“Last Summer is a deliciously dark and twisty tale that leaves you wondering who you should root for until the very end.”

—Victoria Helen Stone, Amazon Charts bestselling author of Jane Doe

ALSO BY KERRY LONSDALE

THE EVERYTHING SERIES

Everything We Keep

Everything We Left Behind

Everything We Give

STAND-ALONES

All the Breaking Waves

Last Summer

TITLE PAGE

COPYRIGHT PAGE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2020 by Kerry Lonsdale Inc.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

Published by Lake Union Publishing, Seattle

Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Lake Union Publishing are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.

ISBN-13: 9781542016964

ISBN-10: 1542016967

Cover design by Rex Bonomelli

DEDICATION

For my daughter, Brenna.

May you always find the music in you and the words to express it.

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

START READING

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 26

CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 28

CHAPTER 29

CHAPTER 30

CHAPTER 31

CHAPTER 32

CHAPTER 33

EPILOGUE

JOYRIDE

COMING SUMMER 2021

AUTHOR NOTE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

START READING

Without music, life would be a mistake.

—Friedrich Nietzsche

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 1

AFTER

Joy

Joy shouldn’t have agreed to Dylan’s deal. She should have let him say goodbye, because goodbye would have been much easier than the crushing despair she feels right now. She wouldn’t be left wondering what might happen between them, or what could happen down the road. What didn’t happen today. Things she shouldn’t be wondering about.

But that doesn’t stop her from looking toward the sliding glass doors to the British Airways check-in counter at JFK, the terminal Dylan just walked into. She presses a hand to the center of her chest and breathes through the gaping hole his departure has left. She aches.

Songwriter, music producer, and record label executive Dylan Westfield is a brilliant musician, and one of the most talented singers she’s had the privilege to hear. A temporary friend she met ten days ago. She’ll never again hear his voice, or touch his face, or see the smile that could melt hearts. This can’t be how it ends. What if she goes in after him? What if she tells him how she feels? What if—

A shrill whistle blows behind her. Numbly, Joy turns her head to the sound. A stout, red-faced airport security officer stands by her brand-new 2010 Volkswagen New Beetle. Both the passenger- and driver-side doors are open. They’d been so caught up in each other and their last moment together that neither had bothered to close their door.