That Summer With Me - Julie Prestsater Page 0,4

hands through his dark, thick hair and run her trembling finger along the five o’clock shadow of his jawline?

How could she want to do anything at all with him after what happened so long ago? How could he be her mother’s doctor? They needed someone else. Where was Dr. Ambrose?

“So, Mrs. Valdez—”

My mom stopped him. “Call me Annie. Or Mama Annie. That’s what everyone calls me.”

“Okay, Annie,” Jordan said. “Your nurse is going to take you to another room so I can do a quick physical exam. We’ll make sure we’ve answered all your questions. We’ll get you on the books for the biopsy, and then you can finally go home. How does that sound?”

“Sounds good to me,” Mama Annie said. “Melody, you coming with me?” she asked as she stood, and Melody joined her at her side.

“She can wait here,” he said as his eyes met Melody’s. “We can get her when you go to scheduling.”

“See you in a bit, honey,” Mama Annie said as she followed the nurse from his office.

The door had barely shut behind them before Jordan gathered Melody in his arms.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” he whispered in her ear, the tone just as low and deep as she remembered.

Melody found herself wrapping her arms around him, pressing into his broad chest. It brought tears to her eyes as it reminded her of the last time they’d seen each other. There were just kids. They had spent eight weeks together at a pre-college summer program on the east coast.

And they fell in love.

The kind of falling in love that she read about in books. The young innocent love she thought would last. The kind that would survive the distance and the test of time. They left each other at the airport that summer. They held onto each other for as long as they could until Melody had to board a flight to California, and Jordan left back home to Texas. They cried in each other’s arms and made promises they both intended to keep. They made promises of forever.

And that forever never came.

JORDAN

Jordan had dreamed of this since the moment he watched her board the plane at Baltimore Washington International Airport when he was seventeen years old. He could still remember the pain he felt in his chest when she was no longer in sight. Well, he was thirty-six now, and he had long since given up on that dream—not that it didn’t come to him in the middle of a lonely night at home.

It was on those nights that he could feel her soft body close to his, imagine running his fingers through her long, wavy black hair, and taste the peppermint gloss on her full bow-shaped lips. He always thought those lips were going to be the death of him. Whether he was gazing at them or kissing them, he couldn’t get enough.

And now, she was in his arms again. He didn’t know whether to cry or to never let go, but he knew he couldn’t do either. He had forgotten where he was for long enough.

“I’m so sorry,” Jordan said as he slowly backed away from her. “I had no right.”

Melody fidgeted with her hands, just like he remembered. She was nervous, and so was he. He was truly at a loss for words, which was completely unlike him. He was generally cool and collected and could talk his way through very stressful and uncomfortable situations. He had to master that art in his line of work.

Yet, here he was, tongue-tied and totally off his game.

“It’s okay,” she said softly.

“I need to get to your mom.” It killed him to walk away from her.

“Dr. Aria?”

He turned back.

“Is she going to be okay?”

The worry in her eyes tore at his heart. Guarantees were something he never gave to his patients nor their families. But this was Melody.

“Yes,” he said. “I promise.”

Chapter 4

MELODY

“If I would have known getting sick was going to get you back in the saddle, I would have caught the cancer a long time ago.”

“Mother!”

Mama Annie didn’t even wait for Melody to start the car before she turned on the jokes. “So, take me to lunch and tell me all about it.”

There was so much to tell. She wondered if her mom remembered her summer love from decades ago. That summer she felt a kind of love she had never experienced before and one that she hadn’t felt since. Even with Luna’s dad, she had never felt in her heart what