Falling for the Rich Boy: Boys of Summer Read online

  Falling for the Rich Boy

  Boys of Summer

  Yesenia Vargas

  Copyright © 2019 by Yesenia Vargas

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  For my daughters.

  And my amazing VIP Readers. I’m here because of you. Thank you.

  Contents

  Book Description

  Foreword

  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

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Yesenia Vargas

  Book Description

  A broken-down car. A girl down on her luck (again). And the rich boy in the blue Camaro.

  Dulce and her mom are no strangers to going a little hungry, sleeping on a friend’s couch, or having to start over. But when their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, she's pretty sure they've never been this low.

  The last thing Dulce expects is for a cute stranger to offer his help. And a place for them to stay.

  She can’t help but wonder: why is Nolan Montgomery so nice? What’s in it for him?

  All Dulce knows is that she and Nolan come from two very different worlds, and the sooner she and her mom can get back on the road, the better.

  Except Sterling Beach feels more like home than anywhere she’s ever been.

  And what if there's more to the rich boy than she thinks?

  This sweet YA summer romance is perfect for the pool or the beach. Grab your copy today!

  Falling for the Rich Boy is a novella in the Boys of Summer series, a collaboration between several YA authors. They are all standalone stories that take place in the same fictional town. Escape to Sterling Beach today!

  Saving Hadley by Amy Sparling

  Beach Town Bad Boy by Maggie Dallen

  Riptide by Jordan Ford

  Don’t Fall for the Summer Fling by Tammy Andresen

  Flirting with the Enemy by Sally Henson

  Beauty and the Beach by Kayla Tirrell

  Falling for the Rich Boy by Yesenia Vargas

  Summer Love and Basketball by Seven Steps

  * * *

  One

  One thing I loved about summer: no matter how crummy life got, you could count on it to make things a little better.

  There was nothing a little sun and a cool breeze couldn’t fix.

  Well, not really fix. Not when it came to being evicted or an empty stomach.

  But it sure could fix the sucky feelings from having to pick up and find somewhere to go for the night or having to skip dinner.

  I closed my eyes, and let the hot sun warm me up while my hair blew in the wind. The car window was all the way down, and there was nothing I liked better than a hot day on the road and resting my arms and head against the car door.

  Sure, all we could call home at the moment was our trusty ’95 Honda Accord. But that was all we needed. Nothing more.

  A full belly, a warm blanket, and the bright summer sun to wake you up in the morning.

  I wasn’t one to be optimistic for no reason, but one thing that was perfect about being on the road and headed toward my mom’s next crappy job and our next crappy apartment?

  Being on the road and the feeling of freedom that came with it.

  Even if I’d be spending senior year somewhere completely new. Moving didn’t bother me anymore.

  Mom was at the wheel, and the beach was just a few miles away.

  I’d never been, and for once, we were so close. The cool ocean breeze hit my face, making me sigh with longing.

  But we didn’t have time to stop and experience the beach.

  Mom had been let go from her latest job just the day before yesterday.

  I frowned. Macon, Georgia already felt so far away.

  The only stroke of good luck we’d had was thanks to my mom’s longtime friend in the Virginia town we were headed to now.

  She had promises of another (probably not-so-great) job my mom could take, and we could crash on her couch while we got our own place.

  And hey, we’d be forty minutes from the beach.

  No choice but to say yes and get there by tonight.

  I sat back in my seat and glanced at the gas meter.

  We’d have to fill up soon. I checked under my seat, where I’d stashed a box full of sanitary pads. I pulled out the one I needed. It hid our stash of money, which was smaller than usual.

  Just enough to get us to where we needed to go, survive until Mom got her first paycheck, and maybe get us something off the McDonald’s dollar menu later.

  My stomach growled at the thought of salty French fries. It was lunchtime now, but we’d have to wait.

  No big deal.

  We’d eaten light before, and we could do it again.

  I put the box back and glanced at my mom.

  She gave me a smile, her sunglasses hiding her green eyes from me.

  She’d had those sunglasses forever, but it had been a rare splurge for her. I grinned back, liking how confident she was when she wore them. We needed that right now.

  It wasn’t typical for either one of us to break down and start crying when life hurled its latest dose of crappy circumstances our way.

  But it wasn’t like tears solved anything. We just picked up and kept going.

  We had each other. That was all that mattered. All I needed.

  I gave my mom’s free hand a squeeze, and she squeezed back. It was our thing. When things got hard, when things actually went right, or when we were just happy that things weren’t worse, we squeezed each other’s hand.

  She slid her sunglasses up until they rested on her head and glanced between me and the open road. “You know, I think this will be good for us.”

  Here we go again, I thought. But I just listened.

  “It was time we got a fresh start. You can make some new friends at your new school,” she said.

  Friends? Friends were overrated.

  “And Bree says there’s a park just a few blocks from her apartment building. I bet it’s real nice.”

  If it was anything like the parks in our previous neighborhoods, nice meant scattered litter and a broken swing.

  “And we’ll escape to the beach whenever we can,” she went on. But we both knew it wouldn’t be often, if ever.

  We drove in silence for a few more minutes, then Mom said, “Have you seen any signs for McDonalds or anything? Feels like we haven’t seen any towns in ages.”

  I shook my head. “Nope. I keep looking.”

  My stomach growled again, and I picked up our water bottle from the drink holder.

  Just my luck. Empty.

  I put the empty bottle back and went back to looking at the road.

  The GPS had taken us through this solitary road, but I wondered if it would’ve been wiser to stick to the highway.

&nbsp
; My mom glanced at the dash, her brow knit together.

  Then I saw why. We needed gas soon too.

  Sitting up, I wondered how much longer it would be before we came across some kind of town.

  “I see a sign,” Mom said, squinting. “You’re the one with twenty-twenty vision.”

  As it came closer, I read out the words.

  Charleston 112 miles

  Sterling Beach 5 miles

  Mom glanced at me again. “Maybe we can stop there. Sterling Beach.”

  I shrugged and pulled out my phone. Surely, they had a McDonalds and gas station, ideally right next to each other….

  One bar and no LTE. Great.

  A half century later, I found out the next McDonald’s was twenty-seven more miles up the road. This so-called Sterling Beach didn’t have one.

  Pfft.

  So much for stopping there.

  I held back a groan. So it’d be another forty minutes before we could eat. This day just kept getting better and better.

  Half a second later, I regretted those words instantly.

  Smoke curled out of the front of our car.

  My mom immediately let up on the gas. “It’s overheating. What should we do?”

  Uh oh.

  No.

  We could not get stuck in the middle of nowhere.

  Two

  “Wait,” I said, spotting something in the distance and pointing my finger at it. “A gas station. I think we can make it.”

  With bated breath, I eyed my mom, the hood, and the gas station.

  But a couple hundred feet from the gas station, the car sputtered, died, and began too slow.

  “Oh no,” Mom cried out. “We’re not gonna make it.”

  Shaking my head, I leaped out of the car, ignored Mom’s scream, and ran around to the back. I used all the strength I could muster and pushed.

  Sweat beaded around my temples and my legs burned, but I kept pushing anyway.

  After what felt like forever, the car rolled into the parking lot and came to a stop beside one of the pumps. I exhaled and wiped my brow.

  This could not be happening.

  I walked around to Mom, who still had both hands on the steering wheel. I was sure she couldn’t believe the latest turn for the worst either.

  She opened the car door and stepped out.

  “What are we gonna do?” I asked. “Can you call Bree maybe?”

  Mom bit her lip. “We’re still a few hours away, but yeah, I will, if we don’t figure this out.”

  She popped the hood, but who were we kidding? We didn’t know squat about cars.

  What were you supposed to do when one got too hot? Pour a bunch of cold water over it? Check the oil? Where did you even check the oil on this thing?

  Even more smoke came out. Mom blew out her breath, and that’s how I knew she was frustrated.

  She didn’t get frustrated often, but then again, we’d never had car trouble like this.

  A flat tire, yes.

  Needed help with an oil change, sure.

  Scraped together cash for a new radiator? Yep.

  But our Honda just going up in smoke like this? Never.

  It had never let us down. All along, it had been our one constant, the one thing we could count on no matter how old and beaten up it was.

  More than any one person, actually.

  I stared at it, a frown on my face.

  How many times had this car been my bed at night? Our home?

  Too many to count.

  I put my hands on my hips.

  We had to figure out a way to fix this.

  The problem was we had a measly $93 to our name.

  That included gas money, which we didn’t need at the moment but would sooner or later, and food money for the next few days.

  Even if we starved, that was nowhere near the amount of money we’d need to get a tow truck and a mechanic.

  I turned my gaze toward my mom, who had tears in her eyes. She pulled her sunglasses back down, flashed me a tight-lipped smile, and said, “I’ll be right back. Bathroom. Don’t go anywhere, okay?”

  I nodded, but she was already gone.

  My bottom lip trembled, but I bit it, determined not to cry.

  Nope. I made it a rule not to cry when stuff like this happened. There were better things to do.

  My gaze went to my mom, who I could see inside the gas station. She paced back and forth near the refrigerated section then tapped on her phone a few times before bringing it to her ear. Her hand went to her hair, combing through it and then resting on her hip.

  Someone must have picked up because she began talking.

  A few minutes later, she hung up, taking her sunglasses off and shutting her eyes for a second. Then she marched up to the cash register.

  I glanced away and sighed. I knew what she was doing.

  Asking for a job, any job that would pay whatever amount so we could dig our way out of the latest development in the absolute wreck that was our life.

  And it looked like this time we’d be scrubbing toilets and sweeping floors to get back on the road.

  Hey, maybe the guy would throw in some free snacks.

  My head turned at the sound of a car pulling into the gas station.

  The sun glinted off the slick blue paint job of the brand new Chevy Camaro.

  I rolled my eyes and pulled out my phone.

  The last thing I needed was an entitled jerk to stare at and envy.

  I heard the car door slam, but I didn’t look up. It wasn’t until they finished pumping and I heard whoever it was walking away that I finally looked up.

  From the looks of him, he actually seemed pretty young.

  Not the old guys you usually saw driving those flashy sports cars.

  I tore my gaze away from him and focused back on my mom being led around by the store clerk, the summer sky dotted with fluffy white clouds, anything other than that guy’s defined biceps and young Zac Efron hair.

  Ugh. Did he have to have good looks on top of being clearly loaded?

  Some people had it all.

  Meanwhile, the rest of us had nothing.

  I glanced in the side mirror of our Honda.

  Well, I had my mom’s voluminous chocolate brown hair, full of natural beachy waves, along with her wide-set eyes and toned legs.

  But that was about all the big guy in the sky had given us.

  Definitely no cushy bank account or six-figure job.

  I heard the door push open.

  Sure enough, Rich Boy was back.

  He held a bright yellow sports drink in his hand and walked this way.

  I held back an eyeroll at the sight of his literally perfect outfit.

  Was this guy on his way back from a photo shoot for a men’s catalog or something?

  Man, did being hungry bring out the mean girl in me.

  I told myself to settle down and just wait for my mom to tell me what the plan was.

  But I couldn’t help it. I must have stared at that sports drink a little too long because, next thing I knew, Rich Boy was holding it out to me.

  “Want it?” he asked with a quick smile. Ugh, even his voice was perfect. “I don’t mind going inside for another one.”

  I shook my head quickly, sure the heat in my face meant that I was now beet red. “No,” I replied, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “Thanks.”

  All he did was nod and get back in his car without another word.

  Chiding myself for not just saying yes and taking the sports drink, I hardly noticed my mom come up to me.

  “So, um,” she began, not meeting my eyes. “I got us some work. I’m sure that by tomorrow, between the two of us, we’ll be back on our feet and we can find a mechanic who can give us a good price—”

  A familiar voice had us both turning around. “Hey, do you guys need some help?”

  Rich Boy looked at us from his open window, his right hand on the steering wheel like he had no care in the world, just an open
road to get back to.

  I shook my head again. “No, we’re okay—”

  “Yes, actually,” Mom interrupted, flashing me a look that said what are you doing? Of course, we’re taking help from this kind stranger.

  I definitely wasn’t as trusting of complete strangers. Then again, if I had to pick between the shady-looking store owner and this guy…

  Maybe Mom had a point.

  She went on. “Our car died. We have no reason why. It just overheated out of nowhere. And we’re not from around here. We’re still a few hours out from where we need to be.”

  Rich Boy got out of his car again. “Well, I’m not gonna lie. I don’t know a ton about cars.”

  Mom frowned.

  “But…I have a friend who does. I’m sure he’d be happy to tow it to his shop and take a look.”

  “That would be lovely. Can he get us a good price?” my mom asked.

  Rich Boy smiled, showing off a set of—you guessed it—perfect pearly whites. He chuckled, looked down for a second, and said, “Let’s just say I can get you the friends and family discount.”

  Mom smiled. “Oh, that would be amazing. Thank you.” She glanced back at me with a hopeful grin then turned back to him, holding out her hand. “I’m Maria, by the way. And this is my daughter Dulce.”

  Rich Boy took her hand. “I’m Nolan. I live not too far from here.”

  He offered his hand to me, and I shook it as quickly as possible before bringing it back to my side. Rich Boy, or rather, Nolan, shot me a grin, but I looked away.