Lasting Summer - [Loving Summer 05] Read Online Free PDF Page A

wrap
his arms around me in the kind of hug he always gave me. “I can’t go back to
being like I was before…always the little brother hiding and waiting in the
wings. Just Rachel’s twin brother. As much as I love Nat, Summer, I love
finally being the one my parents turn to…the one being taken seriously for
once.”
    “I always took you seriously,” I said.
    “I know,” Drew kissed me on my lips.
“That’s why you’re so different than everyone else. That’s why every word you
say to me, every gesture you gave me, growing up and even now, meant so much to
me. You are my everything, Summer. When Aunt Sookie’s stalker Sloane came after
you that one time and I found you just in time, I wanted to kill him for
terrorizing you and almost raping you. If you hadn’t stopped me, I probably
would have. Now these guys who took your mother hostage and then my
father…they’re ten times worst.”
    He closed his eyes.
    “Summer, the reason I didn’t tell you
about Nat is because not only would it put Nat, my dad, your mother in danger
over there, but they would have come looking for you too. Sloane was just one
small part of their criminal ring, and the work your mother and Donovan
Dynamics were doing, helped shut down that part. But it’s bigger than that.
It’s a larger problem than anyone knows.”
    The look in Drew’s eyes was dead serious
as he let all that sink into me. I could only register part of what he was
saying, as the enormity of what Drew was saying hit me. “Oh God,” I said. “Nat
had to disappear, fake his death so that he could live.”
    Drew nodded.
    “And you, Rachel, your mother, and the
Team at Donovan Dynamics all had to act like it’s the truth in order for it to
work,” I went on.
    “These criminals are the masters of
deception, Summer,” Drew said. “They can smell the setup a hundred miles away
if it isn’t authentic.”
    “So me being closest to Nat, being his
girl…they were watching me, weren’t they?” I asked
    “Like a hawk. You know how Sloane was
able to get private photos of you, was able to take photos of you everywhere,
even in your shower at the Pad?” Drew looked angry for a moment. “Even posed as
a fellow college student in our class?” Drew’s eyes flashed. “That’s how close
they can get to you.”
    I shuddered, remembering how Sloane had
stalked me, how he had vandalized Aunt Sookie’s Acting Academy’s
theater…everything. It was just too close for comfort.
    “So me being with you…me and you making
love for the first time when I was at my lowest and you found me in the
bathtub…that was all part of the plan? Did Nat want all that too?”
    “Nat made me promise him that I will do
whatever it takes to protect you.”
    “Did he want me to be with you? To have
us make passionate love with each other that entire time I was in grief over
him?”
    “It had to look real, Summer, that you
were grieving him, that you had moved on, to me,” Drew said. “But no, it wasn’t
what Nat wanted. It couldn’t possibly be what he would want. But it happened,
and what happened between us while we were both grieving him, was real. Every
time I kiss you…every time I make love to you, is real.”
    “But how did you get from barely knowing
anything and being mildly involved in Donovan Dynamics to now being able to run
Donovan Dynamics? You seem to know your way around pretty well.”
    “I wasn’t completely left out of
learning about Donovan Dynamics growing up,” Drew said. “I worked there on and
off throughout the years, especially when Dad needed all of us kids to help out
in the beginning.”
    “The superficial Drew who only cared
about one-night stands and football? Was that an act, too?”
    Drew grinned, “No, not at all. That’s
just who I was then. You caught me then and saw through that façade. But it
sure made me look non-threatening to them so I guess it wasn’t all that bad.”
    “No, it wasn’t,” I smiled. “I fell in
love with