raking my hands over his back, I grasp his grey shirt in my fingers and twist. I want nothing more than to rip the offensive garment off his broad shoulders, but I hold back.

  I can’t let this go too far... it would break me. I’m already cracked and shattered from two boys I never allowed myself to have. My heart doesn’t have the capacity for more ache. As if he feels my body beginning to lock up, Jax pulls away, but not before placing the softest, most heartbreakingly tender kiss on my forehead—right between my watering eyes.

  “As if you could keep me away…” he whispers.

  Chapter Two

  I slide into the town car awkwardly as my driver closes the door before circling around to load my bags. There are quite a few of them thanks to my unhealthy obsession with clothing and cheap paperback novels.

  It's incredibly weird, knowing the whole car is for me and me alone. Sure, I’ve been around finery and rich people things many times, but I’ve never truly been a part of it—always tagging along with Jax and the others, but never actually belonging. The vehicle feels sterile and unwelcoming, and I see that there’s a bottle of champagne chilling in a small glass fridge just below the seat. I can’t help but feel a little bit bitter about the way this all went down. When mom told me about the move, I’d expected her to travel with me like always. Back in the day, she’d always been right there by my side, comfo
rting me when I needed it most.

  But apparently love waits for no one. Or, at least that's what I try to tell myself as I sit here alone and waiting. We cruise down the coast for a few hours until the scenery begins to turn achingly familiar. Gone is the bustling city and bumper to bumper traffic and in its place are rolling hills dotted with trees that have dark green moss hanging from their beautiful branches—reminding me of how much I truly missed this place. I roll down the window and breathe in deeply, savoring the tang of sea air and luxuriating in the freshness of the wind on my face. My pale blonde hair blows around my head in long waves—whipping me in the face, but I don’t mind.

  Back in New York, the air had been stuffy and filled with smog. The city was stifling and any direction you looked, ugly stone buildings blocked out the view of a horizon. But not here. After cresting the top of a particularly winding set of hills, a break in the rolling greenery reveals the prettiest sight I’ve seen in two long years. The sparkling blue ocean peaks through as we roll down the highway, taking a forked road that leads to Mainstreet. The ocean view disappears as we descend into the heart of the small, artsy city.

  I remember the first time we came here, back when my mom first started working for the Pembrokes. I’d been enchanted right off the bat. The town is a tourist trap for sure, but it never fails to give me the warm tinglies as I look around at all the familiar stores, restaurants and coffee shops of my childhood. To the right is a small antique store with elegant white lettering on its window advertising their awesome selection of new and old books. My heart leaps in my chest, remembering the hours and hours River and I spent on the old faded carpet in the back of the store—noses buried in dusty novels as we munched on some fries.