Falling for Summer by Bridget Essex

holding her gaze.  “She loved you,” I tell her softly, feeling the words hitch in my throat.  “And I don't think she would have wanted you to blame yourself.”
    Summer holds my gaze for a long moment, hers utterly unwavering.  “You, either,” she finally says, her voice gruff, full of unshed tears.
    We stare at one another for a long moment, and then I'm standing, holding onto the diary and Summer's hand, helping her stand, too.
    “I know what I want to do,” I tell Summer, taking a deep breath.  “It's time,” I tell her, holding the diary out to her.  “Twenty years have come and gone.  Twenty years of a life that I didn't live,” I tell her, feeling the tears come harder now, coursing down my cheeks, warming my skin. 
    Summer takes the diary from me, raises a questioning brow.
    “It's time,” I whisper to her, reaching across the space between us and taking up her hands in mine.  “It's time to let Tiffany go,” I tell her with finality.
    Summer's eyes flash pain, in that moment.  Pain and hurt and...something else.  Something else that I'm feeling, rising up within me.
    Relief.
    “We've both been blaming ourselves,” I tell Summer, taking a deep breath.  “And it has to stop.  It just...  It has to stop .”
    Summer nods, after a long moment of staring down at the diary in her hands.  “It has to stop,” she repeats.
    Together, hand in hand, the two of us move out of the cabin, into the sun-dappled warmth of a Lake George afternoon.  Together, hand in hand, the two of us move to the fire pit at the center of the campground.  Summer patiently, carefully, silently builds a fire out of the logs she drags out from the main office. 
    And together we stand, waiting, gripping the diary between us.
    The fire roars, already climbing high into the sky.  The water of the lake glitters under that beautiful sunshine, and the cicadas sing their hearts out...
    It's a perfect, beautiful day. 
    And, beside me, Summer watches my face, her eyes still pained, her expression still closed-off, still sad.
    “No more,” I whisper to her, and I hold up the diary, Summer's fingers brushing the edge of it as she finally lets it go.  “We've done enough grieving,” I tell Summer, then.  “You taught me something last night...” I whisper to her.
    “What?” she asks me, her voice breaking.
    “You taught me to live,” I tell her.  I step forward, and I set the diary down gently into the fire.  I turn back, and I take Summer into my arms as tears stream down her face, as she gathers me into her embrace.  Together, the two of us hold one another as Tiffany's diary goes up in smoke, the edges of the paper curling and flickering, like a rose made of embers. 
    “It's time to start living,” I tell Summer earnestly.  “I know Tiffany would have wanted us to be doing that this whole time.  But we can start now.”
    “Right now,” whispers Summer, and she leans forward and kisses me fiercely.
    Twenty years ago to the day, Tiffany lost her life.
    And, twenty years later, I found mine again.
    Summer and I kiss in the blazing heat of the fire, in the heat of this gorgeous summer day.  And I know, as we hold one another tightly, that falling for her has changed everything for good.
    “C'mon,” says Summer then, taking a step back, her mouth turning up at the corners as she squeezes my hands tightly.  “Let's go make some memories.”
    So we do.
     

The End
     
    If you enjoyed Falling for Summer , you'll love Bridget Essex's novel Don’t Say Goodbye :   Maxine “Max” Hallwell has spent her entire life making the safe, responsible decisions.  When her best friend, Jo, introduces her to her new girlfriend Fiona, a stunning, charismatic cake decorator, Max realizes that making safe decisions might have cost her the woman of her dreams...A heartwarming, poignant romance.
     
    The following is an excerpt from Bridget Essex's novel  Don’t Say Goodby e , available now on Amazon!
     
    Max