HIDDEN CREEK FOREVER: a hidden creek high novel, page 22
Tan shorts. Black t-shirt. Sunglasses on his face. Jaw cut from stone. Blonde hair carefully parted to one side. Looking like he was posing for a magazine or clothing catalog.
There was something familiar about him yet I knew for sure I had never seen him before.
Wes was in a hurry to get to my side which worried me.
“What is this?” I asked him.
“Nothing,” he said.
“Aira,” Nova said. “Remember all that talk about Summer Boy?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s him,” she said.
“Who? That guy?”
“Yeah,” Nova said again.
“Okay. So what’s the big deal?” I asked.
“It’s another secret, darling,” Wes said.
“What secret?”
Wes looked at me. “Ryland’s old man had an affair. And had another kid. That’s the kid.”
“What?” I asked.
“Elijah is Ryland’s brother,” Nova said. “And they do everything they can to keep him away and hidden.”
I looked forward again.
My heart slammed hard inside my chest.
Ryland’s brother?
Nova’s Summer Boy?
“Why is he here then?” I asked.
That’s when Nova grabbed my hand. And Wes held my other hand.
“What the fuck is happening?” I asked.
“Elijah texted me last night,” Nova said.
“Me too,” Wes said.
I looked between them and backed away. “So what’s the problem?”
Wes curled his lip. “He wants to know what really happened to Ryland… and he’s not leaving until he gets his revenge…”
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HIDDEN CREEK HIGH is far from over… with the wild story of Elijah (summer boy) and Novalee (surfer girl) … old feelings, new love, wicked revenge, and that’s just in the first chapter…
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ELIJAH
I looked at the tall building with the letters that made up HIDDEN CREEK HIGH and I nodded. It could have been quite the setup here, huh? Ryland. Me. Running the halls. Controlling everything that happened from door to door. Not to mention what happened outside the doors. It was always too good to be true.
And now it was impossible.
Fucking Ryland was dead.
Dead.
Gone.
No longer breathing.
Tossed into the ground like an old toy in a box to be put in the attic and left as a memory you’d later stumble across.
And I was left in the dust.
Which was my life.
But Ryland was my fucking brother.
Our lives… our pasts… the way they connected and bounced off one another - it was something nobody knew about.
Well, to be fair, there was one person who sort of understood it.
Thinking about her made me grin.
My surfer girl.
The side door blasted open and I side stepped to make sure Wes was going to walk right into me.
He had his arm around his girl.
Ashley? Amber? Aira?
Yeah. It was Aira.
What the fuck kind of name was Aira?
Why not name her See-a … or Breathe-a … or better yet Piss-a.
I grinned wider and watched as Wes stopped and curled his lip.
He kissed the top of Aira’s head. “It’s okay, darling. I’ll meet you at my ride.”
“You sure?” she asked.
“Yeah. We’re good here.”
Aira gave me a set of evil eyes that could have frozen the entire ocean in seconds.
Luckily we weren’t at the beach.
Wes stood there.
I stood there.
Silence the only thing we had in common.
“Whatever you have to say or ask, just do it,” Wes said. “We can have the same conversation until you fucking leave this town for good. It doesn’t bother me at all.”
I nodded. “Good thing I have nowhere to be.”
“So you’ll be waiting outside every day for me? Waiting for me to confess that I killed your brother?”
Wes was a smartass prick. And he had been working through a long standing war with Ryland. Hell, everyone knew how much they hated each other. I heard about it all the time when I would come to town. Ryland and I used to come up with plans to jump Wes and pummel him into nothing.
But time was never on our side.
Even now… Ryland had no time. I had nothing but time.
What a fucking mess.
Wes loved to push at me, implying that maybe he was the one who shot Ryland.
I knew better.
I knew all about Wes and Aira. He loved her too much to do something to lose her like that.
But… that old standing war with my brother? That was now my war. And the family war…? Whether my old man liked it or not, it was his dick that made me. Slapping, stuffing, squirting that thing about and one little oopsies and there I was nine months later, screaming as I came into this disaster of a world. I didn’t ask for it. But here I was. And if the rich and powerful Alexander didn’t think for a second that I knew all of the dirty family secrets - including the land war with Wes’s family - he was out of his fucking mind.
“You seem tense, Wes,” I said.
“Nope. Just annoyed.”
“Yeah. Me too, man. Me too.”
I turned and started to walk away.
“You know this isn’t going to end the way you want it,” Wes called out.
I paused and looked over my shoulder.
I grinned again.
“It’s going to end exactly how I want it, Wes.”
***
Nova wasn’t hard to find.
Just hang around the beach long enough and she’d be there.
That goddamn long hair of hers, always knotty and ratty from the ocean and the salt… but still the most beautiful hair I had ever seen. And smelled. And got caught in my damn mouth when we secretly spent a night or two here and there in a tent on the beach together. In forbidden seclusion, me the bastard child summer boy licking the innocence of sweet and precious Novalee away.
I lit a cigarette and lied to myself saying it was my last one.
Every one was my last one.
When I realized all it took was a bullet to end my life, smoking didn’t seem so bad.
I just need to avoid bullets. Not cigarettes.
So puff away, motherfucker.
I ran a hand through my hair and took in the sight of the ocean.
There were different ways to view the ocean. You sometimes looked at it like a vacationer. A place to sit, get some sunburn, watch the waves but secretly thinking about a meeting or your boss or that you want to fucking quit your job. If you lived in Hidden, the ocean was the backdrop. Like a tree you forgot about until it blew over in a storm.
I was in-between that.
Right where I liked to be.
The dusty in-between…
Knowing my presence made a lot of people nervous. And jealous. And turned on.
I saw Nova just as I was about halfway through my smoke.
Carrying a surfboard over her head.
Wearing a bikini that showed off all my favorites places on her. Watching her each summer change from girl to woman had been something I’d never forget and never fucking let go of either. The crazy part about Nova was that she didn’t know it. She didn’t get how pretty she was. How her laid back surfer look was probably the greatest look possible. Especially being stuck in a world of rich and fake girls who just wanted to get a ride (in more ways than one).
But that was a different town.
I was in Hidden now.
This was my home.
I’d be whatever secret my old man needed me to be so he could keep his shit together.
At least for now.
Nova put her board into the sand, standing next to it. Watching the water. Gauging the waves. Like an artist about to paint a picture. Or a musician about to play a song. She was epic. Fucking epic.
She put the board all the way down and stretched her arms into the air.
A thought hit me.
She fucking hates my guts.
There was no getting around that fact.
But the thing with facts… they could change. Sometimes fast. Sometimes easy.
And sometimes it just took time.
I stepped forward and saw someone from the corner of my eye.
A shirtless dude carrying a bag, strutting toward Nova.
I paused and took the scene in.
The guy walked right up to her, dropped the bag to the sand, and then pointed to the ocean.
He then put his right hand to the middle of Nova’s back, touching bare skin. His fingers crept around to her side, gently pulling her toward him. She went along for the ride, side stepping, side hugging this motherfucker.
I gritted my teeth and nodded.
Nice play, Nova.
My heart picked up its pace, completely out of my control.
I took the last drag of my smoke and dropped it to the sand and buried it with my shoe.
I watched as the shirtless motherfucker pressed his lips to Nova’s shoulder.
She then wiggled away and pointed to the bag.
The motherfucker dropped down to his knees in the sand and opened the bag.
Nova looked back… right at me…
I grinned.
She gently placed her middle finger to her left cheek, pretending to scratch but in realty telling me to go fuck myself.
I couldn’t fucking wait to win her back… and for good.
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Look for more heart wrenching, emotional upcoming novels including:
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THE WRONG SIDE
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Other bestselling novels by Jaxson include:
5 Years Later
Somebody Else (& Nobody Else)
Dear Everly,
Imagine Us
Anna’s Dress
Let You Go
When I’m Gone
What You Don’t Know
Every Other Weekend
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. (This also includes the cover image and/or cover model(s) appearing on the cover. The context of this book does not in any way depict the personal life of said cover model(s). Image is licensed and used purely for fictional purpose only.)
First electronic edition June 2019
Copyright © 2019 by Jaxson Kidman
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part of any form.
Copyright image iStock/DepositPhotos
Copyright cover Cosmic Letters
Kidman, Jaxson, HIDDEN CREEK FOREVER: a hidden creek high novel
