Welcome to Sunday Sips. I hope you enjoy this sample of A Special Summer.
It was a sunny July morning. Birds sang their melodies and the sweet smell of honeysuckle drew bees to their nectar. Hot tears threatened to escape Summer Jackson’s eyes as she gazed out of the bathroom window.
“Oh, no…this can’t be true. It’s not true,” Summer whispered. She tried to convince herself that what she was seeing wasn’t real. It couldn’t be.
She closed her eyes, then opened them again and focused on the bathroom vanity. There was no mistake. The home pregnancy test strip was positive.
A baby. What am I going to do?
A wave of nausea swept through her so fast she barely had time to make it the short distance to the toilet. After spewing the contents of her stomach, Summer flushed the toilet. She staggered to the sink where she rinsed her mouth and splashed cool water on her face. Trembling hands patted her face dry with a hand towel. Slowly, Summer sat on the floor, pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She rocked back and forth, staring at the ceiling, tears spilling down her cheeks. A dull throb pounded in her right temple as she remembered the last time she was with Nicholas ‘Nick’ Stiles.
Summer believed the evening would end as usual. They would go back to his place and make love until they were exhausted. Over the past few months of their relationship, she found herself falling in love. Nick was her everything. All she wanted in a man. The one she had given her virginity to without hesitation. It was time to let him know the depth of her feelings.
Instead of confessing her love, Summer had sat stunned in a dark car in front of her townhouse. She was blindsided by Nick’s news of leaving the country for several months.
“Summer, it’s best if we don’t see each other after tonight.”
His tone was indifferent as if they were casual acquaintances.
Summer had sensed Nick’s cool demeanor all evening, but she never expected him to drop such a devastating bomb. If anything, she reasoned he probably had a stressful day and was a bit distracted.
Under the impression that their relationship was heading to the next level, she wasn’t prepared for the curve ball he threw.
Summer struggled to control her shaky voice. “Best for whom, Nick?”
“Look, Summer, I told you from the door that my work comes first. That I’m not into long-term relationships, let alone long-distance ones. I thought you understood this thing wasn’t forever.”
With every jagged, blunt word, Summer winced. She wasn’t dense, so she understood what he said, however, his actions had told her something different. They told her that he’d changed his mind about having a long-term relationship, especially since they’d been exclusively seeing each other for a year.
Without saying another word, Summer grabbed her purse which had fallen to the floor and exited his vehicle. Once inside her home, she leaned against the door and slid to the floor before bursting into tears.
One month later, here she was again. On the floor crying. This time because she was pregnant by a man who no longer had any use for her. Let alone a baby.
A sharp pain stabbed her in the chest. Summer knew what she had to do. First thing Monday morning, she was calling her gynecologist’s office.
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