Bella and the Summer Fling Read online

  “Online college classes,” he says. “I can get an entire general studies bachelor degree online from the state university.”

  “Wow,” I say, as the gears turn in my own mind. Maybe I could do the same thing. “I didn’t know that.”

  He nods. “I’m signed up for a full-time course load this fall, and hopefully I can manage that plus racing. The races are only one day a week, and we travel and train a lot, but I think it’ll be fine since I can study on the plane and in the hotels. I don’t have the time to go to real college with racing, but online classes will be just like when I was homeschooled in high school. That way, even if something happens to derail my professional career—God I hope not—I’ll still have a bachelor degree to fall back on.”

  “Wow,” I say, leaning forward and resting my elbows on my knees. “Everyone has a plan but me. You have two plans. I’ve got nothing.”

  His hand is warm on my back. “Don’t stress, Bella.”

  I look back at him, and nausea rises up in my stomach. It’s easy for him to tell me not to stress… he doesn’t have anything to stress about! I feel sick and panicky and I’m not entirely sure why. I think it’s fifty percent because I have no idea what to do with my future and fifty percent because Liam’s arm is around me and I love the feeling of it so much that it hurts. Summer will be over soon and he won’t be here anymore. He won’t be here to put his arm around me. He won’t be here to kiss me. He won’t buy me ice cream. He’ll be traveling the country and taking college classes and making a life for himself while I’m stuck here living in my mom’s house with no idea what to do.

  “Whoa,” Liam says, sitting up. “Bella? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  I stand up and wring out my hands, trying to quell my anxiety. “Don’t worry about me,” I say, pacing a few steps away before turning around and then doing it all over again. “I’m just freaking out.”

  Liam frowns, then stands and moves in front of me, stopping me in my tracks. “Bella, come here.” He holds out his arms and I don’t even think twice about walking into them. He wraps me in his strong embrace, and I let my face press against his chest. His chin rests on top of my head and for thirty whole seconds, the world feels perfect. My heart slows from its panicked state and soon the smell of cedar and all this fresh air and Liam’s cologne starts to make me feel better.

  I slowly pull away. “Thanks,” I mumble.

  “You’re only eighteen,” Liam says, letting his fingers trail down my arms as he slowly releases me. “You have time to figure out your life. I promise. I’ll help you, too. We can go through every career in the world and see which one you like the best.”

  I grin. “Will there be ice cream involved?”

  His smirk is so adorable it makes my toes tingle. “Always.”

  We spend hours at the park, and it’s the most fun I think I’ve ever had here. Broken Pines Park has evolved a lot since I was a little kid and would come here with my parents and Brent. There are food vendors and games and more things to do. Liam lets his little brothers get their face painted, and they both pick Captain America shields on their cheeks, which I soon find out is Liam’s favorite superhero. The boys look up to Liam and try to copy everything he does. He’s a good big brother even if he’s not very experienced at it.

  We walk around and play on the various playgrounds, and after my slight breakdown over what I’m going to do with my life, we don’t talk about any more important subjects. We just have fun.

  Liam gets a call from his mom, and then has to break the news to his brothers. “Sorry guys, dinner is almost ready. It’s time to go home.”

  I expect the boys to beg and plead to stay longer, but they handle the news better than I did when I was a kid. They don’t even complain.

  “So, uh,” Liam says, turning to me as we walk back to where his truck is parked. “My mom invited you over for dinner.”

  My eyes widen. “What?”

  He shrugs. “They’re just ordering a bunch of pizza, so it’s not a big deal.” His tongue flicks over his bottom lip and he reaches out his hand, one finger looping around mine. “You should come.”

  I know it’s a bad idea but… “Okay.”

  He grins and opens the passenger door of his truck for me. “Kiddos in the back,” he says.

  On the short drive back, we jam out to the radio and sing along to an old rock song. I can’t believe the boys know the words, but they do and they belt them out louder than Liam and me. It’s not until we pull into the driveway of a cute suburban two-story home that I realize I’m about to meet Liam’s mom and step-dad. Holy crap. I’m meeting his mom and step-dad!

  I draw in a deep breath. I remind myself, for the thousandth time, that we’re just friends. It’s not like I’m Liam’s girlfriend, so there won’t be any pressure placed on me with first impressions. So who cares? This is No. Big. Deal.

  The back doors open and the boys go tumbling out, running at full speed to the front door. It seems like everything those kids do is always done at full speed.

  Liam’s hand closes over mine. “They’re really nice people. You have nothing to worry about.”

  “How’d you know?” I ask.

  He winks. “I’m a mind reader. And your thoughts are written all over your face.”

  I bite my lip and I can’t say I disagree. My face is probably the picture perfect example of “freaked out” right now.

  As soon as we walk inside, my nerves are at an all-time high. A short woman with long dirty blonde hair pops out of the kitchen and smiles at me.

  “Hi, sweetheart,” she says, hugging me in that Southern Hospitality way that comes naturally to a lot of Texas mons. “You must be Bella. I’m Ruby.”

  “It’s nice to meet you,” I say. I’m not about to call her by her first name, because my southern parents taught be better than that, but I realize I have no idea what her last name is. It’s probably not Mosely since she divorced Liam’s dad and remarried. Oh crap. I guess I can’t call her anything until I find out.

  “We’re out of napkins, so this will have to do.” A tall, lanky man in his early forties walks out from the kitchen, holding a roll of paper towels. “Oh, hi there,” he says when he notices me. “Are you the famous Bella?”

  I look at Liam. “I’m famous?”

  If he wasn’t so confident and cocky looking all of the time, I’d swear he might be a little embarrassed right now. “I told them about your first motocross race,” he says. “And how I helped you train for it.”

  “Second place on her first try!” his mom says. “That’s pretty impressive.”

  I thank her and hope I don’t sound as awkward as I feel. His family is nice. So nice that I desperately want them to like me, even though it doesn’t matter one bit because soon summer will be over and Liam will be gone and I’ll probably never see them again.

  “Dinner is in the kitchen,” Liam’s step-dad says. “We went a little crazy ordering pizza, so there’s several types to choose from. We have soda, tea, and water, too. Help yourself.”

  “Sounds great, thank you.”

  Liam turns to me. “Before I forget, let me show you that college site I told you about.”

  I have no idea what he’s referring to, but I follow him out of the living room and down the hall to a bedroom. He opens the door, urges me inside quickly, and then presses it closed behind us. It looks like we’re in an office, or maybe a room that hasn’t been fully unpacked yet. There’s a desk with a computer and filing cabinets, and plastic storage bins all along one side. A small bed is pressed against the wall on the other side, a large suitcase open and piled with clothes next to it.

  “What college site?” I say.

  “There is no college site,” he says. His teeth press into his bottom lip. “I’m sorry, but you look so beautiful, and I had to get us away from my family for just a second could I could do this.”

  He closes the distance between us in two strides and soon his hands are on my cheeks, tilting
my face up to meet his. “Is this okay?” he whispers.

  My answer is a soft, “Yes.”

  He kisses me. Our lips crush together eagerly, impatiently. My heart jackhammers its way across my chest but I lean closer, slide my arms up to his shoulders, and let the kiss go places I’ve only been imagining. I feel his hands slide down my back, leaving a trail of tingles in their wake. I am out of breath, but I don’t care. His lips are the medicine that keeps my heart beating. I don’t ever want to break away.

  But eventually, we pull back. It’s only been a few seconds, and it definitely hasn’t been long enough, but time is not on our side. Not now, while pizza and family wait in the other room, and not ever.

  I realize, for yet another time, that in just a few weeks the summer will be gone.

  And so will Liam.

  4

  Liam

  It’s ironic how I used to wake up in this small bed in the guest bedroom of my mom’s new house and hate everything about it. Each day I woke up here was a reminder that I wasn’t home in Houston, that I had been kicked off Team FRZ Frame, and that I was stuck living in this small pointless town for the summer. For several days in a row, I would wake up, remember where I am, and get really frustrated.

  Funny how things change.

  The bed is still uncomfortable, and it’s still a little jarring to wake up in a room that’s not mine, but now I wake up happy for the day to come, especially if it’s a day I’m going riding at the local motocross track.

  I load my dirt bike into the bed of my truck and I give Bella a call. “I’m heading to the track. What about you?”

  “Same,” she says.

  “Do you want me to come pick you up?” I wish I didn’t sound so pathetically eager, but it is what it is. “That way you don’t have to load your bike.”

  “No… I’ll just meet you there.”

  “You sure?” I grab my gear bag and toss it in the back of my truck. “It’s better for the environment if we ride together.”

  “That might be true, but it’s better for the world if we wait to do that kind of thing until Brent leaves. He’s taking a six-week summer course at the college but it doesn’t start until next week.”

  “Ah,” I say. “Gotcha.”

  Bella’s older brother hates me with a capital H. Doesn’t matter that I’ve apologized to him a few times. Doesn’t matter that Bella has begged him to give me a chance. He’s not budging on his hatred. It’s all because when I was very stupid, I kissed his ex-girlfriend. It didn’t mean anything to me, and she was totally the one playing him, but it doesn’t matter. He hates me. End of story.

  I drive to the track alone and unload my bike. Roca Springs Motocross Park isn’t too shabby. It’s smaller than the big tracks but the owner really cares about it, so he keeps the track in great shape. People think it’s just a pile of dirt, but it’s more than that. The jumps have to be releveled and flattened every few days so they stay safe. The track has to be watered down with the large water truck once a day or it’ll get too dusty and hardpacked, making riding a nightmare. Maintaining a motocross track is a full-time job. What this track lacks in pomp and circumstance, they make up for by having a solid track.

  Not long after I arrive, Bella drives up in her old black Chevy truck. The thing has seen some better days, but she loves it. She parks next to me at our favorite spot, which is off to the side of the track under an old oak tree. No one bothers us over here, not even my overly fanatic fans.

  She walks up to me, all smiles.

  “The track looks great today.” Before I can say anything else, Bella throws her arms around my neck and presses her lips to mine.

  Whoa.

  I kiss her back – I would be stupid not to – but then I pull back a bit.

  “What’s this for?”

  She shrugs. “I wanted to do it.”

  I grin. “Want to do it a second time?”

  Her gaze turns sultry as she leans up and kisses me again. I breathe her in, trying to fill my heart and my mind with every inch of this experience so I can relive it later.

  She doesn’t pull away after a few seconds. Instead, she slides her fingers up my neck, tangling them in my hair. Our mouths part and I deepen the kiss, slowly at first. But my unrestrained passion is getting hard to control and soon we’re full on making out in the space between our trucks.

  Bella flinches and steps away. She runs a hand over her mouth and looks around. “We can’t do this.”

  My heart deflates. “Okay,” I say. “Sorry.”

  “No.” She shakes her head. “Don’t be sorry—it’s not your fault, it’s just—” She exhales slowly and looks up at me. “This is going to hurt like hell.”

  “I know,” I say.

  “You’re leaving after summer.”

  “I know.”

  “And we’ll be done.”

  I nod.

  She runs a hand through her hair and shifts on her feet. “And that’s the funny thing,” she says after a moment of thought. “I don’t think I care.”

  “What do you mean?” I say.

  Her bottom lip rolls under her teeth while she thinks. “I like you, Liam. I know it’s pointless. I know you’re leaving and you’re going to be famous and I’m going to be stuck here in this small town forever. But… whatever this is.. I like it.”

  “This …is a lie,” I say. “It’s fun, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a lie.”

  “What if it’s just for the summer?”

  I stare at her, perplexed and amazed and scared all at once. “Like a fling?”

  She shrugs one shoulder. “If you want to label it.”

  “You’re suggesting we have a summer fling?” I say again.

  “No strings attached,” she says with a nod. “We can keep doing this kissing thing and hanging out every day, and after summer, it’ll just be over.”

  “I don’t know, Bella.” I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it has to be said. I lick my lips and draw on my courage. “It sounds fun, but it also sounds hard. I don’t want to let you go after summer.”

  She rolls her eyes. “What, you want to date me?”

  Yes, I think. But she scoffs sarcastically and says, “Obviously not. This can’t happen. We’re too different and our lives aren’t compatible. But for the summer, it could be fun. Just only for the summer.”

  She steps closer to me, and reaches out, touching my arm. Her soft fingers slide down to my hand, where she holds it lightly. “What do you say?”

  “I can’t tell you no,” I say. I don’t even realize I’m leaning closer to her until my hand is on her waist. I press my forehead to hers. “I want whatever you want.”

  “I want a summer fling,” she says, grinning up at me like this is a fun game and not a potential heartbreaking big mistake. “I want to know what it’s like to be your girl, if only for a few weeks.”

  I chuckle. “I haven’t dated in a while. I might be bad at it.”

  “Just keep doing what you’re doing,” she says, wrapping her arms around me.

  I kiss her on the top of her head. I’m not sure why, it just comes naturally. She always smells like coconuts and vanilla, and exactly like the best part of summer.

  “Are you sure you’re okay with this?” I ask. I almost feel like I need her to answer the question a hundred times before I’ll believe it.

  “I’m good,” she says, peering up at me. “We’re eighteen. I think it would be violating a major rite of passage if we skipped having a summer fling. It’s all the rage, I’ve been told.”

  She grins, and I can’t help but smile back.

  “Okay then,” I say. I know this is going to hurt, but I don’t care. Bella knows this will hurt, but she doesn’t care.

  I take her hand in both of mine and look deep into her eyes. “Want to be my summer fling?”

  She laughs and the sound is music to my ears. “Yes I do.”

  5

  Bella

  The good news is that it’s only
been three days. But the bad news is that it’s already been three days. My summer with Liam is growing shower by the day, hour, minute. Every time I think about it, more time has passed and I’m sure that before long, summer will be over and he’ll be gone. I try to tell myself to live in the moment and to stop freaking out about the future, but that is much easier said than done. I’m having way too much fun to just give it all up in a few weeks.

  If I had my way, Liam and I would hang out every second of the day until I got sick of him and wanted him to leave. But as this is real life, that doesn’t happen, both because I’m not sure I can get sick of him, and because I still have real life things to do. Right now I’m hanging out with my best friend Kylie, who just had me dye her roots back to black. Her natural hair color is a medium brown but for the last year she’s been dying it jet black. The color suits her. It makes her look invincible, and maybe that’s where she gets all her confidence to flirt with guys.

  We’re supposed to get lunch soon and then she has to babysit her brothers this evening. It sucks for her, but it’s good for me that my best friend will be busy this evening, because today is race day at the local track. The summer races are always held in the evening when it’s cooler outside. Right now it’s over a hundred degrees of scorching Texas heat outside. In the winter, you can have a race during the day but in the summer, that would be a deathwish.

  This will be my second time racing, and although Kylie really wants to see me race, I’m glad she can’t make it tonight. If she came to the track with me then I’d have to treat Liam like he’s just a friend. That’s the thing with summer flings—it’s better if they’re a secret. At least, that’s what I’ve decided because I am absolutely not telling anyone about my fling, not even my best friend.

  Kylie turns off my hair dryer and gives me a look. She’s been sitting at my makeup table blow drying her hair for the last ten minutes. I’m sitting on my bed playing on my laptop. I look up at her. “What?”