Page 12 of Summer’s Echo

Echo

Patience was truly a virtue and never my strong suit, except when around Summer.

The temperature was dropping by the second, yet my Sun seemed unfazed by the chill.

She’d cried so much, I imagine she was probably numb to the chill.

I glanced at my watch, then back at her, wondering how long we were going to stay out here.

Caressing her, I realized how perfectly Summer’s body still fit against mine.

She wasn’t the same girl I’d known at seventeen—she’d grown, evolved into someone more complex, yet, somehow, she was exactly the same.

Soft but unyielding. Delicate yet unbreakable.

Fearless, with that familiar trace of vulnerability lingering beneath the surface.

Summer lifted her face toward me, that subtle, closed-mouth smile doing what it always did—make my damn heart skip a beat.“E,” she whispered, her voice the warmth I needed.

“Hmm,” I murmured, the sound barely audible.

“I’m glad you’re here. I needed you more than you’ll ever know.”

“Me, too,” I whispered back. I kept her close, holding her tighter, as restless thoughts of how we ended up here unraveled in my mind.

My runaway-bride best friend. Here we were, at the spot that had always been ours.

Our complicated friendship, riddled with so many twists and turns, and now this.

Once again, it felt like we were teetering on the edge of something we could no longer ignore.

Her phone buzzed, and I glanced down to see Deshawn’s name on the screen. He’d been calling nonstop for the past hour, and she sent him to voicemail…again. Pressing the voicemail button, she activated the speakerphone, and the anger and distress in her fiancé’s voice couldn’t be denied.

“You have ten new messages,” the automated voice said.

“Summer. Can you please call me? I’m not mad, baby, I’m worried about you. At least text me. Let me know you’re okay. Summer? Baby? What the fuck happened? How could you just leave me like that—embarrass me, us, our families?” Summer abruptly ended the message, tossing her phone to the side.

“Summer, you need to call him back,” I said, my tone a bit stern.

Although I didn’t give a shit about Deshawn Towns, I wouldn’t wish this kind of torment on my worst enemy.

Not knowing where Summer was for even a couple hours nearly destroyed me.

I couldn’t imagine what he must be going through.

“I’m sure your parents called him, but you need to call him.

I don’t know what happened, but you owe him at least that much. ”

She nodded, her trembling hands swiping away another round of tears. “I can’t marry him, Echo. I just can’t,” Summer cried as she buried her head against my shoulder.

I allowed my hand to move gently up and down her back, trying to calm the storm inside of her.

I can’t marry him. Those were the main words she’d uttered for hours.

I couldn’t take it anymore—this endless dance with these cryptic-ass statements and silence.

What’s done is done, so it was time for her to cut the shit and talk.

“Summer, what happened?” I asked softly. “It’s clear you can’t marry him, or we wouldn’t be here. Talk to me.”

She swallowed hard as if the words were sticky in her throat.

The piercing stare carried the same defiance I remembered from the hard-headed girl of yesteryear.

The silence between us grew heavier by the second.

I’d known Summer for almost half of my life, and if there was one thing I understood, she wouldn’t be rushed—not into speaking.

Shit, not into anything. She’d talk to me when she was ready… not a minute earlier.

“This isn’t like you,” I said, brushing my lips against her forehead.

I cupped her chin with care, guiding her face upward until our gazes aligned.

“You’re not someone who makes rash decisions.

You calculate and process—you don’t just act on impulse.

It’s been a long time, but I still know you, Summer.

And I refuse to believe you just woke up this morning and suddenly decided to walk away from the man you were supposed to spend your life with.

When it’s the love of your life, you don’t just abandon everything you planned.

Something happened. Something changed. Tell me I’m wrong.

” I pushed because this was how we worked.

How we always had. Yes, she might be emotionally wrecked today, but she was strong—strong enough to handle whatever came next.

Summer shook her head,tears spilling freely, like a faucet that refused to shut off.

She swiped at them with the back of her hand,agitated, almost angry at herself.

She was sick and tired of crying. Her chestrose and fell unevenly, but then a dry, humorless chuckle slipped from her lips.

It was hollow, tarnished with disbelief.

Itwasn’t joy, wasn’t amusement—just pain disguised as sound.

“The love of my life, huh?”she whispered, her voice cracking under the weight of the words.

Like saying them out loud would somehow make them real.

Like maybe, if she repeated them enough, she’d finally believe them.

Echo

December 2018

“Yo,” I answered the phone, lounging on the couch with a beer in hand while half-watching the basketball game. The cool December night in LA was perfect for a rare weekend to do nothing but chill.

“Yo.” Seth’s voice came through the line, brimming with energy. “A nigga’s getting married,” he blurted out. I shot upright on the couch, the game now the last thing on my mind.

Seth Daniels and I had met in grad school at Washington University.

He’d come to St. Louis from Charlotte for school and a gig at Boeing.

Over the years, we’d shared plenty of good times—partying and bullshitting hard, and dating more than our fair share of women.

A wedding announcement from him of all people hit me like a curveball.

“What? For real?” I stammered, still trying to process.

“Congrats, man. When do I get to meet the mystery lady?” Seth had been seeing someone—a woman he’d met online—for about six months.

But he’d kept things unusually low-key—no social media posts or details shared.

Still, an engagement this fast? That was unexpected.

“Brooke’s not a mystery,” Seth said, his tone defensive but proud. “We just wanted our shit to be our shit, you feel me?”

“I feel you, bro,” I said, nodding to myself. “Congrats again, man. When it’s time, it’s time.”

“We’re not wasting time, either,” Seth continued. “The ceremony’s just family a couple of weeks from now, then we’ll throw a big reception in May for our birthdays.”

“Damn, that’s quick,” I said, nearly choking on my beer. “She pregnant or something?”

Seth laughed. “Hell no. She’s just my heart, man. I can’t wait to change her last name from Thompson to Daniels. Like, right fucking now.”

“Thompson?” I asked, the name pulling at a thread in my memory. “Where’s she from?”

“St. Louis,” he replied, chuckling. “Crazy, right? Same city all along, and I had to find her through an app.”

My chest constricted with something I couldn’t name. Brooke Thompson? If she was the same Brooke I knew from Camp Quest—the one who was Summer’s best friend—this was about to get real interesting.

“You good, E?” Seth’s voice broke through my thoughts.

I cleared my throat. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good,” I managed, though my voice faltered. “I think I might know your fiancée.” Without dragging Summer’s name into the mix, I gave Seth just enough details to confirm it: His Brooke was that Brooke Thompson. Damn.

“So, you and Kourtni coming, right?” Seth asked, his tone light.

I masked my unease. “Yeah, man. I wouldn’t miss it.”