The Way I Loved You | Conrad Fisher

Prologue

Every summer of my life has looked exactly the same. My summers were spent at one of my moms best friends beach house in Cousins. My mom, Nova Rose, and her two best friends, Laurel and Susannah, loved this beach house. It was their home away from home. It was everything to them. And to the five kids.

I am the second oldest of the group. My mom and Susannah got pregnant around the same time. Conrad Fisher was born first. August came around and I, Amara Evelyn Rose, was born. Then Laurel got pregnant with her first born, Steven Conklin. And then the last ones to arrive were Jeremiah and Isabella, but we call her Belly. Just like that, our moms had their perfect family they've always talked about having since their childhood. It was their dream to get married, get pregnant around the same time and raise their kids together. It's like they married each other. In a way, they kind of are. Laurel divorced her ex husband two and a half years ago. Susannah had been wanting to leave her husband years ago when she found out he cheated on her with his secretary. I will never forget that night Conrad bursting into my room infuriated when he found out but didn't want to tell Jeremiah. Susannah is like an extra mom that life blessed me with, and knowing what Adam did to her while she was going through chemo infuriated me so I could only imagine how Conrad felt. He stayed in my room the entire night until I could calm him down. He kept saying how much he hated his father. I couldn't relate to him on that because I never got the chance to know mine.

My dad passed away when I was only one so I don't have any memories of him and my mom rarely speaks of him. According to Susannah and Laurel, my mom has never loved anyone the way that she loved my father. I sometimes asked myself if that is why she has never remarried. She has dated here and there, but never anyone who stayed around. I wonder what it is like to love someone so much and only that one person that no one else could ever compare to them.

I've never been in love. I've dated but it was always stupid and a waste of my time. Conrad made sure to remind me all the time of my failed relationships, as if he didn't have any. Anytime it is brought up that I'm seeing someone new and he finds out, he makes a bet with the boys to see how long it will last. It's annoying having to deal with him sometimes. More like all the time. As we've grown older, he's become more unbearable. So closed off and such a... asshole. I feel that everyone can see it, everyone but Belly. Well, at one point in time she couldn't but that all changed last summer. Belly has had this obsession with Conrad since the beginning of time and everyone knew it. So, when they had finally got together last summer it was not a surprise. But it was a blow to Jeremiah because Belly had also kissed Jeremiah last summer. It was a mess. I made a promise to myself to steer clear of Conrad for many reasons but the main one was because I knew Belly was in love with him.

When Conrad came to him about his relationship with Belly, Jeremiah didn't want anything to do with either one of them.

I've told Belly countless times to be careful when she told me about her kiss with Jeremiah last summer when I knew Conrad was at the back of her mind. The one thing we said we would never want is to do anything that could possibly cause a shift in our summers. To ruin what we have here at the one place we said we will always come back to because it was our home.

But sometimes things don't go according to plan. People fall in love. People get hurt. Secrets are kept. People change. Summers don't last forever. And neither do the ones we love.