Chapter 1: Summer Rain

Sunday, June 23, 9:57 p.m.

The rain’s coming down in sheets, slapping the windshield like it’s trying to get in. I’ve been parked outside the employee gate since 9:47, engine idling, wipers on full blast. The amusement park’s neon sign flickers through the downpour, half the letters burned out. Holly’s shift ends at ten sharp, and I’m not about to let her stand in this mess.

I’m Shane, twenty and home for the summer, living out of my parents’ basement while I wait for July to end. That’s when I’ll head back to school for the start of practice. Last year I was second-team All-American QB. It’s only a Division II school, but I can play. Plus, being the QB, even at a smaller school, means I get plenty of pussy.

I’ve been with at least twenty different girls over the years, cheerleaders in the locker room after games, sorority pledges at campus parties, one-night stands that blurred into the next. It’s easy when you’re the QB. They line up, and I never say no to a good time.

My little brother Jack’s graduation party replays in my head like a highlight reel. Holly wore this red sundress that clung when she laughed, her long dark hair loose over tanned shoulders, curves that could stop traffic. Her full tits strained the fabric, her ass like she lived in the gym, legs that went on forever in those heeled sandals. She was the hottest thing in the backyard, no contest. She caught me checking her out a couple of times before she cornered me by the keg and whispered, “Heard you were back. Want a welcome-home present?”

Ten minutes later her knees were on the grass, my fingers in her hair, my dick in her mouth. Holly’s eighteen, graduated with Jack last month. One night after work, as she was sprawled out on the mattress I keep in the bed of my truck, she confessed she’d been with ten other dudes before me. She counted them off on her fingers like a scorecard: the neighbor kid at fourteen was her first, a couple of football players from rival schools, some older guys from the park crew, even a lifeguard from the community pool. And Jack, my own brother, sophomore year after the homecoming dance, in the back of his Jeep while the bonfire raged. She laughed about it, said he was sweet but nothing special. Didn’t matter to me. We’ve been fucking nearly every day since, truck bed, down by the river, the employee lot at the park during her breaks. No strings. Just bodies and breath and the kind of heat that burns clean.