ABOUT THIS BOOK:
Devaney Diamond’s summer break was shaping up to be the best one ever. Her longtime crush was finally interested in her, and by the time school rolled around in the fall, she knew he’d be her boyfriend.
Just when their relationship is getting started, she finds out that she’s leaving on a three-week vacation to the Ozarks for some “good old-fashioned fun” with three generations of the Diamond and Mackenzie families. She’s not thrilled about being gone for that long, but she is looking forward to spending time doing nothing but getting a killer tan, finally learning to slalom ski, and hanging out with her best friend.
She and Chase have always been close. He’s cute and sweet. Smart and responsible. He’s always there when she needs him. She loves him dearly, and if it wasn’t for their age, things might be different between them.
But when Chase returns home from football camp with new muscles and a new attitude, she realizes something.
Chase Mackenzie has gotten hot.
And he doesn’t look like her little brother’s best friend anymore.
Will this be the summer that Devaney and Chase fall in love, or will it be the summer that everything falls apart?
Either way, it will be the summer that changes everything.
Saturday, July 11th
We kiss sometimes.
I’m sitting on my window seat, looking across our side yard and over to the house next door.
At a certain boy’s window.
Chase Mackenzie has been my best friend my whole life. And it’s from this perch that I can see into his room. It’s from this spot that I’ve watched him grow into something more than just my childhood friend.
A couple of years ago, when my parents were getting divorced, he stepped up his game.
He became my confidant. My strength. And whether I’ve wanted him to be or not, my protector.
And today, he’s coming home after being gone for the last three weeks.
I take a fleeting look at his window before heading downstairs.
I find my dad—Danny Diamond, retired Kansas City quarterback, who reporters say will surely make the Hall of Fame—in the family room, just finishing up a phone call.
“That was Jay,” he says, referring to Chase’s mom, Jadyn Mackenzie, as he sets down his phone. “Don’t forget that we’re supposed to go next door for dinner tonight. Chase will be back, and I understand there’s an exciting announcement to be made.”
Make no mistake about it. I very much know exactly when Chase is arriving, and I have been counting down the days.
The hours.
The minutes at this point.
“You guys pregnant again?” I tease.
“It’s a bit too soon for that, Devaney,” Dad says, but his brilliant blue eyes sparkle at my stepmother, the award-winning actress Jennifer Edwards, who is sauntering in our direction.
“Could you hold her for a minute, so I can go freshen up?” she asks.
I’m not sure who her question is directed to, but both Dad and I offer our arms.
Jennifer gives my dad a flirty grin but hands the baby to me.
“Hi, sweet girl,” I coo, my voice going higher and my face lighting up. The second I do, I’m rewarded with a smile from my adorable five-month-old baby sister, Weston.
My unusual first name, Devaney, is the last name of a legendary Nebraska football coach. Weston was named after Westown, the small Nebraska town where my father grew up. We’re not sure who or what my brother, Damon, was named after. Apparently, Mom just liked the name.
Dad leans over and tickles under Weston’s chin, and we both make silly faces at her. I used to have very romantic notions about having a baby with a guy I loved. I certainly don’t want to be a teen mom, but just as I was considering having sex for the first time, Jennifer had Weston. She’s a super-happy baby, but I never had to live with one before. And let me tell you, adorable as she might be, she is a lot of work.
I love her so much though. And I’m really glad that Jennifer came into our lives. She and Dad met years ago, just after I was born. They had an incredible connection but didn’t act on it because, well, my dad was married to my mom. Fifteen years and two failed relationships later, they met again. It’s pretty romantic actually, their story. Especially the part where I took the engagement ring Dad had bought for her to the championship game. He won his third ring that night—after an incredible come-from-behind win—and proposed to Jennifer on the field as confetti rained down on all of us. They were married last June, and baby Weston came wailing into our lives this past March.
And when I say wailing, I mean it. The girl has got a set of lungs. And our whole family will do anything we can to keep her happy.
“She’s totally spoiled,” I say.
“I know,” Dad says happily before his phone starts chirping.
As he gets up to grab it, I can’t help but roll my eyes.
“You have no idea how much you’ve changed our lives, little miss,” I tell the baby.
We all used to have normal ringtones, but Weston screams bloody murder when someone calls. She even cries if the phone vibrates.
After practically going crazy, trying to calm her down, Damon decided to test out ringtones to see if she would react differently to any of them.
All of my friends make fun of me when my phone starts chirping like a cricket, but I’ll take their teasing over this baby’s screaming.
Any. Day.
My dad slowly sits back down on the couch, seeming shell-shocked.
“What’s wrong?” I ask him, instantly worried, based on the look on his face.
“That was my agent, Carter Crawford. We just got an offer from a network. They want me to be an announcer.”
“College or professional?” I ask him, not really that surprised.
“Monday nights, so just once a week. What do you think?” he coos to the baby, but I know he’s asking me.
The baby gives my hair a tug while she blows bubbles of spit. It’s one of her new favorite pastimes along with wrapping her chubby, little fingers around a teeny strand of hair and pulling it so hard, it brings tears to your eyes.
“I think you’d be great, Dad.”
“Great at what?” Jennifer says, rejoining us, dressed and ready to go.
“Dad got an offer to be a Monday night announcer. It’s about time he got back to work, don’t you think?” I tease.
My dad has always been great, but he’s home all the freaking time now. Watching my every move. Which is completely different from the autonomy I get when I’m with my mom.
We all live in the Kansas City area, but we’re in a suburb by a lake while my mother and her new husband, the man she was having an affair with before she left my dad, Richard Rash—cue the dick rash jokes—live in the Country Club Plaza area. My mom and I have a slightly strained relationship. Her love always feels like it’s conditional. Which is why my dad paid her more money in the divorce so he would get full custody of my brother and me.
And although, sometimes, I would rather live with my mom, I do love it here.
And that might have a lot to do with the boy who lives next door.