Until We Were More (Summer of First Kisses Book 4) Read online

  Until We Were More

  By Michelle Pennington

  Contents

  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

  Copyright © 2019 by Michelle Pennington

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.

  Michelle Pennington

  P.O. Box 54

  Hartford, AR 72764

  www.michelle-pennington.com

  Publisher’s note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locals is completely coincidental.

  If you want more sweet romances, join my newsletter at www.michelle-pennington.com and get the latest on all upcoming releases.

  Chapter One

  All summer, my friends and I had enjoyed golden Sunday afternoons, lying in the sun and soaking up the best parts of summer—but today we were not so lucky.

  Even though the morning had started off with blue skies, gray clouds had been rolling in from the gulf for the last hour. I sat with my toes deep in the wet sand and my eyes on the darkening horizon, wondering how long we had before it started raining. Oh, and thinking about Zane.

  This was unusual for me, since usually I prefer to not think about Zane. At all.

  Since our days in middle school, he had made it his mission in life to annoy me as much as he possibly could. And the boy was good at it. However, when we all stopped for donuts before coming to the beach this morning, he’d done something he had never done before. He’d asked for my help. And I still didn’t know why.

  “Don’t tell me it’s going to rain,” Sadie said. She lay stretched out next to me on a towel, reading, while her boyfriend, Dante, bodysurfed with the others.

  I was glad she wasn’t interested in being pounded by the surf whipped up by the incoming storm. It was nice having a friend around who wasn’t totally focused on her boyfriend for a little while. Glancing down at her, I said, “Oh, it’s going to rain.”

  “How long do we have?”

  We both looked up at the dark cloud at the leading edge of the storm racing toward us. Right then, a big fat drop of rain landed on my head. “Not long.”

  All at once, the sound of fat raindrops thudding on the soft sand nearly drowned out the sound of the surf. In seconds, big, gray polka dots covered the beach. Sadie jumped up with a squeal and stuffed her precious book into her beach bag. The others wouldn’t care at all that it was raining since they were already wet, but they probably weren’t paying attention to the lightning flashing further out to sea.

  “Whoa,” Sadie said, watching with me. “They need to get out of the water.”

  She was right, but as usual, I had to be the one to get people moving. I stood up and walked out into the surf, wading out past the first sandbar, and yelled, “Get out of the water! Lightning behind you.”

  Dante, who sat straddled across his board, looked back over his shoulder just as a lightning bolt stretched between the surface of the water and the dark clouds overhead. “Time to go everybody!” he yelled.

  Zane frowned and made his way over to me. “Way to ruin the day, Piper.”

  I shrugged. “Hey, do me a favor and stay out here to get electrocuted.” Not waiting to see if he had listened or not, I headed back to shore. The storm was moving faster than I was comfortable with.

  We got a lot of pop-up storms here in Florida. You could watch them from the beach sometimes, as they hit further down the shore, and they might move right on past without even sprinkling on you. But I’d seen enough rainy days to know that this storm was big enough to cover the whole coast and last all day. I didn’t plan to wait it out on the beach under a sun umbrella.

  Zane followed me in, which I was actually glad for. He drove me nuts, but I didn’t want to worry about him. Once out of the water, I turned and watched him as he shook his wavy blond hair free of water and adjusted the waistband of his swim trunks, which were riding low on his hips. He almost looked like some kind of Greek god emerging from the sea with his fit body and bright-blue eyes.

  When he saw me watching him, he said, “Hey, maybe this works out better. You and I can find somewhere private to talk about my proposal.”

  The fact that he thought we needed somewhere private set off alarm bells in my head. “Why? Is it illegal?”

  He shot me a frustrated look. “Glad to know you have such a great opinion of me.”

  I shrugged and walked across the sand to gather my stuff. “You want some privacy, huh?”

  “For this? Definitely.”

  I grinned at him, turned to the rest of our friends—who were gathering their stuff up—and yelled out, “Anybody who wants to can come hang out at my house.”

  “Awesome,” Cooper said, looking toward Liv to see what she thought.

  “I’m in,” she agreed.

  “Us too,” Dante said, motioning to himself and Sadie.

  I turned to Tate, who was wrapping Kat up in her towel and trying to…er…cuddle her dry. “What about you two? Let me guess, you’re going to your place instead.”

  He rolled his eyes. “We’ll come over for a while. Especially if there’s food.”

  “I’ll get some pizza on my way over,” Zane said, making it impossible for me to un-invite him. My attempt to annoy him clearly hadn’t worked.

  “Thanks,” I said, my voice dry.

  He grinned at me. “No problem.” He looked over at Ridge, who stood a little apart from our group, watching the storm. “Hey, Ridge. Want to come with me to pick up some pizza and head over to Piper’s house?”

  “Sure,” he said. He was a man of few words but had an easygoing personality.

  Brooklyn, who had so far not responded, spoke so softly that I doubted anyone heard her but me. “I’ll come too. If that’s okay.”

  “Of course it is.” I tossed my damp towel over my shoulder and smirked at Zane. “The more the merrier.”

  The rain began to pelt us before we could discuss it any further, so we all bolted to our cars. When I got to mine, I took a second to spread my damp towel over my driver’s seat, because there was nothing worse than sitting on leather with a wet butt and legs. It was only after I sat down and shut the door behind me that I wondered how my mom would feel about me crashing her house with a bunch of soggy friends. I almost regretted inviting them over. Especially since I’d only done it to annoy Zane.

  Which was strange, since I was super-curious about what he wanted. But that didn’t mean I was going to make it easy on him.

  When I got home, I quickly changed into a dry T-shirt and denim shorts and then went looking for my mom. I found her in her office, working on accounts for Dad’s fishing charter business.
I stood in the doorway, smiling because she was listening to the Cranberries and eating chocolate cake straight from the pan she’d baked it in. My mom definitely enjoyed having the house to herself. Which is why I hesitated to mess it up for her.

  But my friends would be here any minute, even if they went home to change first, so I cleared my throat to get her attention.

  “Oh, hey, sweetie. You’re home already?”

  I laughed. “Didn’t you notice it’s storming like crazy out there?”

  She looked out the window. “Is it?”

  I turned down her music. Just then a clap of thunder boomed, making the whole house shake. “Yep. And since we got rained out at the beach, I invited everyone over.”

  Since I’d had the same crew of friends since junior high—except for the recent addition of Brooklyn—she knew exactly what that meant.

  “That’s fine, but I don’t think we have much to feed them. We should have plenty of sodas in the drink fridge in the garage, though.”

  “Zane’s bringing pizza.”

  “Sounds good. I’m going to stay back here and get some work done. I need to get everything cleared away for your dad before I go.”

  She was going on a weeklong cruise with some of her friends, a trip that was only made possible by the fact that I’d taken on the day-to-day customer service for the family business. “I know. We won’t bother you.”

  Smiling at me in a teasing way, she said, “Only because I never let myself be bothered.”

  I laughed and turned her music back up as I went out, closing the door behind me.

  Since Tate had his own apartment now, it was easier to keep the house clean. There weren’t big stinky shoes lying everywhere or dishes left on the coffee table in the living room. The throw pillows even stayed looking cute because Tate wasn’t around to toss them on the floor when they got in his way. Despite that, I realized again how weird it was to not have him living at home anymore. Especially since Kat spent most of her free time with him now instead of me.

  I didn’t blame her, exactly. Or him. But it was hard being the one left out.

  And now that Sadie and Liv were both dating guys from our group of friends, it felt as if everyone was moving on without me. And in a way, it was all because of my big idea to get all of my friends kissed by the end of the summer.

  “Didn’t really think that one through, did you?” I asked myself out loud, sure no one would hear me.

  “Talking to yourself, sis?” Tate asked, coming in with Kat.

  I turned away so they wouldn’t see me blushing. “Yeah. That’s what happens when your friends all desert you for their boyfriends.”

  Kat’s mouth fell open. “Pipes…”

  I waved her remorse away. “I’m just kidding. I had to have some excuse for being a weirdo.” The doorbell rang, saving me from my own awkwardness. “I’ll get it.”

  It was Zane with the pizza. I’d never been glad to see him before. “That was fast. Come in out of the rain before the boxes get any soggier.”

  He nodded, but with six boxes stacked up in front of him, he had a hard time maneuvering past me. His arm brushed against my chest, not only getting my shirt wet, but making me jump in surprise. He obviously hadn’t meant to, but it isn’t exactly somewhere I expect to be touched.

  “Sorry,” he said, turning back.

  “No worries,” I said, trying to play it cool.

  “I wasn’t paying attention. I don’t really think about you having boobs, you know?”

  “What does that mean?”

  He shrugged, which was honestly kind of impressive, since he was still holding six pizzas. “I don’t know. Like, if you were another kind of girl, I’d have been paying attention.”

  “What other kind of girl is there?”

  Grinning, he said, “Girls who aren’t friends.”

  I glared at him as he went toward the kitchen. “You mean frenemies.”

  “Be nice. I brought the pizza, didn’t I?”

  “Which is suspicious for a start.”

  I was about to close the door but realized just in time that Ridge was standing on the porch with four two liters of soda, two in each arm, silently waiting for me to get out of the way so he could make it through. He would never brush past a girl like Zane did.

  “Hey. Sorry,” I said, backing out of the way.

  “It’s fine.” He headed inside with a polite nod of his head.

  And then I saw Cooper coming down the street with Liv in the front seat just as Dante and Sadie came in from the other direction. For a moment, I thought they would crash, since Dante made a play to steal the closest parking spot from Cooper. Cooper was never one to take stupid risks though, so he went around Dante and parked farther away.

  They all ran up the driveway as fast as they could with their heads down to keep the rain out of their face. Once they were all under my porch, they shook their wet hair out of their eyes and pulled at their wet shirts.

  “I’m glad you didn’t wreck in front of my house,” I said.

  “No thanks to Dante,” Sadie said, bumping him with her hip. Dante just laughed and pulled her closer against him. Cooper and Liv didn’t look worried about it. They both had the same slightly goofy smiles they’d been wearing all morning. This was their first day as an official couple in public, so I had a feeling it would take a lot to annoy them. They held hands, and as they got to the door, Cooper stood back and guided her through the door first, like a gentleman, his hand resting low on her back. It was both an affectionate gesture and a sweetly possessive one.

  And it was all too much too soon. I didn’t know if I could handle all these cute, lovestruck couples mooning over each other in my house all afternoon. Again, what had I been thinking?

  But then Brooklyn drove up. She parked across the street in front of our neighbors’ house and walked across the street and up my driveway with the cutest blue-and-white polka-dot umbrella I’d ever seen. I almost hugged her. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

  She laughed. “Why?”

  “I just needed another girl around who wasn’t being monopolized by one of the guys.”

  Her lips dipped down for just a moment, as if my words had hurt her. But she covered it up quickly. “Yeah, you don’t have to worry about that with me.”

  I pressed my lips together. I hated that I’d been so selfish when I should have known better. I mean, I wasn’t so blind that I didn’t know about her crush. “Well, not today anyway. But I’m sure that will change.”

  She shrugged and shook the water off the umbrella. “I have serious doubts.”

  When we got into the kitchen, I took her arm, desperately wanting to make her feel better. But everyone was staring at the pizza boxes with a mix of amusement and disgust.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  Liv rolled her eyes and held one of the boxes out for me to look at. “Zane got six pizzas and every single one of them has pepperoni, jalapeños, and anchovies.”

  I flashed a look at Zane, who did his best to look innocent while he took a big bite. “What?” he asked, his mouth still full.

  “I should have known not to trust you.”

  He grinned. “Yes. You should have.”

  Chapter Two

  There was only one thing to do—try to save two pizzas for the girls to eat by scraping off all the toppings and remaking them. The boys were currently trying to out-man each other by eating as much as they could of the other four pizzas. Well, the boys and Liv.

  “How mad are you?” Zane asked, leaning his hip against the counter and watching me.

  “I can’t think of a bad enough name to call you without having to wash my mouth out.”

  He nodded and crossed his arms. “Not bad.”

  “You’re such a punk.” I took the bowl of tomato sauce, melted cheese, jalapeños, and gross, salty fish I’d scraped off the two pizzas and dumped the whole stringy mess in the trash. Moving the pizzas onto baking sheets a slice at a time, I then went to th
e fridge to see what we had to put on them.

  “So about that help I need…”

  I looked back at him and laughed, totally impressed by his sheer gall. However, I ignored him as I grabbed a package of Italian sausage and some mozzarella cheese, determined not to encourage him. But as I drizzled olive oil in a frying pan and took the casing off the sausages, he went right on talking anyway.

  “So we all know about your thing with Sadie, Kat, and Liv.”

  “What thing?”

  “The first kisses thing. And look at them all now.”

  I looked back over my shoulder at the couples all over my house. “Yeah.”

  “Well, here’s the thing. My man Ridge needs some help.”

  “With what?”

  “He has feelings for Brooklyn, but he won’t do anything about it.”

  I crumbled the sausage into the skillet, where it sizzled and hissed as it hit the hot oil. “Well, he should. Brooklyn isn’t exactly good at keeping her feelings for him a secret.”

  “Yeah, well, he won’t do it.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t know. But I know the guy. He might try to hide it, but he likes her.”

  I stirred the sausage to keep it from burning, but took a minute to watch Ridge as I did so. He stood leaning against the frame of the French doors, looking out at the monsoon crashing over my backyard, his hands in his pocket, while Brooklyn sat on the other side of the room, talking to Sadie and Liv.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Stop asking stupid questions. Do you think I’d be doing all this if I wasn’t sure?”

  “Since I never understand what goes on in your head, who knows.”

  “So you think I’m mysterious?” he asked, his admittedly gorgeous grin making me pause mid-stir.

  “That wasn’t a compliment. And anyway, why are you so worried about Ridge’s love life? You aren’t dating anyone either.”

  “Because I don’t want to be. I could get a girl anytime I wanted. Ridge on the other hand…well…”

  Zane was something else. Not that he was wrong. He’d had even more girlfriends than I’d had boyfriends. “Ridge is better looking that you,” I said.