Moment in Time by Lisa Mondello
(Summer House, #1)
Publication date: June 26th 2015
Genres: New Adult, Romance
(Summer House, #1)
Publication date: June 26th 2015
Genres: New Adult, Romance
Synopsis:
This summer isn’t about dying. It’s about living. Jenna Traynor has been given her life back. After two years of chemo and missing out on college life, she is in remission. Spending the summer working on Nantucket Island is a good place to start life again. Hot guys everywhere, fun times at the clubs, long walks on the beach and beautiful sunrises and sunsets over the ocean from her back porch. Living life again was the plan.
And then she met Bobby…
On leave from the military, Bobby Callahan needs one thing: a quiet beach to run and train so his leg will get strong enough for him to return to his post. For the past three years the only thing that made him get out of bed was the military. He’d joined the service to get away from sympathetic eyes and worried faces. He didn’t count on meeting a girl like Jenna whose thirst for life made him break out of the walls he’d so carefully constructed around himself. And once he realized she had his heart, he knew he never wanted to let her go. And then fate stepped in…
This series is a New Adult College Romance series that contains sexual situations that are graphic and explicit and not intended for readers under 18 years old.
Moment in Time by Lisa Mondello excerpts
1.
“Whoever it is that’s trying to reach you is—”
“It’s just my mother. I’ll call her back.” He’s still standing at the end of the porch. “Why did you come here?”
“I wanted to make sure you were alright.”
“Why wouldn’t I be alright?”
“You’re not, are you?”
It wasn’t a question. Was I really acting so different that a total stranger could already tell? He couldn’t even see my face. Not really.
I push myself out of the wicker chair and walk over to him.
“I want to go swimming. Come swimming with me?”
“It’s a bit chilly tonight,” he says, but I’m already taking the porch steps down to the sand and then walking toward the water. The sky has the last of its orange glow. It’s not enough for me to see. There is no moon in the sky yet. That will come later. Right now it’s just me and the water.
My mind registers what Bobby just said, but I’m not really listening. Not now. I pull my T-shirt over my head and drop it to the sand. I turn to Bobby, revealing my naked chest, but he can’t see because of the darkness.
“It’ll feel good,” I say. “I want to feel the cold.”
“Are you crazy?”
I slip out of my cut-off shorts and my thong and leave them next to the shirt on the beach.
“Jenna,” Bobby says. “Wait.”
But I’m not listening. I run naked down toward the surf. I’ve never been skinny dipping. I want to feel the surf crash against my bare skin. All of it. I want to feel it all. Anything is better than feeling numb.
The text message from my mother creeps into my mind as my feet touch the wet sand and then the ocean water, which is far colder than I thought it would be. I welcome the shocking temperature and run a little deeper into the water until a wave crashes against my thighs and knocks me off balance.
And then I feel his warm arms wrap around me, enveloping me in the heat of his body. I can barely see Bobby, but I feel roughness of his wet blue jeans against my naked thighs.
“Let’s get back to the house.”
“I don’t want to,” I say.
“If you don’t get out of this water, I’m going to pick you up and carry you back to the house.”
I push at Bobby’s chest, trying to get him away from me. “I want to swim.”
“Okay, then get your bathing suit on. This is a public beach. And while I’m sure no one can see you right now, I also know if you get caught here like this you’ll be thrown off the island.”
I stop fighting him, but then a wave pushes me against him. Bobby wraps his arm around my waist.
“I thought Nantucket had nude beaches.”
“It does. This isn’t one of them.”
2.
I pick up a piece of smooth glass from the sand and then throw it back into the ocean. “What about you? Were you crushing on any male nurses or doctors?”
“No,” she says. The sound of her voice is sad again, as if this broken heart had many breaks before hearing about Sissy. “Sissy was very outspoken. Her laughter made her so alive. I can’t believe she’s really gone.”
“Are you going home?”
Jenna looks up at me and frowns. “Home? Why?”
“For the funeral.”
The way she shakes her head kind of makes me think the idea of her going to a funeral is crazy.
“It’s funny how these things happen,” she says. “Who knew that when we both pledged to never go to the others funeral that one of us would actually die. We did, you know. Make that pledge. We wanted to focus on life, not losing life.”
She sighs and then kicks the white foam of the surf that rushes in with the coming high tide.
“That’s what this summer is all about for me. I spent two years scared to death about dying. I want to live. I want to feel. I don’t care how crazy it seems.”
“Is that what the other night was about?” I ask.
She cocks her head to one side and gives me an awkward grin. “Sorry about that.”
“You grabbed my dick.”
“Yeah, I did that, didn’t I? I guess I was trying to fit in all that living in one night.” She chuckles and hides her face with her hand for a second.
I like her smile, I decide. I like her laughter even more. When Jenna Traynor laughs, I can feel it.
“You’re making fun of me,” she says.
I hadn’t realized I’d chuckled until Jenna looked at me curiously. But I guess I did.
“Admiring you.”
“The fact that I grabbed your dick?”
“Nah, that was just a bonus.”
She looks at me skeptically. “Oh, is that what they call it these days? You didn’t really seem interested.”
“You didn’t really mean it.”
“Are you sure about that?” She winks at me and then smiles as her cheeks turn pink.
3.
One thing I know for certain in this life is that I’ve never felt the way I do now. I rest my head on Bobby’s shoulder as we lay naked together in my bed. Neither one of us bother to reach for the sheet to cover our body. What’s the purpose? My skin is still slick with sweat from sex, but through the open window, I feel the cool breeze coming in from the ocean as night rolls in and the room darkens completely. The only light in the room is the small slice of light coming in from the bathroom. I didn’t realize until now that I’d forgotten to shut off the light earlier when I’d quickly changed. Now that small slice provides the only light I need to see Bobby’s beautiful body.
I feel more than hear Bobby’s stomach rumble with hunger. We’d taken care of another hunger that has me sated and unable to move. He’d chosen me over food. It’s stupid. Somehow, it brings me comfort. I don’t know why.
“What’s this,” he asks, looking at my arm and rubbing at the trail of marks across my inner elbow that I know are there, but I can no longer see in the darkness. “I have shitty veins,” I say, rubbing my other hand over the spot as if I had the power to wipe the marks away. “I have some on my thigh too.”
“I noticed,” he says with a grin.
“I hate them. They make me look like a junkie.”
“No, they don’t.”
I lift my head to look at his face. “Don’t lie.”
“Okay, you look like a junkie. But you’re not.”
“No, I’m a cancer survivor. At least for now.”
With his fingers he lightly makes a circle around my breast, touching me just hard enough so it doesn’t tickle, but light enough to send shivers through my body.
“You’re beautiful,” he says softly.
I lift my gaze to look at him again. He’s looking at my breasts. “Are you talking to me or my tits?”
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AUTHOR BIO:
New York Times and USA TODAY Bestselling Author, Lisa Mondello, has held many jobs in her life but being a published author is the last job she'll ever have. She's not retiring! She blames the creation of the personal computer for her leap into writing novels. Otherwise, she'd still be penning stories with paper and pen. Her book The Knight and Maggie's Baby is a New York Times Bestseller. Her popular series includes TEXAS HEARTS, DAKOTA HEARTS, Fate with a Helping Hand and the new SUMMER HOUSE series. Writing as LA Mondello, her romantic suspense, MATERIAL WITNESS, book 1 of her Heroes of Providence series made the USA TODAY Bestsellers List and was named one of Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2012. You can find more information about Lisa Mondello at lisamondello.blogspot.com and sign up for her newsletter to receive new release information at http://eepurl.com/xhxO5
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