Summer's Echo

by Robbi Renee

I was never Summer to him, but instead his Sunshine, his Sun, and him? He was mine—Summer’s Echo.

The thought of witnessing her promise forever to another man…take another man’s last name felt like a slow death.

Since I was seventeen years old, she’d been mine. My best friend, my confidant, my homie. But life—and the life-altering mistake that changed everything had reshaped us—twisted our paths in ways I never saw coming.

I was no longer interested in a relationship built on conditions, timelines, and rules—love that came with expectations instead of exhilaration. What I wanted was simpler, yet somehow more complicated at the same time. I just wanted to feel…butterflies.

“I’m going to give you the space you need, Summer, but please understand, I’m going to be pressure. I’m not letting up until you tell me to.”

“I love you, Echo. I am so sorry, but I–I can’t do this. I can’t have this baby.”

“You’ve been looking for everything Echo gave you in just one summer in other people, but it’s time for you to accept that nobody can fill those shoes but him.”

“Real love has a way of making you face yourself. Face your fears. And I think Echo has been doing that to you since the moment you laid eyes on him.”

“Love, when it’s real, has a way of finding you no matter how far or fast you run.

The heart leads the way, even when our mind tells us to take another path.”