The Summer Experience (Book #2 Seasons Experience Collection)

By Eli Summers

Five years after losing Morgan, the love of his life, Mattie is merely existing, drifting through life without the hope of ever opening his heart again. When his feisty best friend,Jenny, marries her high school sweetheart, Julian, Mattie saddened that it was supposed to be his wedding, drinks a little more than he should and ends up sleeping with Myles Summers, Morgan’s “cousin.” Mattie wakes up feeling devastated for cheating on Morgan and runs.

A year passes by and the Winters take it upon themselves to give Mattie one last push toward happiness. Mattie finally accepts Myles into his life and things are good until a night that should have been a happy memory tears the two apart. Both men realize Myles is fighting against Morgan’s memory for the man he loves, but there is only room for one man in Mattie’s heart. Mattie comes to the realization that he must let Morgan’s memory go if he is to open his heart to Myles, but can he do it? Even if he can, will Myles still want to be with a man still so in love with a memory? Book 2 in the Seasons Experience collection delves deeply into Mattie’s emotional growth towards what one can only hope will be his second chance at love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eli Summers
• Release date: Apr 26, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310984341

Eli Summers

Eli Summers was born and raised in Saskatoon, Canada. A small city in the middle of the Saskatchewan prairies, it is said you can watch your dog run away for two days straight. The city and the surrounding area make the perfect backdrop for most of Eli's novels. Although he plans on moving to somewhere with a little more mountain, like Kelowna or Banff, he's content to sit in his apartment, drinking coffee and dreaming about what his characters will get up to next. Sometimes he even drives out to the middle of nowhere, lie on the top of his car and watch the stars. Eli has a knack for turning the copious amounts of caffeine (that no normal human should consume) into #ownvoices novels about boys that love other boys. Sometimes this includes a happy ever after, sometimes it involves tears, and sometimes the characters take the story in a direction even Eli didn't realize would happen.. He adds a generous heaping cup of fluff, love and angst in everything he touches, most of the time on purpose but sometimes his characters make him do it. He wrote his debut novel, The Winter Experience in 2014 and followed up with the sequel The Summer Experience in 2015. He took a hiatus of about three years because his imaginary friends wouldn't talk to him but now he has a new novel, The Art of Falling In Love coming out on August 28, 2018. He is also working on a much different kind of novel that involves the Devil, five chosen warriors and a whole lot of evil. The first episode is expected to come out on January 5, 2019. When he's not toiling away with word counts and a thesaurus, you can probably find Eli playing video games (Saints Row 2 and Witcher 3 among his favourites), daydreaming about the mountains or cuddling with his House Panther, Salem. He dreams of one day opening a publishing press that serves the LGBT+ community with a place to get their books out to the world.

Book preview

The Summer Experience

by Eli Summers

Book #2 of the Season Experience Collection

Smashwords Edition

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Prologue

Digging my toes into the sand, I stood and looked over the water. The sun was shining in the distance, and I could feel the warmth of it dancing on my skin. I took a deep breath and waved at the boat making its way into the harbour. Mrs. Winters was laughing with Jenny in the back seat of the boat as Julian drove into the dock; a wide smile plastered on his face as well. Throwing the rope around the pole, Julian let the boat found it's way to the side of the dock. Mrs. Winters stepped out, quickly followed by Jenny and Julian.

Wrapping her slender arms around me, Jenny flashed a broad smile that quickly turned into laughter as her belly bumped into me, pushing me slightly to the side: I'm so sorry Mattie! I'm not used to this thing inside me yet; it seems to get in the way more often than I would like. Rubbing her stomach, she found the lounge chairs I had set up for us, Oh thank heavens. I feel like my feet could explode right now. Kicking her shoes onto the beach, Jenny found a comfortable position in the chair.

Hey Momma. I wrapped my arm around Mrs. Winters, quickly making sure she found her way to our spot, Did you guys have fun?

Mrs. Winters laughed, Of course we did. Julian is a fine captain if I say so myself.

Julian laughed as he put an umbrella in the sand over Jenny, I got practice from the best captain of all time. Mr. Winters was one in a million; I wouldn't know half of what I do now if it wasn't for him.

We all shook our heads in agreement, settling on the sandy shores, watching the kids play in the water, Are you excited to have a child, Jenny? I looked around the beach, Soon your little bundle of joy will be running around this beach, throwing sand in the eyes of innocent bystanders and making you wish you had your tubes tied.

Jenny laughed, Probably, it's a scary sight. I can't even imagine what my kid is going to be like. Be as loud and obnoxious as me and probably as goofy as that man over there!

Julian just waved his hand dismissively as he helped a kid make a few sand castles. Whatever babe, you're the one who married this ‘man over there.’ Laughing, he quickly dumped a bucket of sand onto the beach, creating the first layer of his sand castle.

The wind was slightly picking up, bringing the fresh smell of cooking on the campsites to my nose. I realized how hungry I was at that point, so I located the cooler closer to the water and brought out some popsicles, handing one to the ladies of the group. Blue Raspberry for Jenny and Cherry for Momma, I know they're your favourites.

Jenny clapped her hands in glee, I am so excited for this! I'm so glad you remembered. I really want to just eat all of them, but I will make sure not to eat them all at once. She started munching on her popsicle, savouring the taste. I thought Auntie Summers was going to be here this weekend, but I don't see them anywhere in sight.

My hands started to fumble, and my nerves started to get shocked, because I couldn't imagine seeing the Summers again after the last time. I had made a total fool of myself right in front of their extremely cute - and extremely nice son, Myles. I started to slightly kick the sand, not wanting to bring up the last experience we had. I took a few deep breaths, but then I felt a shadow looming over me. I looked behind me to see a beautiful boy standing above me, a playful smirk on his face.

Well, if it isn't Mattieboy! I haven't seen you since that disastrous night in your hotel room at the wedding.

I turned fifty shades of red. I couldn't believe he said that in front of everyone, Hey Myles. It has been a really long time, hasn't it? It's nice to see you. I looked behind him to see Mrs. Summers standing with her hand on her hip and one hand over her eyes, And hello Mrs. Summers, it's very nice to see you too!

Waving her hand slightly, she made a small smile, Would you boys mind going to get the chairs from the car. I need somewhere to sit, and I was hoping you would be able to help.

I smiled slightly, Absolutely. I'll go get those for you.

I got up and started walking towards the car. I heard someone coming from behind me, so I turned around to see Myles. I let out a frustrated sigh, Oh, it's just you.

He grinned slightly, but he looked slightly hurt, Oh I'm sorry Mattieboy. I didn't mean to intrude. You just never called me back after our night together. I knew I did something wrong, but I assumed you would eventually call me. I'm sorry for whatever I did;  I hope you're going to be okay.

I knew he was just being nice. I sighed in discontent, I'm sorry I never called you; I just had a lot on my mind. Maybe we can start this over again? Pretend that we were never together that night and just be friends first. Would that work for you? I was trying to sound pleasant; I didn't want to make him feel worse than he did.

That sounds like a good plan. Grabbing the chairs, he started back towards the beach, By the way, my name is Myles Summers. It's really nice to meet you, Mattie.

I blushed slightly as I sat back down on my chair, and watched Jenny and Julian splashing in the water. A pang of jealousy hit me, but as I turned to see a smiling Myles, suddenly all my worries disappeared.

Maybe second chances only come once in a lifetime.

Chapter One

Flashback to the wedding reception

It's nice to meet you, Mattieboy. As my aunt here said, my name is Myles Summer. I've heard some pretty amazing things about you. He held out his hand, running the other through his thick blonde hair. He assumed a defensive position at the time, probably expecting some hysterics on my end.

I don't know if it was the liquor in the punch talking or me actually making a stand, but I pushed my hand into his, shaking it as heartily as I could. It's nice to meet you, Myles. I guess I am the infamous Mattie.

After a few seconds of holding his hand, I realized what was happening, so I untangled our hands and shoved mine back into my pocket. Looking around the room, everyone seemed pretty preoccupied with everything and they weren't staring at him or his awkwardness.

I'll uh ... leave you two boys to talk. Turning in my direction and giving me a quick wink, Mrs. Winters walked away to see Jenny, who had about five liters of punch and was now laughing hysterically with Julian.

I awkwardly stood there, looking at the patterns on the floor. I didn't really want to be left alone with someone right now. I don't think I was ready for this kind of interaction. I looked up to see Myles smiling at me with a new cup of punch.

So, you're the guy who swooped Morgan off his feet, are you? I've heard some great things about you. I'm sorry Morgan had to leave you so soon. He really was an angel in disguise. He really helped me with a lot of personal issues in my life.

This small talk was even worse than I expected, why did he have to bring that up now? I didn't want to think about Morgan when we were at a wedding - what was supposed to be my wedding. I sighed heavily, an obvious tension starting to reach into the air, choking me slightly.

Yea, thanks or something. You were his cousin? Why did I never meet you before?

Myles chuckled, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't slightly attracted to the sound that came out of his mouth, Yea, we're adoptive. My mom and his mom were really good friends in high school. They had children about the same time, so they just clicked over a bunch of different stuff. We never really saw each other, but my mom moved here for a new job offering and to help Marion out. He shifted uncomfortably, suddenly aware of the fault he had just made.

I took pity on him, Well it's very nice to meet you, that's for sure. I'm sure we can bond over something, even if the one person who we both knew is gone. I was trying to make light of the situation. I decided to make the move he needed me to. I grabbed his hand and pulled him in close, putting my hands on his neck.

"I guess we should