Cruel Crush, page 1
part #1 of Hidden Falls High Series
As a Gift from the Author so readers can get more of the background story to Cruel Crush, this Version contains 2 Books:
Crushed: Before Summer (Hidden Falls High #0.5)
And
Cruel Crush (Hidden Falls High #1)
CRUSHED:
Before Summer
kailin gow
Loving Summer Prequel
3 Years Before Loving Summer Book 1
Published by Sparklesoup.com
Copyright © 2019 Kailin Gow
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher except in case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
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Printed in the United States of America.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Thank you for picking up CRUSHED, which is a prequel to the Loving Summer Series. It can be read as a standalone or the prequel to Loving Summer.
CRUSHED: Before Summer dramatized in more details the background and past incidents that shaped the family dynamics, relationships, background, and personalities that were introduced in Loving Summer.
Also, in CRUSHED, as in CRUEL CRUSH, the main characters’ ages were increased to upper teens to reflect more mature issues today.
Summers for me wouldn’t be complete unless I was spending it in Malibu at my Aunt Sookie’s beach house with the Donovans. As long as I could remember, the three Donovan children and I had always spent summers together. Playing on the beach, swimming and surfing, cooking up things, making up music, and helping out at Aunt Sookie’s acting academy. And as long as I could remember, I had always had a crush on the eldest Donovan boy, Nat. What girl wouldn’t? With his warm but bright hazel eyes and wavy copper hair, his easy-going charm, and natural leadership ability, he was always the most popular boy in school, the favorite son, and most valuable player on any team. He was also my Nat in Shining Armor, as I nicknamed him…the boy who always watched out for me. The boy who protected me.
And like a knight who could only love afar. – Summer Jones
Prologue
The Summer Before
Nat
Someone who said love was supposed to last forever was dead wrong. And those who believed in fairy tales with a happy ending were only dreamers.
Dad always taught me to live in reality. Dreaming was only for when you closed your eyes at night.
Not for when your eyes were wide open.
Being his firstborn and the heir apparent to his multinational conglomerate, I was raised practically from birth to follow in his footsteps. A Donovan.
As in the Donovans who started an empire in restaurants and then in technology when Dad took over the Donovan empire.
Donovan males don’t dream. They do.
Yes, they do, indeed.
Dad certainly was a role model for doing.
My hands gripped the steering wheel of the shiny new blue BMW M3 I was driving. A birthday present from dear old Dad himself for my 17th birthday last week. Flying down PCH from San Francisco to Malibu where our family home was, I didn’t care I was driving too fast, dangerously fast along the winding highway.
All I knew was that I wanted to get home to my room, to my bed, and under the pillows as fast as possible.
Nothing in my mind could block out that awful image that I had. Not even the darkest rooms. Not even the deepest pillows.
All I knew was that my world had changed.
My concept of family had changed.
And my belief in love lasting forever, had changed.
Shattered.
Because my father, who spent most of his time in San Francisco heading up the new branch of Donovan Enterprises’ technology, had lied to me and our family.
He was still living his lie, not knowing I knew.
A surprise trip at the end of summer to pick up my laptop I left at Donovan Technologies, where I worked off and on with Dad for the start of the junior year at Hidden Falls Academy in Malibu, pretty much ended my illusions of normalcy with Dad.
I knew the truth, and now it was my secret, too.
Otherwise, everyone I loved from my mother to my little twin siblings Drew and Rachel, and the life we knew, would be shattered beyond repair.
I didn’t know how I was going to pretend nothing was wrong. I wanted to smash something. I wanted to hit someone. I wanted to be someone other than myself…the dutiful son, the protective older brother, the model student, and the star athlete. I wanted to be someone else. For once.
Be someone who just didn’t give a fuck.
Who took what he wanted, who didn’t care.
Because what cheating Dad did, and what I knew, was only just the beginning of a messed up roundabout shitload that turned my world into a walking living nightmare.
Chapter 1
Nat
I was lucky I made it back to Malibu in one piece. The state I was in, I could have ran off the road and fly off into the Pacific Ocean below.
That would be ironic. Me dying from driving too fast. From making a mistake.
No one would believe it.
Not Nat Donovan, the perfect son of John and Nadine Donovan, the pillars of society.
Despite not having died from my rush back from San Francisco to Malibu, which normally took several hours, I looked a mess.
Mom noticed right away.
“Nat, baby, what happened?” Mom asked as I stumbled through the front door of our large Mediterranean-styled house in Malibu’s hidden canyon section known as Hidden Falls, complete with its own private elite school and community.
I didn’t even bother parking the car into the four-car garage, but out in front of the house along the driveway.
“Mom, I’m exhausted,” I said. “I just spent all night driving to get back from SF.”
Mom got up from the plush white leather sofa she was sitting on while she talked on the phone. “Listen, Sookie, Nat just came back from SF. He looks exhausted. We’ll have him rest up a bit before meeting you for lunch. Better make it dinner. I know you didn’t have to go through all that trouble, but really, the twins are now 16 years old. No longer babies. I know you want to throw something for their birthday and also for Nat’s belated one before school starts…okay, we’ll make it tonight. Thank you, Sookie. You always did love them like your own.”
I blew past Mom, not wanting to look her in the eyes, afraid I would crack and tell her my burdensome secret.
But she called out to me instead. “Nathaniel, Aunt Sookie’s throwing a small dinner party tonight for you and the twins at her place, The Pad. Be sure to make it at 6.”
“Would you be there?” I asked Mom.
“Of course, baby,” Mom said. “It’s a belated birthday dinner for you from Sookie and an early one for the twins. I wouldn’t miss it for anything. And you know how much I love hanging out with Sookie.”
“She’s always been your best friend,” I said, repeating what Mom had drilled into me since birth. Aunt Sookie, who really wasn’t a blood aunt to me or my siblings, had known Mom since they attended summer musical camp together in New York where Sookie and her older sister Meecham were from originally.
“Yes,” Mom said. “Sookie, Meecham, and I were inseparable. “That’s partly why we’re here in Malibu so we can be close.”
She had a megawatt smile, which was filled with radiance. Before having us, Mom was an actress and a knockout with her black hair and blue eyes which she passed onto the twins Rachel and Drew. She gave up her dream of being an actress when she became a mother and a wonderful supportive wife to Dad.
“Okay, Mom,” I said, going over to hug her tight. “I’m tired, but I’ll go, Mom.” If going to Aunt Sookie’s would make Mom happy, then I’ll do it. Especially when I knew how miserable Dad could make Mom. If she knew the truth.
“Thank you, Sport,” Mom said, “It would make Sookie so happy to at least celebrate your 16th birthday with you, late or not. You’re like her children.”
“I know, Mom,” I said.
“Especially you, Nathaniel,” Mom said. “You will always hold a special place in her heart since you’re our first. You’re our baby. Sookie, Meecham, and mine. And we all think the world of you.”
“Will Aunt Meecham be there?” I asked.
“She couldn’t make it this time,” Mom said. “She will be deploying early today on a special mission.”
“Special mission?” I asked.
“Yes,” Mom said. “As in if she tells us what it’s about, she would have to kill us.”
“What about Summer?” a male voice called from the stairways.
Drew, my younger brother, didn’t bother waiting for the answer to his question before walking into the living room only wearing board shorts.
“And where are you going?” Mom asked Drew.
“Surfing,” he said. “We have only this weekend before school starts on Monday.
He looked over at me. “Care to join me, Bro?”
Mom answered him, “Nat’s going to go sleep. Look at him. He looks like a mess.”
“And miss out on the biggest waves we’ll have this summer?” Drew asked.
I thought about it for the moment before answering him back. Okay, I’ll go.”
“Great! I knew you couldn’t resist the last rays of summer…speaking of which, what is going to happen to Summer when her mother is deployed?”
Mom answered, “She’s going to be staying with Sookie for the rest of the year.”
Chapter 2
Summer
It was a while before I could pull Mom’s Jeep into the driveway at Aunt Sookie’s place. Her Malibu Pad as she always calls it. She got it in the divorce from her first and so far only husband, a producer she married after a wild fling while she was in her twenties. Despite the wild fling, she hadn’t gotten married again since then. Partly because she had been mostly too busy with her acting school and the occasional auditions she goes to on the side.
The Pad was a big place, right on the beach so that it was easy just to walk out through one of the screen doors onto the sand. It was a modern design - I remember Aunt Sookie telling me it was designed by some architect friend of her producer husband…with a large kitchen, a big open plain living area, plenty of guest bedrooms, and a pool out back with a view out onto the beach. There were Oriental rugs on the floor instead of carpets through most of the house.
The Pad to me had always felt like home too. Maybe it was just that Mom and Aunt Sookie both had the same taste in décor, going for that Nantucket feel with plenty of whites and blues around the place to reflect the ocean, as well as starfish and shells scattered around the house as ornaments. I know some of them had come a long way, like the multi-colored shell from Japan, because Aunt Sookie occasionally liked to tell me stories of how she acquired them. She had a lot of adventures when she was in her twenties.
My favorite room was the kitchen with its granite counter tops, and I can remember sitting at them as just a little girl, with Aunt Sookie running through some script while she cooked. There was so much space in there. It was the kind of kitchen people don’t just cook in, they live in it. Just stepping into it reminded me of where I was, and I was at home instantly.
Since we were toddlers, the Donovan kids – Nat, Drew, and Rachel had spent every summer at Aunt Sookie’s. The first bedroom on the second floor was for Drew and Nat. The one opposite it was for me and Rachel.
Although the Donovans had their own house in the Hidden Falls area of Malibu, it wasn’t on the beach like The Pad was, and they didn’t moved to Malibu until a few years ago. Since we were toddlers, my mom and their mother Nadine Donovan would drop us off at Aunt Sookie’s for the summer where she would teach us how to surf, play video games, attend her summer acting camp for kids, and whatever we wanted to learn.
Mom told me it was because Aunt Sookie never had kids of her own and loved taking care of us for the summer that we had always stayed with Aunt Sookie for the summer. If she could get us for any time of the year, she would, but summer was when we could be a part of her summer camp.
Now that summer was over, and the Donovans had returned back to their house in Hidden Falls, it felt a little weird being at The Pad without them.
This summer, now that we were older, we carried on the tradition of staying at Aunt Sookie’s for about a month for Summer Camp, but the rest of summer, I went back to stay with Mom in San Diego. For as long as I could remembered, I stayed with Mom most of the year in San Diego, California but spent my summers with the Donovans and Aunt Sookie in Malibu. Fortunately Mom’s deployment were never for more than a week during the school year, and her long-term deployments were usually all during the summer. But this time, she was heading up a special military mission that was expected to last a while overseas, so it made sense for me to stay with Aunt Sookie for about a year, and even enroll in the private Academy in Hidden Falls. There was no one else I could stay with who was a blood relative. Except Dad, who had disappeared overseas when I was only three years old. He was a scientist and an inventor in the military who was a part of the special elite forces. His deployment when I was three was the last time we heard from him.
It made me a bit nervous whenever Mom was sent for a mission. Would she come back? Would she be okay?
As if someone had heard me in the universe, the door to The Pad opened as I fumbled with my keys to find the keys Aunt Sookie gave me for The Pad.
“Summer!” Aunt Sookie screamed. “You’re here!”
“I made it, traffic and all from San Diego to Malibu,” I said giving her a hug.
“Glad you made it on time,” Aunt Sookie said. “And Summer, I just spoke to your mother. She wanted to check on you before going and make sure you made it here to Malibu. Everything is fine with her. She’ll be alright.”
“I know,” I said. “That’s the way Mom is, but you always worry anyways, right?”
“Right,” Aunt Sookie said. “She’s your mother, but I’m her sister, and I’ve had to live with your mother flying off for missions ever since you were three years old.” She looked at me with such love in her eyes. “You’re my little girl, too. Now look at you. Driving on your own.”
I beamed, showing her my permit. “Just got it,” I said. “Until I turn sixteen and get my driver’s license, this is what I have.”
“Good enough!” Aunt Sookie said. “Now come on in. I need to put your youthful energy to good use.”
I wheeled in my luggage and looked around.
Still the same Malibu Pad as always but with more color because of the balloons everywhere.
Dressed in a red floral with a white background silk sheath dress, Aunt Sookie was dressed up a little more, too for being at home. Having long wavy auburn hair, clear hazel eyes, high cheekbones, and a killer body which she obviously works out for, Aunt Sookie looked every bit the beauty who played some of the most iconic characters on television. One of them was a superhero named Red Phoenix, who was a comic book heroine from the 1960s. Then she played a neurosurgeon on a hit television series called Grey Matters.
For just being in her early thirties, Aunt Sookie already had a distinguished career, even winning a few Emmys and an Oscar. Which was why her acting school was doing well.
“You look so beautiful,” I exclaimed, looking at Aunt Sookie. “That dress brings out your hair’s shades of red and the white of the background makes your skin look luminous.”
Aunt Sookie laughed. “You’re so gifted with your words, Summer. And you have an eye for fashion and beauty.”
I laughed, too. “It’s all the theatrical makeup and costume design classes I took from you during Summer Camp. It helps in everyday life, too.”
Aunt Sookie reached out to hug me tightly. “I’m so happy you’re staying with me, Summer. I’ve always seen you as a daughter and wanted you to live with me all the time.”
I hugged her back. She was my favorite, if only, aunt. She and Mom were also very close. “We make a great team, don’t we?” I said.
