"Summer in Chino" by BonnieD
Sequel to "Summer Time," set several months after Ryan/Summer hooked up. This one is exclusively Summer's POV.
For those who haven't read "Summer Time," it is available only at my lj (too sexual for ff.net) and can be found at live journal under bonnied. Sorry can't post a link here. It's not allowed. Then scroll to the bottom for the beginning of the story. It is necessary to read it first to understand how Ryan and Summer got together in my AU, which splits off in the middle of the Oliver debacle.
***********
Summer woke and lay staring up at the canopy above her. The sun filtered through the sheer white fabric giving the light a diffuse glow. She stretched and rolled over to her side then closed her eyes again and fantasized that Ryan's arms were around her and his solid warmth was pressed against her back. She missed him in her bed every time she slept now. Although they spent many odd hours of the day lying here together, he had yet to spend the night.
But Summer would find a way sooner or later. There was always a way to get what you wanted if you worked at it hard enough.
She lay there and squinched her eyes tighter, spinning her Ryan fantasy, trying to conjure the illusion of his physical presence with just her willpower, but it was useless. DreamRyan wasn't RealRyan no matter how hard you concentrated. Besides ... her eyes flew open and she checked the time on her digital clock ... it was already noon and if she got her lazy butt out of bed she could go over to his house and HAVE RealRyan. She smiled widely at the thought, yawned, stretched and threw back the covers.
*************
An hour and a half later, Summer's blue jeep pulled into the Cohens' drive. She parked then walked around the side of the house to the pool area. Ryan was floating on a raft, eyes closed, body bathed in the golden light of the sun. Summer simply stood there a moment admiring the sight of all that tanned muscle and streaky blond hair then she dipped her toe in the pool and kicked a light spray of water over him.
His eyes opened part way and he squinted at her. "Hey," he greeted in a sleepy voice, a slow smile spreading over his face. "What's the plan?"
"Well," Summer swished her foot back and forth through the water. "No Cohens today, right?" She knew perfectly well there weren't. If it was Ryan's day off at the restaurant, then it was Seth's day to wait tables. As for Sandy and Kirsten, they were never around in the middle of the day. "I think maybe we should just hang out here." She knew he wouldn't argue. Ryan was always happier to stay in than to go out.
"Okay," he agreed amiably. Ryan suddenly rolled off the float sending up a spray. Summer jumped back so she wouldn't get splashed. He cut cleanly through the water, swimming toward the ladder and climbed out of the pool. She backed away.
"I'm not going in," she protested. "I just did my hair and make up. You are not getting me in that pool."
Ryan simply kept approaching her with that smug grin that made her want to punch him. Summer considered her options. Let him chase her around the pool and throw her in, run into the house and lock the door, or face him down and tell him that she wasn't kidding goddammit ... and then get thrown in the pool anyway.
But when Ryan reached her, she only got as far as "I'm not ki...." before he scooped her into his arms, pressing her against his cool, wet skin and plundering her mouth with a long, ardent kiss. He finally pulled back to complain, "You took too long getting here," then leaned in to kiss her again.
Summer loved how physically demonstrative he was. Not so much in public and never in front of Seth, but whenever they were alone, he was constantly touching her and not in that 'this better lead to sex' way which so many boys had demonstrated in her past. He simply seemed to enjoy the contact and the reassurance of her presence. Summer was happy to oblige.
She forgot to fuss about her hair and makeup and her fresh, clean clothes and embraced his wet, chlorinated body fervently. After another series of deep kisses, he pulled away again, breathless. "Come on," he urged hoarsely and tugging her hand, led her to the pool house.
Ryan shivered in the air-conditioned coolness of the room. "Just a second," he said, and leaving her standing by the bed he trotted to the bathroom to get a towel. Summer slipped out of her tank top and shorts and was posing on his bed in her newest bikini when he came back from the bathroom. His hair was towel dried and mussed and he sauntered toward her totally nude.
He stopped to appreciatively eye her pinup girl pose. "Have I seen that one?" he asked, nodding at her blue and silver striped suit.
Summer frowned. "No. Why else would I be modeling it?"
"Because you like to show off your body?" he teased.
"God, you're annoying," she grumped, throwing herself back on the bed and staring up at the ceiling. "I don't know why I bother wearing anything new. I could show up in a burlap sack for all you'd notice."
"Summer," he cajoled, dropping down on the bed next to her. "You have like fifty bathing suits. How am I supposed to keep them straight?"
"Try," she snapped, but without any bite to it. Already she was dissolving under his sure touch as he ran his hand very slowly from her knee, up her thigh, over her hipbone, waist, ribcage and came to rest on her breast. He leaned down and kissed her shoulder, and then, leaning on one arm, gazed down at her face.
"You look beautiful, as always, and you know it," he said, a slight tinge of annoyance creeping into his voice. "I'm not going to compliment you constantly no matter how great you look."
"Why not?" She pouted playfully. "I like compliments."
"Because your head will get even bigger than it already is. Pretty soon you won't fit through doors." He kissed her throat and Summer lifted her chin a little in response. He ran his tongue down the column of her neck and tickled it in the hollow between her collarbones. She shivered, delighted.
The phone rang.
"Don't answer it," Summer gasped.
Ryan complied, working his way down to her breasts as he pinned her to the bed with his body. The annoying electronic melody repeated five times before voice mail kicked in, but Summer and Ryan were already oblivious to it, deeply involved in their favorite summer past time.
***********
Later they lay side by side on Ryan's hopelessly rumpled bed, staring up at the ceiling and breathing heavily as sweat cooled their bodies in the chilly air.
"Wow," Ryan murmured, reaching out a hand to pat Summer's thigh.
"Oh, yeah," she agreed, too bonelessly relaxed to do more than reach her own hand down to grasp his.
They lay for a few sweet moments, hand in hand, before he rolled over and picked up the phone, checking caller ID.
"Who is it?" Summer asked, curiosity piqued at the expression on Ryan's face.
"Theresa. Someone from back home," he explained.
"Girl-next-door-first-fuck Theresa?" she enquired, leaning up on an elbow.
Ryan didn't answer as he returned the call.
"Hey, this is Ryan. What's up?" he asked, sounding nervous.
There was a long pause. Summer was dying for the days when you could listen in on an extension.
"No shit?!" he exclaimed. "When?" Another pause then, "Congratulations. That's...."
Summer relaxed. It sounded like a celebration not a crisis so that was all right.
"Well, tell Eddie congratulations, too." Ryan's voice had moved from anxious to surprised to warm. He smiled slightly as he gave the girl his address.
"Yeah that'd be nice." Ryan glanced at Summer. "No. Not Marissa. I'm dating someone else now." He touched her arm lightly as he said it. Another pause and a laugh from Ryan. "Shut up, puta."
There was another period of silence and Summer watched as the relaxation perceptibly drained from her boyfriend. As he listened, Ryan sat up. His back was now turned toward Summer. She could see the muscles in his shoulders and neck tense.
"How long ago?" he asked and Summer squirmed with impatience to know what was going on. "Are you sure it was her?" he added and his voice was so strained that she was beginning to get truly worried. She reached out a hand to stroke the bunched muscles of his back.
"No. It's okay. Thanks for telling me."
There was a last short pause. "Tell your mom 'hi' from me," Ryan concluded. "And really, congratulations Theresa. I'm happy for both of you."
He put down the phone and Summer waited. It was hard to curb her natural impatience but she had learned how to handle Ryan over the past few months they'd been together.
He suddenly turned to her. "Can I borrow your jeep?" he asked, hardly seeming to see her.
"Sure," she answered promptly. "What up?"
He shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe nothing." He got out of bed and picked up a pair of discarded jeans from the floor. Summer followed his lead, shimmying back into her bikini bottom and cutoffs.
"I'll drop you off at home on the way," he told her, thinking aloud, as he pulled a T-shirt over his head.
"Mm," Summer replied. Of course she had no intention of going home. Whatever was going down in Chino, she was definitely coming with, but she wasn't going to argue with Ryan quite yet.
"Would you...?" she asked, turning around and lifting her hair so Ryan could tie the strings of her bathing suit. After tying a sloppy bow, he smoothed a hand over her shoulder and dropped a kiss on the nape of her neck.
Summer finished dressing, picked up her purse and followed him out of the pool house and around to the front drive where her jeep was parked. She slid into the passenger seat and buckled up. But although her manner was calm and passive, her mind was working at light speed. After three months as Ryan's girlfriend, she knew that although he was usually happy to please and to give in to many of her whims, he could sometimes be very stubborn.
But eventually Summer always got her way. She had learned much more about his past than he ever wanted to tell by carefully judging when to push and how to draw him out without Ryan realizing he was beginning to share slivers and glimpses of himself. Oh yeah, she could easily be a psychologist. She was that good.
So her task today was simple. Get Ryan to take her along to Chino and to explain what information Theresa had shared with him.
She decided to go with the brick wall method today. As Ryan drove across town toward her house, Summer said, "You can drop by my house if you want but you do realize I'm not getting out, don't you?"
"What?" Ryan seemed startled to find her still by his side as she broke his reverie.
"I'm going with," she adamantly said. "To Chino. If you want to borrow my jeep, you have to take me too."
He shot her a slit-eyed glare and his jaw tightened. Summer was gratified to note that he recognized when she was in undeniable mode by now. "Fine then I'll take the bus," he growled.
"Don't be ridiculous," she replied airily, inspecting her fingernail polish as if she didn't know it was flawless. "How would you get around once you got there?" She looked at him with one perfectly tapered eyebrow cocked questioningly. She flipped her hair back and put her hand over her heart. "I promise to keep quiet and not interfere in anything you have to do. Girl Scout promise."
Although he still glared, Ryan's mouth twitched at her earnest expression. "You were in Girl Scouts?" he scoffed.
"For a couple of months. Until they took us camping in the woods. Tents, mud, rain, bugs and spidery things? I don't think so. I thought 'primitive camping' meant rustic cabins or something. I called daddy and went home after half a night."
Ryan sighed and his eyes slid away from her. He silently gazed out the windshield for a couple of blocks. "And if I asked you to please stay home and let me borrow your ride?"
"You'd have to lift me bodily out of it."
"That's what I thought." His jaw tightened again and Summer thought about how sexy that was for a second. "All right." He threw her another angry glare. "But if ... anything happens you have to promise not to argue with me and to do what I tell you to."
"I will." Summer knew how to pick her battles. She hated promising to obey like some brainless Betty Boop but it was an easy vow to make. How dangerous was Chino really?
Summer savored her victory for several miles as they got on the freeway and headed south, but finally her curiosity go the best of her. "So what did your friend Theresa tell you, anyway?"
"She's getting married next month," Ryan said absently. "We're invited. If you want to go."
"Of course. Wouldn't miss it." Summer paused. "What else?" she prompted.
There was an excruciatingly long silence before he finally answered, haltingly. "She thinks she saw ... my mom ... the other day. And she looked like she was in trouble, messed up, maybe homeless ... or something." He shrugged. "I don't know."
"Oh." Summer's heart clenched at Ryan's worried frown, but she knew better than to get mushy or weepy. Whenever he finally admitted to her a painful incident from his past, she had schooled her face to respectful sympathy and nothing more. Tears could come later on her own time, when they wouldn't serve to make Ryan feel more pathetic and vulnerable than he already felt.
"She wasn't absolutely positive," he added hopefully. "It might not have been my mom at all."
'But Theresa wouldn't have mentioned it if she wasn't pretty damn sure,' Summer thought. 'Poor Ryan.'
"Well, okay then," she said aloud. "We'll look for her. And if it is her we'll ... get her some help." Summer attempted to sound confident and purposeful but inside she wondered what two teenage kids could possibly do to help a grown woman bent on self- destruction. If everything Ryan had told her about Dawn was true, she was not going to be an easy person to help.
"Hey," Summer said softly, nudging Ryan's rigid arm. His fist clutching the steering wheel was white knuckled. "It'll be okay." She tried to radiate 'hopeful' at him with all the considerable power of her deep brown eyes.
Their gazes locked for a brief moment and Ryan nodded and almost-smiled. But the smile never reached his eyes.
To be continued....
Sequel to "Summer Time," set several months after Ryan/Summer hooked up. This one is exclusively Summer's POV.
For those who haven't read "Summer Time," it is available only at my lj (too sexual for ff.net) and can be found at live journal under bonnied. Sorry can't post a link here. It's not allowed. Then scroll to the bottom for the beginning of the story. It is necessary to read it first to understand how Ryan and Summer got together in my AU, which splits off in the middle of the Oliver debacle.
***********
Summer woke and lay staring up at the canopy above her. The sun filtered through the sheer white fabric giving the light a diffuse glow. She stretched and rolled over to her side then closed her eyes again and fantasized that Ryan's arms were around her and his solid warmth was pressed against her back. She missed him in her bed every time she slept now. Although they spent many odd hours of the day lying here together, he had yet to spend the night.
But Summer would find a way sooner or later. There was always a way to get what you wanted if you worked at it hard enough.
She lay there and squinched her eyes tighter, spinning her Ryan fantasy, trying to conjure the illusion of his physical presence with just her willpower, but it was useless. DreamRyan wasn't RealRyan no matter how hard you concentrated. Besides ... her eyes flew open and she checked the time on her digital clock ... it was already noon and if she got her lazy butt out of bed she could go over to his house and HAVE RealRyan. She smiled widely at the thought, yawned, stretched and threw back the covers.
*************
An hour and a half later, Summer's blue jeep pulled into the Cohens' drive. She parked then walked around the side of the house to the pool area. Ryan was floating on a raft, eyes closed, body bathed in the golden light of the sun. Summer simply stood there a moment admiring the sight of all that tanned muscle and streaky blond hair then she dipped her toe in the pool and kicked a light spray of water over him.
His eyes opened part way and he squinted at her. "Hey," he greeted in a sleepy voice, a slow smile spreading over his face. "What's the plan?"
"Well," Summer swished her foot back and forth through the water. "No Cohens today, right?" She knew perfectly well there weren't. If it was Ryan's day off at the restaurant, then it was Seth's day to wait tables. As for Sandy and Kirsten, they were never around in the middle of the day. "I think maybe we should just hang out here." She knew he wouldn't argue. Ryan was always happier to stay in than to go out.
"Okay," he agreed amiably. Ryan suddenly rolled off the float sending up a spray. Summer jumped back so she wouldn't get splashed. He cut cleanly through the water, swimming toward the ladder and climbed out of the pool. She backed away.
"I'm not going in," she protested. "I just did my hair and make up. You are not getting me in that pool."
Ryan simply kept approaching her with that smug grin that made her want to punch him. Summer considered her options. Let him chase her around the pool and throw her in, run into the house and lock the door, or face him down and tell him that she wasn't kidding goddammit ... and then get thrown in the pool anyway.
But when Ryan reached her, she only got as far as "I'm not ki...." before he scooped her into his arms, pressing her against his cool, wet skin and plundering her mouth with a long, ardent kiss. He finally pulled back to complain, "You took too long getting here," then leaned in to kiss her again.
Summer loved how physically demonstrative he was. Not so much in public and never in front of Seth, but whenever they were alone, he was constantly touching her and not in that 'this better lead to sex' way which so many boys had demonstrated in her past. He simply seemed to enjoy the contact and the reassurance of her presence. Summer was happy to oblige.
She forgot to fuss about her hair and makeup and her fresh, clean clothes and embraced his wet, chlorinated body fervently. After another series of deep kisses, he pulled away again, breathless. "Come on," he urged hoarsely and tugging her hand, led her to the pool house.
Ryan shivered in the air-conditioned coolness of the room. "Just a second," he said, and leaving her standing by the bed he trotted to the bathroom to get a towel. Summer slipped out of her tank top and shorts and was posing on his bed in her newest bikini when he came back from the bathroom. His hair was towel dried and mussed and he sauntered toward her totally nude.
He stopped to appreciatively eye her pinup girl pose. "Have I seen that one?" he asked, nodding at her blue and silver striped suit.
Summer frowned. "No. Why else would I be modeling it?"
"Because you like to show off your body?" he teased.
"God, you're annoying," she grumped, throwing herself back on the bed and staring up at the ceiling. "I don't know why I bother wearing anything new. I could show up in a burlap sack for all you'd notice."
"Summer," he cajoled, dropping down on the bed next to her. "You have like fifty bathing suits. How am I supposed to keep them straight?"
"Try," she snapped, but without any bite to it. Already she was dissolving under his sure touch as he ran his hand very slowly from her knee, up her thigh, over her hipbone, waist, ribcage and came to rest on her breast. He leaned down and kissed her shoulder, and then, leaning on one arm, gazed down at her face.
"You look beautiful, as always, and you know it," he said, a slight tinge of annoyance creeping into his voice. "I'm not going to compliment you constantly no matter how great you look."
"Why not?" She pouted playfully. "I like compliments."
"Because your head will get even bigger than it already is. Pretty soon you won't fit through doors." He kissed her throat and Summer lifted her chin a little in response. He ran his tongue down the column of her neck and tickled it in the hollow between her collarbones. She shivered, delighted.
The phone rang.
"Don't answer it," Summer gasped.
Ryan complied, working his way down to her breasts as he pinned her to the bed with his body. The annoying electronic melody repeated five times before voice mail kicked in, but Summer and Ryan were already oblivious to it, deeply involved in their favorite summer past time.
***********
Later they lay side by side on Ryan's hopelessly rumpled bed, staring up at the ceiling and breathing heavily as sweat cooled their bodies in the chilly air.
"Wow," Ryan murmured, reaching out a hand to pat Summer's thigh.
"Oh, yeah," she agreed, too bonelessly relaxed to do more than reach her own hand down to grasp his.
They lay for a few sweet moments, hand in hand, before he rolled over and picked up the phone, checking caller ID.
"Who is it?" Summer asked, curiosity piqued at the expression on Ryan's face.
"Theresa. Someone from back home," he explained.
"Girl-next-door-first-fuck Theresa?" she enquired, leaning up on an elbow.
Ryan didn't answer as he returned the call.
"Hey, this is Ryan. What's up?" he asked, sounding nervous.
There was a long pause. Summer was dying for the days when you could listen in on an extension.
"No shit?!" he exclaimed. "When?" Another pause then, "Congratulations. That's...."
Summer relaxed. It sounded like a celebration not a crisis so that was all right.
"Well, tell Eddie congratulations, too." Ryan's voice had moved from anxious to surprised to warm. He smiled slightly as he gave the girl his address.
"Yeah that'd be nice." Ryan glanced at Summer. "No. Not Marissa. I'm dating someone else now." He touched her arm lightly as he said it. Another pause and a laugh from Ryan. "Shut up, puta."
There was another period of silence and Summer watched as the relaxation perceptibly drained from her boyfriend. As he listened, Ryan sat up. His back was now turned toward Summer. She could see the muscles in his shoulders and neck tense.
"How long ago?" he asked and Summer squirmed with impatience to know what was going on. "Are you sure it was her?" he added and his voice was so strained that she was beginning to get truly worried. She reached out a hand to stroke the bunched muscles of his back.
"No. It's okay. Thanks for telling me."
There was a last short pause. "Tell your mom 'hi' from me," Ryan concluded. "And really, congratulations Theresa. I'm happy for both of you."
He put down the phone and Summer waited. It was hard to curb her natural impatience but she had learned how to handle Ryan over the past few months they'd been together.
He suddenly turned to her. "Can I borrow your jeep?" he asked, hardly seeming to see her.
"Sure," she answered promptly. "What up?"
He shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe nothing." He got out of bed and picked up a pair of discarded jeans from the floor. Summer followed his lead, shimmying back into her bikini bottom and cutoffs.
"I'll drop you off at home on the way," he told her, thinking aloud, as he pulled a T-shirt over his head.
"Mm," Summer replied. Of course she had no intention of going home. Whatever was going down in Chino, she was definitely coming with, but she wasn't going to argue with Ryan quite yet.
"Would you...?" she asked, turning around and lifting her hair so Ryan could tie the strings of her bathing suit. After tying a sloppy bow, he smoothed a hand over her shoulder and dropped a kiss on the nape of her neck.
Summer finished dressing, picked up her purse and followed him out of the pool house and around to the front drive where her jeep was parked. She slid into the passenger seat and buckled up. But although her manner was calm and passive, her mind was working at light speed. After three months as Ryan's girlfriend, she knew that although he was usually happy to please and to give in to many of her whims, he could sometimes be very stubborn.
But eventually Summer always got her way. She had learned much more about his past than he ever wanted to tell by carefully judging when to push and how to draw him out without Ryan realizing he was beginning to share slivers and glimpses of himself. Oh yeah, she could easily be a psychologist. She was that good.
So her task today was simple. Get Ryan to take her along to Chino and to explain what information Theresa had shared with him.
She decided to go with the brick wall method today. As Ryan drove across town toward her house, Summer said, "You can drop by my house if you want but you do realize I'm not getting out, don't you?"
"What?" Ryan seemed startled to find her still by his side as she broke his reverie.
"I'm going with," she adamantly said. "To Chino. If you want to borrow my jeep, you have to take me too."
He shot her a slit-eyed glare and his jaw tightened. Summer was gratified to note that he recognized when she was in undeniable mode by now. "Fine then I'll take the bus," he growled.
"Don't be ridiculous," she replied airily, inspecting her fingernail polish as if she didn't know it was flawless. "How would you get around once you got there?" She looked at him with one perfectly tapered eyebrow cocked questioningly. She flipped her hair back and put her hand over her heart. "I promise to keep quiet and not interfere in anything you have to do. Girl Scout promise."
Although he still glared, Ryan's mouth twitched at her earnest expression. "You were in Girl Scouts?" he scoffed.
"For a couple of months. Until they took us camping in the woods. Tents, mud, rain, bugs and spidery things? I don't think so. I thought 'primitive camping' meant rustic cabins or something. I called daddy and went home after half a night."
Ryan sighed and his eyes slid away from her. He silently gazed out the windshield for a couple of blocks. "And if I asked you to please stay home and let me borrow your ride?"
"You'd have to lift me bodily out of it."
"That's what I thought." His jaw tightened again and Summer thought about how sexy that was for a second. "All right." He threw her another angry glare. "But if ... anything happens you have to promise not to argue with me and to do what I tell you to."
"I will." Summer knew how to pick her battles. She hated promising to obey like some brainless Betty Boop but it was an easy vow to make. How dangerous was Chino really?
Summer savored her victory for several miles as they got on the freeway and headed south, but finally her curiosity go the best of her. "So what did your friend Theresa tell you, anyway?"
"She's getting married next month," Ryan said absently. "We're invited. If you want to go."
"Of course. Wouldn't miss it." Summer paused. "What else?" she prompted.
There was an excruciatingly long silence before he finally answered, haltingly. "She thinks she saw ... my mom ... the other day. And she looked like she was in trouble, messed up, maybe homeless ... or something." He shrugged. "I don't know."
"Oh." Summer's heart clenched at Ryan's worried frown, but she knew better than to get mushy or weepy. Whenever he finally admitted to her a painful incident from his past, she had schooled her face to respectful sympathy and nothing more. Tears could come later on her own time, when they wouldn't serve to make Ryan feel more pathetic and vulnerable than he already felt.
"She wasn't absolutely positive," he added hopefully. "It might not have been my mom at all."
'But Theresa wouldn't have mentioned it if she wasn't pretty damn sure,' Summer thought. 'Poor Ryan.'
"Well, okay then," she said aloud. "We'll look for her. And if it is her we'll ... get her some help." Summer attempted to sound confident and purposeful but inside she wondered what two teenage kids could possibly do to help a grown woman bent on self- destruction. If everything Ryan had told her about Dawn was true, she was not going to be an easy person to help.
"Hey," Summer said softly, nudging Ryan's rigid arm. His fist clutching the steering wheel was white knuckled. "It'll be okay." She tried to radiate 'hopeful' at him with all the considerable power of her deep brown eyes.
Their gazes locked for a brief moment and Ryan nodded and almost-smiled. But the smile never reached his eyes.
To be continued....