Entangled Summer
Authors: Michele Barrow-Belisle
http://www.amazon.com/Fling-New-Adult-Box-Set-ebook/dp/B00Y5X8H9Y
Entangled Summer by Michele Barrow-Belisle
Nora Dultry has dreamed of a mysterious guy for years, but when he walks into her waking life, she must untangle the past from the present to know if he’s her dream come true, or her waking nightmare.
Love Me Like You Do by L.Kirk
Daisy Philips jumps to the defense of mysterious loner. Jason Lancaster is a lost soul. Their budding romance hits a snag when a tragedy pulls them apart. Can they find a way to mend their broken hearts?
Chase by Elena Dillon
Rylan Maguire has run from danger...right into Chase Sullivan. But his past tangles with hers, making Rylan wonder if she's strong enough to love him.
My Best Friend’s Ex by Tina Gayle
She loved him first, but her best friend married him. With their divorce, Brooke must choose between her best friend and the man she loves.
The Good Girl by Tracy Reed
When Gabriella accepted her new assignment, she didn’t know it also included a chance for love with her boss, the hot and elusive, Phillippe Marchant.
Betrayal at Crater’s Edge by Kathleen Rowland
Marchand wants to show Yardley he loves her, but he has bigger problems. Venus is heading for a catastrophe, and only he can save their world.
Random Acts of Violet by Geralyn Corcillo
Cautious loner Violet Parker needs a new playbook when her quiet summer on campus collides with an unexpected eight year-old, a monster in the attic, and Noah...
MICHELE
BARROW-BELISLE
ENTANGLED SUMMER
Copyright ©2015 Michele Barrow-Belisle
Bar-Belle Publishing
ALL RIIGHTS RESERVED
No reproduction in any manner without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations for articles and reviews.
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9782009-2-3
E-Book ISBN: 978-0-9782009-1-6
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ALSO BY MICHELE BARROW-BELISLE
FAERIE SONG TRILOGY
(optioned for a movie)
Fire And Ice
(Faerie Song Trilogy 1)
Bittersweet
(Faerie Song Trilogy 2)
Darkest Light
(Faerie Song Trilogy 3)
For everyone who loves my books…
And for my amazing family and friends…
I adore you all
“A puppetry camp.
That’s
your idea? I tell you I need a summer job to pay for Granddad’s hospital bills, and you bring puppets to the table.
Really
?”
I folded my arms and stared back at Kenzie’s doe-eyed innocent smile. It was one I knew well, since I’d been on the receiving end of it since junior high. Back before my life had blown to hell and back. Picking up the pieces was hard, but she’d always been there to help. Who knew putting them back together would be virtually impossible?
Kenzie rolled her eyes, and dropped down on my thrift store sofa, releasing a cloud of dust. “Did you at least
look
at the pay? Tell me you checked that out.”
I glanced down at the brochure’s rainbow hued page, looking for something that didn’t awaken my childhood fear of clowns.
She snatched if from my hands. “See right there, do you see all those zeroes? It’s a very elite, very private summer arts school Nora. One that multi-millionaire celebrities send their little brats to, so they can fly off on their private jets to celebrity rehab.”
Hard to believe she was a drama major, and desperately wanted to
be
one of those celebrities.
“Uh-huh. And what would I be doing to earn all of those zeroes. So help me, if the next words out of your mouth sound even remotely like wear a red nose, this conversation is over.”
She leaned back and crossed her tattooed legs at the angles. “You don’t dress up. The puppets do.”
“The puppets do.” I nodded. “Do you have
any
idea how crazy you sound right now?”
She flipped her cornrowed hair back over her shoulder impatiently. “Just go to the interview. I went out on a limb here for you. They only hire people with theater experience or who major in the arts. Getting you in on just a sculpting major on a deferred Barnes admission took some creative spinning.” She said.
Future
, because I had to pass up my first year of college to look after Granddad. Once he was hospitalized, there was no time for school, not when I had to get a job to pay his medical bills. None of that would buy me a break with Kenzie. Guilt trips. They were what she did best, and I felt one coming.
“I’m allergic to nature Kenzie. Literally allergic.” I said. “And I don’t even like kids. Neither do you for that matter. Remember that year you volunteered to babysit the neighbor’s twins? You took them to the mall and ditched them there the second a hot guy walked by?”
Her dark brows furrowed. “Hey, I left them in a toy store and I came back for them.”
“Yeah. Four hours later. The security guard wasn’t impressed.”
“No, but he was hot too.” She smirked. “Anyway, that was then, this is now. You owe me at least a drive by. Feel it out. It could solve a lot of your problems.” The scratching sound caught her attention, and she made a face. “Including the fact that the rats beat you to the pantry every morning for breakfast.” She tucked her feet up under her.
I glanced toward the cracked wall beside the pantry. The droppings I had to clean up every day were definitely more mouse than rat, but she was exaggerating for effect. It wasn’t a palace, but it was all I could afford with the medical bills I had to cover. Granddad was my only living relative, since Grandma had passed. No way was I not going to do everything I could for him. If it meant slumming for a few years til after college, then so be it. They’d sacrificed everything for me. Least I could do was return the favor.
“Fine. I’ll go to the interview. But...”
“You’ll go and it’ll be great. I promise. They have cool art classes, music, drama. Even telekinesis and telemetry, whatever the hell those are.”
“Telekinesis. Seriously. Is that even a thing? What else do they teach? The art of hypnosis? Dream analysis 101?”
“Who knows. Point is it’s weird... you like weird.”
I sighed. Way to state the obvious. “I like you don’t I?”
She laughed and then flipped me the finger. “We’ve got an hour. And it’s a twenty minute drive so...” she tapped on her watch. “You’re gonna freak when you see how many hot guys work at these things.”
My eyes narrowed. “I thought we were going for the money.” Money was something I had use for. Desperately. Hot guys, not so much. In fact the last thing I needed after my botched entanglement last year was another one of Kenzie’s attempts to get me into bed with another
hot guy
. No thanks. Not when I dreamt about the guy of my dreams every night, a guy no one in real life ever came closer to surpassing.
She hopped off the couch and headed for the fridge. It took a few hard tugs to get it open, and it squealed in protest as the rusty hinges gave way. Her shrewd blue gaze scanned the bare shelves before she slammed it shut. “Money, sex... why are you so opposed to having loads of both. Seriously, most twenty-one-year olds get the keys to the city, and you’re still holding the keys to your chastity belt.” She gestured to the rusted, empty fridge. “What do you
live
on? No wonder you’re bone thin.”
Another exaggeration considering my hourglass shape. Sure living lean did wonders for a flat stomach, but I’d take a decent meal over washboard abs any day. Plus I had a sugar habit to keep me fed, and none of that needed refrigerating. I followed her into the kitchen, which was more of a kitchenette really. “Leave my sex life out of this.”
“Come on Nora. It’s not like it’s normal to be romantically involved with a guy who literally lives in your dreams.”
I poked around in a cupboard and found two cans of warm cola. Tossing one to her, I popped open the other. “I’m not romantically involved with him. He’s not real.” Plus the dream never had a happy ending. It always ended with him dying in my arms, leaving me with an ache in my heart that felt pretty damn real.
“Okay, but you’ve dreamt about him every single night. For
years
. No wonder no other guy has gotten anywhere close to you. All your nights are spoken for. You’ve fantasized your own real life Mr. Darcy and no real guy can touch that fantasy. It’s not normal, that’s all I’m sayin.”
“I hope it’s all you’re
sayin
, because I really don’t want to hear any more of your analysis. I have a recurring dream. End of story.” I took a swig of cola and swallowed. Warm soda is gross but I couldn’t bring myself to waste it, not when the free refills at the variety store were all I could afford.
“Now, if you really want me to go to this thing, you’ll give me ten minutes of peace so I can get changed Freud.” I marched into the bedroom and shoved open the sliding closet door. The left corner came off the rails. Again. And I ignored it. Again.
Kenzie leaned against the bedroom door jam. “Don’t go changing to try and please me babe.”
“You’re hilarious,” I shouted, digging though my closet for my only interview-worthy skirt and blouse.
“I’ll wait for you in the car.”
An engine back fired, setting off a string of car alarms.
“On second thought,” she said, peering through the hole in my curtains, “I’ll wait for you here. After all, you’re the one with the mace.”