Summer's Road

"With a tortured heroine and headstrong hero, Moran crafts a story about making

the difficult choices in the search for love."

~NY TIMES and USA TODAY bestselling author, Caridad Pineiro

After her father’s death, Summer Quinn realizes just how alone she feels in the world. With no family to fill her life now, she finds comfort among friends, but yearns for true love, contentment, and family. When her boyfriend, Matt, suggests they raise their relationship to a higher level, Summer jumps at the chance to get everything she’s always wanted. Only, she doesn’t expect the heat arising between her and her best friend, Ian – a man who never seems to settle down. A man the complete opposite of what she’s looking for. But when her estranged mother reappears after twenty-eight years, Summer’s world completely flips upside down. As secrets from her family’s past and Ian’s true feelings for her emerge, Summer’s now faced with choices she’s not sure she can make. The rest of her life’s happiness hinges on Summer confronting a past she’d rather deny and legitimately opening her heart to love, even if it’s not where she expected to find it.

Summer stepped onto the pier and gazed out over the ocean. Nighttime here was different than back home. There weren’t any city lights to disguise the stars. The ocean looked black, as dark as the sky above, so that across the horizon, she couldn’t tell where the sky ended and the water began. It was kind of like looking into heaven, like looking into the earth’s soul.

The drum of footsteps behind her broke her from her reverie. Turning, she saw Ian coming toward her. Shirtless, he hadn’t even bothered with the button on his jeans, he strode closer in bare feet with a bottle of wine in one hand and glasses in the other.

All she could think was how damn delicious he looked in the moonlight. Heat pooled in her belly and spread throughout her body like a wildfire. Ian Memmer. Not good.

“You shouldn’t be out here by yourself,” he said, pouring a glass of white wine and handing it to her, the look in his eyes saying it looks like you need this.

She took the glass from him and sipped before answering. “That’s the point, to be by myself.”

Maybe it was the moonlight. Maybe it was the call of the ocean. Whatever it was, something made her want to test the boundaries between them again. Matt or not. Friendship or not. Consequences be damned. “Then you’d save me. You always do.”

His eyes darkened when he looked at her, his long lashes shadowing his cheeks when he shut his eyes. “I suppose I do.” That sounded like regret.

When he looked at her, she thought she was going to explode from all the heat radiating in his eyes. “That’s a dangerous pastime.”

He would say that, she thought. Ian would much rather glide through life having fun than be serious about anything. There were very few instances where that weren’t true. Like when they talked about her dad. Or what happened between them the other night.

She wasn’t sure if that was sarcasm or irritation. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

Summer turned to him, watched his profile as he pretended not to see her looking. “It’s just… I was thinking about what my dad said in the hospital before he died. That thing about friendship being important. He was best friends with your parents. He was friends with my mother and look what happened.”

“No, I’m more like him.” He turned to face her then and there was misery all over his face. “I’m not letting it happen to us, Ian.”

It was a slap in the face. Ian fought with her constantly, challenged her with every step she took, but he was never cruel. That was cruel. And it hurt like hell. Summer whirled and tried to leave, but he caught her arm before she could take so much as a step.

“I didn’t mean that,” he whispered, his head turned away from her as if it pained him to look at her. “God, I didn’t mean that.” Taking the wine glass from her he tossed it into the ocean and pulled her to him.

His kiss was drugging, pulling her under into this deep bliss that was satiating and excruciating all at once. She wanted her hands in his hair to tug him closer, bring the kiss deeper, but he had them trapped between their bodies. The hard planes of his chest, the softness of his skin beneath her fingertips, she was gone before he even tried to kiss her. She wanted him to take her right here on the pier, Ian rising over her and inside her and drowning everything else out.