“What about you? What’s got you sulking here?” Rachel looked around for something to throw at her twin, couldn’t find anything suitably heavy looking, and settled for ignoring Drew instead. “There are some sights the world isn’t ready for.” “I would if it means you’re going to be there in a bathing suit,” Drew replied. Come on, are you really telling me that you’d rather spend the time playing football than on the beach talking to all the girls there?” A few weeks at Summer’s aunt’s place aren’t going to hurt. “Like you aren’t a shoo-in for some dumb jock football scholarship anyway. “This is a big deal for me,” Drew pointed out. “Like you and the other jocks don’t spend all year running into one another anyway,” Rachel shot back. “It is when I have to miss football camp for this.” Is the idea of spending days on the beach that bad?”ĭrew shoved a few more clothes into the bag, stuffing them down into it hard. “It’s like you don’t want to spend the summer in a Malibu beach house or something. “What’s up with you two?” Rachel demanded. “Aren’t you two ready to go to Summer’s Aunt Sookie’s place yet?” Rachel picked her way through it as she headed inside. Worse, even, because now there were clothes strewn over the two beds while they tried to work out what to take with them, the rejects joining everything else on the floor. The room was every bit as bad as she’d thought it would be. But the difference was he was tall, almost six feet, two inches, and muscular, while she was average and not muscular. Even though they were only fraternal twins, people always commented on the similarities. Drew was handsome, built like the athletic star quarterback he was, with jet black hair that would have matched Rachel’s except for the purple streaks running through hers, deep blue eyes that did match, and those same high cheekbones. Nat was a year older than she and Drew, with short, wavy deep copper hair, an increasingly muscular build, and a good three or four inches in height on either of them. She pushed open the door to see Nat and Drew still stuffing clothes into their bags for the summer vacation. And she was meant to be the rebellious one. What was it about guys that they couldn’t live in any space that wasn’t knee deep in unwashed clothes? Okay, so maybe her own room wasn’t exactly perfect, but she was a sixteen-year-old girl. Rachel Donovan paused at the door to the room her brothers shared, steeling herself for the kind of chaos within. And then there was this summer, the summer I grew up, in more ways than one, and everyone noticed, especially the boys, especially Nat. I think of all the sunsets, dawns, and first attempts. I think about my friendship with Rachel Donovan and her brothers Nathaniel (Nat) and Drew. When I think of my summers spent at Aunt Sookie’s Malibu “pad” as she called it, I think about first kisses, first love, and first heartbreak. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher except in case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. THE EDGE is an imprint of Sparklesoup Inc.Īll Rights Reserved.