The Summer You Found Me (The Summer, #3)

by Elizabeth O'Roark

She clearly thinks being married to one of my closest friends will stop me from doing something I should not. I’m somewhat less sure. One of many reasons I need her out of my home.

“I’m going to say this once and then we are never going to discuss it again. The first time I saw you, I thought you were the most perfect thing I’d ever seen, and I still think it. I wouldn’t change a single thing about you. Now shut the fuck up and watch the show.”

when I saw Beck from a distance, before I knew he was Caleb’s friend, I thought he was the most perfect thing I’d ever seen too. There was a minute there, before we’d ever even spoken, when I wished I’d met him first.

When my mother was dying, she told me that I’d know the right girl when I met her, but I knew with Kate before we’d ever even met. My bike hadn’t even come to a full stop outside the club when I’d noticed her: long red hair whipping in the wind, an angel’s face, don’t-fuck-with-me eyes. I knew. I fucking knew it was her...until Caleb walked up. That’s when I realized this was the girl he’d been talking about for the past two months. I’ve spent years trying to forget how I felt that night, trying to separate myself from her, but it’s never worked.

“If anything happened to you,” he replies, his voice low and gravelly, “I would never forgive myself.”

“Touch her like that again,” Beck says, his voice quiet and lethal, “and I’ll break every fucking bone in your body.”

Except I wasn’t waiting for him to change his mind. I was waiting for you to change yours.”

Kate and I are the same on the inside—nothing but jagged pieces held together by raw hope. I felt it in my bones the moment I laid eyes on her, and of all the things I wish I hadn’t felt for Kate Bennett, that’s probably the hardest to disregard. Because how many times in your life will you ever meet someone who was made for you? And how do you possibly walk away if you find her?

“My mom always said that everything in life has a counterpoint, and you need one to appreciate the other. So you have to be hungry to appreciate being full. You’ve got to be tired to appreciate rest. Your fear of losing something makes you appreciate how much you love it. That’s why it’s better to go through the hard things than to avoid them...because it’s going through them that makes you grateful for what you have.”

“I’ve been in love with you since the day we met. From that first night I saw you standing outside The Midnight House. So, I waited, because I knew you and Caleb wouldn’t last.” He puts on his helmet and flips up the visor as he starts the bike. “But who you are right now? That’s not the girl I met that night. And that’s not the girl I waited for. Hannah’s gone, Kate. So is Caleb. And one of these days you’ll need to move on, but I’m done waiting for it to happen. I’ll give you a few hours to get your stuff out of my place. Be gone by the time I get home.”

“If you were any more perfect,” Adam says when he picks up, “I’d probably have to leave my boyfriend for you.” “I’d still have a vagina.” “I didn’t say I wouldn’t be disappointed eventually,” he replies.