Summer Heat Read online

  ALSO BY JILL SANDERS

  The Wildflowers Series

  Summer Nights

  The Pride Series

  Finding Pride

  Discovering Pride

  Returning Pride

  Lasting Pride

  Serving Pride

  Red Hot Christmas

  My Sweet Valentine

  Return to Me

  Rescue Me

  The Secret Series

  Secret Seduction

  Secret Pleasure

  Secret Guardian

  Secret Passions

  Secret Identity

  Secret Sauce

  The West Series

  Loving Lauren

  Taming Alex

  Holding Haley

  Missy’s Moment

  Breaking Travis

  Roping Ryan

  Wild Bride

  Corey’s Catch

  Tessa’s Turn

  Haven, Montana Series

  Closer to You

  Never Let Go

  Holding On

  The Grayton Series

  Last Resort

  Someday Beach

  Rip Current

  In Too Deep

  Swept Away

  High Tide

  Lucky Series

  Unlucky in Love

  Sweet Resolve

  Best of Luck

  A Little Luck

  Silver Cove Series

  Silver Lining

  French Kiss

  Happy Accident

  Hidden Charm

  A Silver Cove Christmas

  Entangled Series: Paranormal Romance

  The Awakening

  The Beckoning

  The Ascension

  Pride, Oregon Series

  A Dash of Love

  My Kind of Love

  Season of Love

  Tis the Season

  Dare to Love

  Where I Belong

  Stand-Alone Novel

  Twisted Rock

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Text copyright © 2019 by Jill Sanders

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Montlake Romance, Seattle

  www.apub.com

  Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake Romance are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.

  ISBN-13: 9781542015226

  ISBN-10: 1542015227

  Cover design by Vivian Monir

  Cover photography by Wander Aguiar Photography

  CONTENTS

  PROLOGUE

  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

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  PROLOGUE

  Elle Saunders stood on the white sand as the bright orange of the sunset turned to a soft, warm pink. Gently cradling the case made of stone to her chest, she sighed deeply. It was time.

  Taking a few steps into the clear, warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, she opened the lid and released her last hold on the only man she’d ever loved. The only man who had given her everything.

  “Goodbye, Grandpa Joe.” She held in tears as his ashes floated and danced in the soft breeze and sparkled in the dying sunlight before disappearing from view as the sun slipped over the horizon.

  Walking back to her Jeep in the dark felt like reentering a gray, drab world full of mundane tasks, but life went on. After all, she’d dealt with it before, having lost her mother at a young age.

  Before she could climb behind the wheel of her Jeep, however, her phone buzzed in her pocket.

  Seeing the picture on the screen that she’d snapped of Hannah Rodgers at camp one summer years ago, she smiled and answered it on the second ring.

  “I just got back into town from my business trip and got your message. I’m at the airport now. How are you doing?” Hannah said before Elle could speak.

  “I’m”—she leaned back against the old Jeep, letting the summer air warm her—“alive.” How could she tell her friend in a quick check-in about the sadness that had overtaken her? How she’d almost let her depression consume her over the past few weeks? It was the truth—she was alive, and grateful for it—but sadness threatened to fill every pore in her being.

  “I’ve called everyone else. They’ll be there by tomorrow,” Hannah added.

  Elle nodded, not trusting her voice at this point. She’d stood on the beach for the past two hours, telling herself that she was now all alone in the world.

  But here was a reminder that she wasn’t.

  The Wildflowers, or so the five ten-year-olds who’d come together at summer camp had called themselves. Five girls from diverse backgrounds, different family situations, who had formed a bond stronger than that shared by most sisters.

  “We’re here for you,” Hannah said. “We knew he was sick, but . . . you didn’t tell us that he was this sick.”

  Elle leaned her head back on the Jeep, wishing she could go back in time. “I—I didn’t think he was this bad. I should have known you guys would want to say goodbye.”

  “Elle, you’re the person we should have been there for. Not your grandfather,” Hannah said as the speakers in the airport called out in the background. “That’s my flight. I’ll be there in a few hours. I’ve rented a car, so don’t worry about picking me up. I’ve still got the keys to the house. Go home, open a bottle of wine. I’ll see you soon.” There was a pause. “Elle, we love you. You’re our sister, even if you sometimes forget it.”

  “Thanks,” she managed before Hannah hung up. She hadn’t realized tears were blocking her vision until she turned on the Jeep’s lights and noticed that everything was fuzzy.

  Leaning her head on the steering wheel, she cried for the first time since finding her grandfather yesterday morning.

  The weight she’d felt the last day and a half from coping with the loss had been heavy. Her first instinct had been to call her friends for support. But she would need to manage this part by herself and to deal with losing the man who had given up everything to raise her.

  Now, however, after releasing his ashes into the clear waters near the place he had loved the most, she needed her friends to lean on.

  When she parked her Jeep back in front of the big house in the small town of Pelican Point, she was slightly surprised to see her grandfather’s longtime friend and lawyer, Bob Collins, sitting on the front porch, swinging and smoking a cigar.

  “Thought you’d taken off on us.” Bob stilled the porch swing as she sat next to him and rested her head on his massive shoulder. He wrapped a meaty arm around her, and she settled in comfortably next to him. The man was the same age as her grandfather had been, but where her grandfather had been tall and skinny, Bob was thick and muscular, since he still lifted weights down at the local gym. She was pretty sure the man had b
een doing that for so long that stopping the routine would probably kill him.

  “No,” she whispered. “I just turned Joe loose.”

  Bob was silent. “He sure loved you like his own. When he lost Emma . . .” Bob paused. “Well, you know, the only thing that saved him from going over the edge was you.” Bob glanced down at her and brushed a strand of hair away from her face, then placed a tender kiss on her forehead. “I’d better get home—you know how Carolyn is.” He started to get up, and his eyes narrowed. “Don’t tell her I was smoking.”

  “Never,” she promised, smiling since she knew that Bob’s wife probably already sensed he was smoking those rich Cuban cigars somewhere.

  “I put some papers on the table for you.” He nodded toward the screen door.

  “Papers?” She stood up. She hardly ever locked the front door anymore. There wasn’t any need, since everyone in Pelican Point knew where the hide-a-key was anyway.

  “It’s probably no surprise to you what Joe had and that he’d left it all to you, but it may come as a surprise that he left one stipulation.” He had one foot on the top stair as he looked back at her. “He doesn’t want you to be alone in life. Nor do I.” He winked at her. “Those friends of yours, what do you call them?”

  “The Wildflowers.” She smiled as Bob chuckled.

  “Fitting. I watched the bunch of you sprout up like weeds, or, um . . .” He cleared his throat. “Like wildflowers, I mean. Anyway, if you have any questions, you know where to find me.” He turned and disappeared into the darkness.

  After a few minutes in the night air to clear her head, she walked into the house. Glancing around the massive place, she hugged her arms around herself and tried not to dwell on the emptiness she felt.

  He’d been gone less than two full days, yet she wondered how long it would take everything to sink in. The loneliness, the loss, and the pain.

  Sitting at the table, she pulled open the large tan envelope Bob had left and looked over her grandfather’s will.

  He’d left her everything—the house, the cars, the money in his bank accounts—but once she got to the part about the camp, she stopped and read that section over and over.

  For the next few hours, she calculated, crunched numbers, and plotted as she reread.

  When a car pulled up outside, she felt her heart jump, then instantly realized she couldn’t tell her friend until they were all together. Grandpa Joe had been smart; it would be all or nothing going into the future.

  Like a tornado, she gathered up the papers and shoved them in the downstairs closet, then went to greet Hannah at the door.

  Before she could speak, she was gathered into her smaller friend’s arms as more tears flowed.

  Even after a long chat and several glasses of wine, she found it hard to sleep that night. She was too excited and nervous to settle down and rest. Not to mention the sinking feeling she had knowing that her grandfather was gone.

  When she picked Zoey Rowlett up at the airport the following day, she almost blurted her plans out right then. Instead, she asked about her friend’s softball injury.

  Later that night, Zoey’s sister, Scarlett, arrived. Aubrey, sweet Aubrey, was the last to shuffle into the house.

  Maybe it was because Zoey and Scarlett had each other, and Hannah was . . . well, Hannah: strong willed, stubborn, and more of a spitfire than Aubrey Smith, who had the fiery hair that usually signaled that nature. Instead, Aubrey was shy, timid, and soft spoken, which had Elle wanting to protect her more than any of her other friends.

  Still, after dinner, she suggested they all head out to the camp for an evening swim. She wanted them to be surrounded by what it was they would be fighting for. Where their future could be.

  Maybe it was floating in the pool surrounded by the night or the third glass of wine she had been sipping, but by the time she finally worked up the courage to spring her idea on the others, she had convinced herself that there was no other future. It was this or nothing, in her mind.

  River Camp simply had to be reopened, and she wanted—no, needed—her friends by her side. It had been over ten years since she’d first bumped into Hannah on these very grounds. She’d been going to the camp for as long as she could remember, but that year had been different. That year was the first year she had lived there. The year after her mother’s brutal death, which had been quickly blamed on her father.

  With her dad in jail and her mother gone, she had been welcomed into her grandpa Joe’s arms with a long hug as the older man cried uncontrollably. Over the years, she would never see him shed a tear again. He claimed it was because he’d lost part of his heart when his only daughter had been killed.

  That first year in Pelican Point, the kids had made fun of her in school. She’d been the butt of every joke, the girl everyone picked on. After all, she was the daughter of a murderer. Then, that summer, she’d met Hannah, Zoey, Scarlett, and Aubrey, and things had changed. Everything had changed.

  She could be whomever she wanted with these new friends. So, she chose outgoing, popular, and being a girl who knew what she wanted in life. All the things she wasn’t inside. But she’d played the part well enough that soon after that first summer camp, she became all of it and more, and not just to herself but to everyone else.

  Who really cared what the local kids thought anyway? Less than a year after her mother’s death, Rodney Whitfield’s father had drunkenly driven his pickup truck into the front of the local grocery store and paralyzed a tourist. Her own family issues were quickly forgotten in town after that.

  Now, she was Elle Saunders, the girl whose grandfather owned River Camp and would someday take over the elite summer camp for privileged girls.

  Today, focusing on her friends in the main swimming pool, Elle couldn’t count the number of times the five of them had sneaked in and enjoyed an evening swim together. All the fun they’d had together filled her memories more than the recent loss she held deep in the dark corners of her heart.

  Zoey’s long hair had blonde highlights at the tips, while her sister’s remained dark with streaks. If she hadn’t known them for ten years, Elle would have had a hard time telling them apart in the dark with their hair pushed back and wet. Of course, Zoey currently had her injured knee hoisted up on the pool steps and was rubbing it with her hands.

  Hannah’s blonde hair was like her own: long and thick. But whenever Hannah went somewhere, she always looked like she had a team of stylists, while Elle looked like a child had fixed her up. Even now, Elle probably looked like a drowned rat, while Hannah sat across from her like a photo shoot from a magazine.

  Aubrey was always stunning, with her slate-blue eyes and her vibrant red hair. Her porcelain skin made Elle wish she could resemble her the most.

  The five of them were having a blast in the water, and Elle knew it was time to tell everyone her ideas. After all, Hannah and Aubrey were due to fly out in less than two days. Both of them had jobs, lives back in cities. Scarlett and Zoey had their mother to take care of. That thought wrenched that empty spot in Elle’s heart, so she built up her courage.

  “I’m going to miss this place,” Zoey said, shaking Elle out of her thoughts.

  “What’s going to happen to the camp?” Hannah asked.

  Elle swam closer as she tried to think of the right words to say.

  “That’s kind of why I wanted us to be here,” she said, looking over the water toward the dying sun. She wished those earlier shared times would never end. “Remember our first night here?”

  She’d been thinking about it since she’d read her grandfather’s will.

  Zoey accused her of changing the subject, which she often did when she felt uncomfortable. It warmed her to know that they knew her so well, and she held in a laugh. Finally, after attempting to stall again, Elle just blurted it out.

  “What do you think of opening the camp again?”

  She was met with silence—actual crickets chirped in the background.

  “You’re go
ing to open the camp back up to young girls?” Scarlett finally asked.

  “No.” She shook her head. “I’m thinking of turning it into a camp for retirees: you know . . . snowbirds.” She laid out her plans quickly and knew that she was spewing words at them.

  When she accidentally said the word we instead of I, Aubrey shocked her by jumping in.

  “I’m in.”

  Everyone must have been shocked too, since Aubrey was, of the five of them, the most stable one in the group.

  She felt her entire body shake with the extra adrenaline as, one by one, her four best friends—no, four sisters—answered her pleas for help.

  CHAPTER ONE

  One year later . . .

  She’d been right. There was no way she could have opened River Camp back up without her friends’ help. Since that night at the pool, all five of them had worked more than they ever had in their lives.

  Elle had discovered something new about herself: she had a knack for organization and a head for business. She’d pushed herself harder than even she believed she could.

  Still, by the time the camp was almost ready to open back up, she hadn’t realized a full year had passed without her so much as spending a weekend by herself.

  Work with her friends wasn’t so much work as a common goal. She hadn’t missed much over the year—at least she hadn’t thought she had until she’d laid eyes on the three brothers Zoey had just greeted.

  Watching them swagger toward the front doors of the main camp building from the third-floor apartment window had turned on a switch she’d long forgotten.

  Even her latest ex-boyfriend, Jeff, hadn’t caused that switch to flicker—not once over the yearlong relationship. After the first part of the new relationship had worn off, the only thing that had remained between her and Jeff was the memory of the abuse she’d survived at his hands.

  “Wow, would you look at them,” Aubrey said next to her. Elle had returned to the apartment she shared with her friends to change into a fresh T-shirt after snagging hers on a nail. When she’d walked in, Aubrey had been in the process of changing into dry tennis shoes since she had stepped into a puddle of mud and soaked her right foot and shoe. Now, she stood next to her, still holding one shoe in her hand. “Who called in the eye candy?”

  Elle chuckled slightly, until the man with the long hair glanced up and his hazel eyes met hers, full force. She felt her knees buckle, and she fell backward, landing on her butt. She thought she saw him laugh up at her, but one minute she was looking out the window, and the next she was quite literally knocked on her ass.