Page 5 of Summer Lovin'

I shrug. “It was fine. Classes five days a week. Volunteer work on the weekends. My father made sure he filled every hour with… stuff.”

“Your father?” Romero asks.

At the same time, Frankie hands me a strawberry lemonade and throws me a wink. “It’s on moneybags Romero here.”

“Thanks.” The four of us step out of line, and I’m thankful our conversation is disrupted. How do I explain my father’s tyrannical management of my life after high school? It’s like he knew I was on the verge of running away and worked hard to cut off all my freedoms before I learned how to enjoy them.

Rosie licks at her ice cream cone, which I’m sure is more for show than anything else. “Are you guys coming to the party tonight?”

“What party?” Romero asks.

Frankie says, “Of course we are.”

“Good,” Rosie purrs. “Maybe I’ll save you a dance.”

“You better.” He grins at her, and it is confident and slightly predatory, something I know for a fact she likes.

“Julianna!” my father bellows across the parking lot. I stiffen and glance over my shoulder to find him and Rosie’s brother, Ty, stomping towards us.

“Oh, shit,” Rosie hisses, shoving the ice cream into Frankie’s hand.

“Is your father still running your life?” Romero casts me a disapproving raise of his brow.

“It’s complicated,” I murmur.

“How complicated?”

“Too complicated to explain in the two seconds I have before he gets here.”

My father lowers his voice as he approaches our little circle, aware of the potential scene his booming voice caused. “Julianna, your fiancé is waiting for you by the Thunderbird.”

“He’s not my fiancé anymore.”

My father ignores me, glaring at Romero and Frankie’s T-shirts, which proudly display their car club logo instead. “Mercado. Is your no-good father here, too?”

“Oh, yes.” Frankie flashes the biggest smile, but there’s menace behind it, danger glinting off of each pearly white tooth. He points to the east end of the lot. “We’re over there, if you dare to enter our den.”

Ty sneers. “Oh, I’m sure we’ll run into you at some point.”

A not-so-subtle threat if I’ve ever heard one.

Casting my eyes to the ground, I let out a heavy sigh. Nothing’s going to change. I’m never going to avoid my lot in life—my father’s pawn until he sells me off to the highest bidder. After all, it’s my duty, if I take my father’s word as law. Any dreams I ever had of happily ever after are going to walk away with Johnny Romero again, just like they did two weeks before graduation, when he told me he loved me. I kept my declaration unsaid, already heartbroken because I knew he needed to leave town to change his lot in life, just like I knew my father would never let me go.

“It was nice to see you again.” I hold up my drink. “Thanks for the lemonade.”

Before I can stop him, my father snatches it out of my hand and chucks it in the trash. Then he grips my elbow and turns his back on them, pulling me back to our cars. “Why are associating with that trash, Julianna? Don’t you know you’re better than them!”

3

ROMERO

Rage courses through my veins as Jules is pulled away from me—her father berating her every step of the way. Feelings of inadequacy, the likes of which I haven’t felt in years, come rushing back—leaving me with the question: What the fuck am I doing back here?

Rosie throws us a small smile as her brother bitches at her to follow him back to the cluster of Fords. “Sorry, guys. We could have had a lot of fun.”

“Rosie, I swear to God!” Ty growls and points his finger in Frankie’s face. “Stay away from my sister.”

Frankie smacks Ty’s finger out of his face and sneers. “Date your sister. Got it.”

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