Summer Star (The Blue Phoenix Series Book 1.5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

and she has no clue who I am. If Sky were sober, I’d know the answer; but she’s not, so maybe I’ll get the one I want.
    “Okay. But I'm not talking about anything to do with my normal life,” she says, finally.
    “Oh, that’s such a good idea.” Sky sits opposite me at the wooden table. “Ask me something. Anything,” I ask.
    “Um. What's your favourite colour?”
    I laugh. “You can do better than that! Black. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?”
    “Here. I came here every year as a kid so I see this house as my happy place. Where would you go?”
    “Here.”
    “I don't believe you.”
    “I've travelled a lot and seen a lot of places. But I always came here too, when I was a kid.”
    Sky’s disbelief is clear in her eyes. “Oh?”
    “My summer childhood too, Sky. We rented this place.” She continues to look at me as if I’m lying. Why would I make this shit up? I glance at the tall bookshelf in the corner. The same books lived on those shelves for years, I wonder… The book listing items to collect at the seaside is tucked between Danielle Steele and JK Rowling. ‘Seaside’ sounds such a funny word now, and evokes memories of collecting shells on the beach and colouring pictures.
    I stand and pull my childhood possession from the book shelf. “I left this here one year.”
    I place it on the table in front of Sky and open to the first page where I scrawled my name years ago. If she knew who I was, this would be an awesome find for her: Dylan Morgan’s first autograph. “See.”
    “Huh.” She has no smart answer and I secretly cheer at myself. I’m as entitled to be in this house as she is.
    “Funny, how we're attracted to the places of our childhood when we need to get away,” I say smugly.
    Sky doesn’t speak for a long time, and she regards me as if looking through different eyes, the look softer and unguarded. Did we meet as kids? No, the flicker of recognition can’t be one of two people who met in the past; this recognition is different. How can I look into Sky’s eyes and be filled with the sense that I’ve looked into those eyes a million times before? The crazy notion fate brought us together edges in. This can’t be coincidence.
    “Did you go to Mrs Hughes for ice creams?” she asks.
    I straighten. “Yes - and she made those ice lollies, great big ones in cups that melted down your arm before you finished.”
    “Yes! And she had a dog - I think she might still have it...”
    “...has one eye. Buster.”
    Every word Sky says sends a new thrill through. Someone else remembers; somebody shares the peace and happiness of childhood summers in this house. She’s here for the same reason as I am, to recapture a brighter past. I don’t know what’s brought Sky to this place at this time, but she’s supposed to be here.
    The smile Sky graces me with pushes through the stress and darkness of my day, and a new summer arrives.
     
    ****
     
    “So, Dylan Morgan, tell me more about what you do, when you’re not hiding.” Sky curls up on the cushioned sofa and spills some wine on her dress. Muttering, she wipes it away.
    I stiffen at her phrase. Hiding. “No, that’s not the game. We don’t talk about real life, remember?”
    “Game? Are we playing a game now?”
    I lower myself into the tattered armchair opposite, aware she watches me cautiously from behind her bravado. “Isn’t that what this is?”
    “Hmm.” Sky looks into her glass to avoid my eyes. “Games… When you came here before, when you were a kid, did you play on the sand dunes outside the cottage?”
    “That’s a random and weird question.”
    “You said games? Is that not what you meant?” She sips from her glass. “I did. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow.” Sky giggles. “Maybe now. Would you roll down sand dunes?”
    Leaning back against the ragged cushions, I cross my leg over my knee and stare at her. This chick is drunker than I thought. “No, Sky, rolling down sand