Summer Love

LOOKING FOR LOVE?

Your perfect match is waiting for you within these pages!

As you read, you'll meet lots of amazing guys, but only one will steal your heart.

How will you find him? Simply make a choice at the end of each chapter. Your decisions will lead you to the guy who's right for you.

So pack your bags, and board the train that will take you to your gorgeous beachside destination. Because a summer of love awaits . . .

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SPEAK

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First published in the United States of America by Speak, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 2014

 

Copyright © 2014 by Jill Santopolo

 

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Santopolo, Jill.

Summer love / Jill Santopolo.

pages cm.—(Follow your heart)

Summary: “A unique romance novel whereby readers are prompted to choose how to proceed with the plot, leading them to one of eleven different love interests and thirteen possible endings”—Provided by publisher.

ISBN 978-0-698-13740-0

1. Plot-your-own stories. [1. Love—Fiction. 2. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 3. Plot-your-own stories.]

I. Title. PZ7.S23828Su 2014 [Fic]—dc23 2013045024

For Casa Vin
Santo

YOU LEAN YOUR HEAD
against the train window and watch the ocean as it whizzes by. You've listened to the summer playlist you created on your iPod twice through already, and there's still another half hour until your stop. Your cousin Tasha pokes you in the shoulder.

“Twizzler?” she asks, loud enough that you can hear her over your music. You pop an earbud out of your ear and take the candy she's offering.

“Thanks,” you say, before you chomp down.

Tasha grabs one herself. “So,” she says, “I never asked. Did you get everything you wanted for your birthday?”

You chew as you think about your sweet sixteen, which was six—no, seven—days ago. “The party was great,” you say. “And this beach trip, just you and me,
is the most awesome gift ever. But I guess there was one thing I'd been hoping for.”

You sigh and take another bite of Twizzler, but Tasha won't let you off that easy.

“Which was . . . ?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.

You pull your hair over your eyes so you don't have to look at her when you say it. “I was hoping Tyler Grant was going to kiss me.”

You tuck your hair back behind your ear and look at Tasha. Even though you both live in the same city, you go to different schools, and she's two years older, so she doesn't know all of your friends.

“Is that the hot ginger?” she asks. “The one who was dancing with you at the end of your party?”

You shake your head. “No. Tyler's the tall one with the hipster glasses. The one who didn't really dance much at all.”

Tasha runs her Twizzler back and forth across her lips as she thinks. “Oh! The one in the green shirt! I remember him.” She gives you an appraising look. “You can do way better than that.”

“I don't know,” you reply, finishing the last of your candy. “He's really cool. And funny—like in a sarcastic way.”

Tasha puts her hand on your arm. “Trust me, cuz.
You can do better.” Then her face lights up. “I have an idea! Since this is your birthday present beach weekend, you should make it your mission to get a birthday kiss from the cutest boy you can find.”

“I'm not sure,” you say, mostly because you're afraid you might fail at this mission, and then it would be doubly disappointing.

“How about . . . you don't have to kiss him. You can if you want, but your mission will be to flirt with the cutest boy you can find.”

You smile. That sounds doable.

“Deal,” you say, holding your hand out to Tasha.

“Deal,” she says back, shaking it.

Then you both start laughing, and Tasha says, “I still bet you can find someone to kiss, though.”

You make what you hope is a coy face, and then pop your earbud back into your ear. Secretly, you wish Tasha is right and you can find someone to kiss this weekend. But only time will tell.

*

TWENTY
minutes later, Tasha shakes your shoulder, jolting you out of a very real dream in which you were kissing Tyler Grant, and shoves your
duffel bag at you. “Next stop is us! We've got to get our stuff together!”

You blink a few times, and then throw your magazines, empty smoothie cup, iPod, and sweatshirt into a tote and stand with a bag on each arm. The train slows to a stop as the conductor calls out the station name, and you follow Tasha and about a billion other people out of the train toward the beach.

The minute you get onto the train platform, Tasha is scanning the parking lot for Jade, her best friend and soon-to-be college roommate. Tasha and Jade have spent every summer together since Tasha's parents bought a beach house the year she turned eight.

You see Jade sitting in the front seat of a convertible, next to her brother Dex. But before you can point it out, Jade yells “Tash!” and then stands up on the seat. “Over here!”

You and Tasha head to Jade and Dex's car, toss your stuff in the trunk, and jump over the sides into the backseat.

“Hey,” Dex says to you. “Happy birthday!”

“You, too,” you answer. Dex's birthday is a day before yours—a year and a day, actually— something you learned ages ago, when you and your parents
came for a visit. “Do anything fun?”

He shrugs. “You know, the usual.” You don't know what “the usual” means, but you're too caught up in looking at Dex's face to ask. His hair is the same curly blond it's always been, but in the last year he seems to have grown cheekbones—and a beard. Really, it's just light blond stubble across his cheeks and chin, but it looks very manly. You think about your plan and wonder if Dex is the guy to flirt with. Maybe even kiss. Before you can decide he says, “So, where to, ladies? Want to come to the country club with Jade and me, or should I drop you somewhere else?”

Tasha looks at you. “Your choice,” she says. “We can go with Dex, or we can head to my parents' place and unpack. Whatever you want.”

DEX
looks at you through the rearview mirror with blue eyes that are so dark they're almost navy. “So?” he asks.

Even though you're still a little tired from the train trip and being woken up right before the station was called, you decide you might as well make the most of your birthday weekend. “To the country club!” you say.

Dex floors it, and Jade whoops as she takes the elastic out of her hair and lets it whip around her head. “I love the summer!” she shouts into the wind.

You lean back against the seat and let the sun soak into your skin. Dex is going too fast for you all to have a real conversation anyway.

He pulls up to the front of the country club, and a valet comes around to open the car door for you
and Jade. There's another one on Tasha and Dex's side, opening their door.

“Will we have the car all afternoon?” the valet on Dex's side asks him.

“Not sure yet,” Dex answers. “I'm at the ladies' beck and call today.” His eyes flick over to you, and you smile. Then the four of you head inside to the dining room.

“I'm so hungry I could eat, like, six salads,” Jade says.

Dex rolls his eyes. “Jade, you wouldn't be so starving if you actually ate breakfast.”

“A cup of coffee totally counts as a normal breakfast, right?” Jade turns to you and Tasha.

You shrug. “I usually eat cereal,” you say.

“And I usually eat yogurt,” Tasha adds. “But if that's what you want to eat for breakfast, I think that's totally fine, Jade.”

“See?” Jade says to Dex.

You've made it to the maître d' stand, and the four of you stop.

“Would you like a table outside or inside?” the maître d' asks.

“Absolutely outside!” Jade says, before anyone else can answer.

You can't help but smile at her summer excitement as you follow her, Tasha, and Dex to the patio. You sit down under an umbrella, overlooking the pool and the tennis courts, and very quickly there's a glass of iced tea sweating in your hand and Cobb salad sitting in front of you. Dex is next to you with his own iced tea, and a chicken sandwich on his plate. He's very involved in eating. Tasha gives you a look that very clearly means: Talk to him! And so you clear your throat and you do.

“So, um, Dex, do you have any special plans for the summer?” you ask him.

He nods as he finishes swallowing. “Well, I'm going to work in my dad's law office out here—they have a satellite office because two of the partners have summer houses nearby—and then I'm going to play as much tennis as possible.”

Tennis! You'd almost forgotten how good he was at tennis. You're pretty good, too, actually, but he doesn't know that. He's never seen you play. And you've never talked about it, either, because you hate sounding braggy. “Oh right,” you say, “you won the junior tennis tournament for the club last summer when I was here.”

He nods, taking a sip of iced tea. “I'm hoping
for a repeat, but this time with the adult tennis tournament. They won't let me play with the kids anymore.”

You laugh. “Does that mean you're officially a grown-up now?”

“Oh, absolutely,” he says, with mock sincerity.

You look over at Tasha, who's listening to Jade talk about colors for their dorm room, and Tasha gives you a subtle nod. Clearly you're on the right track with this flirting business.

“So now that you're a grown-up,” you say, “does that mean that you, um, read the newspaper every morning?”

“And brew my own coffee, and wear a tie to work, and walk the dog,” he answers.

“You doink.” Jade stops her discussion about whether hunter green and navy blue would make their dorm room feel too dark to admonish her brother. “We don't even have a dog!”

Dex laughs, and you do, too.

“Guess according to Jade I'm not quite a grown-up yet.”

“Oh, little brother,” Jade tells him, “even when you're ninety-nine and I'm a hundred, I'll still call you out on being a doink.”

“Do you see what I have to deal with?” Dex says to you.

“Well, I don't think you're a doink,” you answer. “You're not at all doink-ish to me.”

Dex turns to Tasha. “Why don't you bring her around more often?”

You try not to smile too wide, but clearly you're not so bad at flirting. Just as you take another bite of your salad, three guys and three girls in tennis whites come over.

“Dex!” one of the guys says. “Any chance you're free this afternoon? Jed and Cali bailed, and we need two more for mixed doubles.”

“Jade?” one of the girls says. “Any interest in playing against us with your brother?”

Jade wrinkles her nose. “The only kind of ‘serve' I plan to think about today is the kind where the guy at the pool brings me lemonade while I read magazines and get tan.”

“Well, I can play,” Dex says, “even if my sister won't.”

Tasha raises an eyebrow at you, then says, “I don't know if she's mentioned it, Dex, but that girl sitting to your right has a killer backhand.”

The tennis guy who spoke to Dex first looks at
you, intrigued. “You play?” he asks.

You nod. “I'm not as good as Dex, but I'm on my school's tennis team.”

Dex cocks his head at you. “How did I not know that?” he asks.

You shrug.

“Well, you want to play with us this afternoon? Did you bring tennis clothes?” He takes another sip of his iced tea.

You do have some tennis clothes in your bag in the car. . . .

“Or you can come hang by the pool with us,” Jade says, “if you'd rather relax. You can always play tomorrow.”