Stan
Authors: C.J Duggan
Stan
I had plans,
big plans, but all that changed the night Bel Evans darkened my doorstep.
Stan Remington is
the go-to man. What he doesn’t know about Onslow means one of two things: it
doesn’t exist or it hasn’t happened yet.
And when it comes
to Onslow, for Stan, being an only child means a guilt-riddled sense of duty to
help out at his parents’ caravan park every summer of his life: same old town,
same old story.
Until Belinda
Evans.
The wild and
insipid doctor’s daughter who spends summer holidays with her family at
Remington’s Caravan Park, but she’s not Stan’s problem; that is, until she
sabotages his planned weekend escape. Now Stan finds himself not only
caretaking the caravan park on his own, but responsible for Bel as well.
Just the two of them.
Under the one
roof.
For one long, long
weekend.
In a world built
by mundane routine and small-town boredom, this summer promises to be anything
but boring.
Stan
C.J. Duggan
Stan
By C.J. Duggan
Copyright
2014 by C.J. Duggan
Amazon Edition
Stan
A Summer Series Novella
Published by C.J. Duggan
Australia, NSW
First Amazon edition, published 2014
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including
recording, scanning, photocopying or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without the written consent of the author.
Disclaimer: The persons, places, things,
and otherwise animate or inanimate objects mentioned in this novel are figments
of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to anything or anyone living (or
dead) is unintentional.
Edited by
Marion
Archer
Copyedited by Anita Saunders
Proofreading by Sascha Craig
Cover Art by
Keary Taylor Indie Designs
This ebook formatted by
White Hot Ebook Formatting
Author Photograph © 2014 C.J. Duggan
Stan
is also available as a paperback at your favourite
retailer.
Contact the author at
[email protected]
Table of Contents
A Summer Series Novella
May be read as a stand alone or in the
following order:
The Boys of Summer
Stan
An Endless Summer
Max – Pre Order
That One Summer
Ringer
Forever Summer – Pre Order
Look out for
Paradise City
Paradise Road
Dedicated to Micky D, the sweetest man I
know.
You are living proof that nice guys
do
get the girl.
PRAISE FOR
The Boys of Summer
Summer Lovin'
This book kept me up until the wee hours of
the morning because I literally could not force myself to put it down – I just
had to know what happened. Everything about The Boys of Summer absolutely blew
me away.
Claire – Claire Reads
Best Contemporary Read of your Life
I cannot begin to describe the love I have
for this book. The Boys of Summer is a story about self-discovery and first
true love that will stay with you for a long time after you read it.
Hannah – A Girl in a Café
Fun, Flirty, Fantastic
All in all, if you're looking for a lovable
and intense read, then this is for you. C.J. Duggan has convinced me she belongs
in the contemporary market and I cannot wait to read more from her.
Donna – Book Passion for Life
An Australian Gem
You won't regret buying this one; you'll
totally fall in love with the story and all of the characters. C.J. Duggan
knows how to write a book you'll just be drawn into! I'm already waiting for
the next one – impatiently, might I add! The Boys of Summer is an Australian
gem!
Seirra – Dear, Restless Reader
Simply Perfect
Everything about The Boys of Summer was
fantastic!!! C.J. Duggan has written an amazing story and she was able to
perfectly capture the Aussie summer, fun times with friends both new and old,
and all the feelings of falling in love with the boy of your dreams. Bring on
book two!!!
Tracey – YA Book Addict
Sweet, Intoxicating, Exciting
The Boys of Summer is a wonderful example
of just how deliciously sexy, sweet and charming summer-fling books can be! A
book that gives you goose bumps, makes you swoon over its incredibly handsome
male cast, gets you hooked on the clever plot line and, ultimately, sends you
out feeling all warm inside, satisfied and with a wide smile on your face.
Evie – Bookish
“Don’t tell me the sky’s the limit when
there are footsteps on the moon.”
Anon
Chapter One
Bel
Okay, so
Stanley Remington got hot. When did that happen?
I secretly watched
him from across the caravan park. Secretly, as in I casually sat slumped in my
fold-out fishing chair, my head held high in innocent wonder as my curious gaze
strained sideways, hidden behind my shades.
He stood on one of
the dirt tracks, one of many that wound their way through the park, linking
each other in a series of labyrinth-like discoveries. Chiselled wooden signs
were the only guide for survival, unless you stumbled across a Remington, as
this fortunate retired couple had done.
Stan’s arms
pointed and flailed animatedly as he pointed over his shoulder and then to the
map that the silver-haired man held in his hand. His wife stood by his side,
her eyes narrowed in deep concentration as if studying and secretly taking in
each direction like she really didn’t trust her husband to remember. I couldn’t
hear anything other than the occasional outburst of laughter from the couple as
Stan charmed them out of their stress and into comfort.
Nope, you won’t
die today.
The shirtless,
tubby man that sported nothing more than a painful pair of high-waisted shorts
and a towel draped over his shoulder, tapped Stan on the shoulder with
gratitude as he belly laughed. At his parting words, his wife smiled adoringly
up at Stan, as if he was Superman or something. Stan smiled small at first,
hanging on every word the couple had to say before his mouth pressed into a
blinding beam of white. The sun almost glinted off them. But it wasn’t that
that made my head turn slightly; it was the loud and genuine laughter that
burst out from him. My eyes narrowed. He wasn’t merely humouring them, he was
actually being … nice. Pfft.
I cast my eyes
forward; I felt in danger of gaining a headache or going permanently cockeyed
from eyestrain.
So Stanley got
hot, so he was still sickeningly nice, and helpful and blah, blah, blah. I
would never forgive him for yelling at me for running around the park pool.
I remember it as
if it were yesterday. I was chasing my brother around the pool, and Stan had
called out as he passed by:
“Hey, no
running!”
Okay, so at the
time it seemed a lot more dramatic than it actually was, and, yeah, he had a
point. But when you’re sixteen years old and trying to wreak revenge on your
older brother for nearly drowning you in the pool, logic and safety don’t come
into it. Still, that was a few summers ago now, and, hell, we all made
mistakes. In fact, I was living proof of that, for I had made the single
biggest mistake of my life. It was called a haircut circa 1994 Winona Ryder in
Reality
Bites
. My friends and I thought if there was ever a haircut to replicate,
then this was the one. My friend Naomi and I, as always, were the only two who
had the guts to go through with it. And, of course, she looked amazing and I
looked like the animated fairy girl from
FernGully
. The difference being
Naomi had the patience and the flyaway hair to grow it out, I didn’t. So here I
was still looking like a boy. Cropped black hair that I wedged under my
baseball cap with the illusion of protecting my fair skin against the sun’s
rays, but it was mostly to hide my shit-awful hair.
So much can happen
in a few summers and that is exactly what it had been since my family, the
Evanses, came back to the shore of Lake Onslow. Even though it had been a while,
it wasn’t exactly a foreign place; I grew up here, actually went to school here
for a while, I would even go so far as to say a greater wedge of my heart
belonged here, although I would never admit that to my parents. Mum and Dad
loved Onslow, and chose it as the recurring family holiday destination. My dad,
Doctor John Evans, had been the local GP here for over twenty years so I knew
his heart was well and truly tied to the place, especially when the locals
still referred to him fondly as Doctor Evans, or Doc, but very rarely John.
But now we called
Maitland home, a larger populace where you were unlikely to run into a patient
and little to no one knew who you were. A foreign concept to our family, and it
took some getting used to. Still, it was never the anonymity or a change my
parents were after, I knew that much from overhearing adult conversations.
Nope, it was money.
Bigger, better
wage was key, as was the testament of our luxurious caravan we housed in
Remington’s Caravan Park. It stood out a mile away, a stark white house on
wheels with cherry wood cabinetry and marble counter tops. Many people stopped
by to say hello in the beginning, but mainly to marvel at the craftsmanship of
such a beast of a caravan, no one more impressed than Stan’s dad, Glen, who was
amazed that it had its own shower and toilet room.
“Well, bloody
hell, would you look at that?” he said, opening the shower door in wonder, his
eyes wide and alive in amazement.
How much did
this set you back?
Yeah, the van was
spacious, luxurious, but never more so than now, now that my older brothers
weren’t here to annoy the living shit out of me. No Grant trying to kill me in
the swimming pool, no Ben trying to kill me with his silent farts; the only
thing that was set to kill me was boredom or my younger brother’s incessant
questions about everything.
“Why are they
laughing?” Alex asked; it was his tenth question in as many minutes.
“Maybe they’re
laughing at you?” I replied, as I casually thumbed through my
Cleo
magazine.
“They are not,” my
brother snapped.
I would have
probably stirred him some more, but Mum was hovering nearby and I didn’t fancy
getting yelled at to remember how ‘sensitive’ my brother was. I guess I would
cut him some slack; after all, he was only eight.
I sighed, chucking
my mag aside and stretching my arms to the sky, hearing the bones click and
pop.
Bored, bored,
bored.
I yawned, and
moved my head from side to side, stiff from sitting for so long.
God I was bored,
so bloody bor—
I froze
mid-stretch, my eyes locked onto the sight of Stan Remington as he made a
clear-cut path toward our van, made a direct, straight line toward …
me.