Perfect Summer by Kailin Gow Page B

too.
                “Ehh,
it’s alright,” Astor said.
                “I
know,” I smiled over at Drew and Nat, who were standing next to each other,
watching me joke with Astor, taking samples of the food. “This is good, though.
I wouldn’t be able to get this all together on such short notice so this is all
good.”
                Astor
smiled at me, his eyes crinkling with such affection. “I wanted to do something
special for you, Summer, especially with the attack here and all. Thank
goodness, there’s a restraining order against Sloane for getting anywhere
remotely close to you.”
                “Thank
you for getting all that done for me…the police report, getting the office
cleaned up…”
                “I
had help, Summer. Your friends there happened to be well connected in certain
circles, and they helped to get things going faster than normal.” He stepped
aside and walked over to Nat and Drew, who were talking.
                “Hey,
thanks for all your help with the Sloane incident,” Astor said. “Donovan
Dynamics really does know its stuff.”
                Nat
glanced at me and said, “No problem, we were actually already working on
Summer’s case so we had a head start in resources and research.”
                “Cool,”
Astor said. “I went to the right security firm then.” Astor turned to Drew and
said, “What do you think of the catering? Does it live up to your standards?”
                “They’re
fine,” Drew said. “Good recommendation, Fairway, considering there isn’t much
of a choice when you only have an hour to get caterers at the last minute like
this.”
                “That
or you and Nat could have whipped up something and brought it over,” I said.
“Your cooking is wonderful. I bet you could’ve made something better than this
in an hour.”
                Nat
grinned, “But Summer, we didn’t have an hour at the time. You were busy
showering and getting ready, while I had to go out to buy food, and…” Nat went
over to the food we brought in. “Forgot about this,” he said. He took the food
out of the containers and arranged them on the caterers’ trays before heading
out to the main floor of the Academy.
                Astor
looked over at Drew. “Summer usually doesn’t take more than an hour to get
ready, and she takes the fastest showers, guess this Open House is a big deal
for her.”
                At
the word “shower”, I noticed Drew glanced quickly at me, before looking away. I
blushed and also looked away…thinking about my heated shower incident with Drew.
                Drew
looked down at the ground for a second, before he said, “Hey, talking about the
Open House, someone has to be out there talking up a storm to get people to
enroll.” He came over to me, kissed me on the cheeks, and walked out.
                Astor
came over and sat next to me. “Finally, alone! I just spent twenty minutes
talking to people, but most of them just wanted me to sign things and take
pictures with them. I figured, my area of expertise is to actually get some of
them to sit in the sample class we have later, and get them involved in the
acting.”
                “Good
idea,” I said.
                “I
have another idea that I’ve been thinking about for a while. I wanted to tell
you what it was that night you were attacked, but forgot. Some things were more
important at the time…and that’s you.” Astor hesitated and said, “I worry about
you, Summer. Not just that Aunt Sookie’s not here, but that you have these
haters and stalkers willing to go to fanatic extremes to hurt you or mess with
you. And you’re taking on so much with this school and college. Believe me, I
know how it feels to have the pressure to keep taking on more things and more,
thinking it would help your