Read Love and Rumors: A Summer Sisters Beach Reads Contemporary Romance (The Summer Sisters Book 1) for Free Online Page A

money do you need?”
    “Um, why?”
    “Because it sounds a lot like you’re selling out. Something you promised you’d never do, and told me I should push you in front of the Segwun if you did.”
    Yeah, that old steamship would definitely take a chunk out of her.
    “I’m not selling out, I’m getting my name out there. They’ll still be artistic shots. They’ll just be ones with more commercial appeal.”
    “Commercial appeal?” She heard papers shuffling on the other end of the line and she held her breath. “Just checking to see when the next time the Segwun will be coming through the locks. The Wenonah may have to do, though, as this sounds dire.”
    “Ha, ha.”
    “Nymph Island again?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “You know you could ask your sisters to help, right? Just because you’re the oldest doesn’t mean you have to take care of everything. They need to start chipping in more.”
    “They can’t.”
    “Can’t or won’t?”
    “Simone, it’s complicated.” Hailey rubbed her forehead as she drove along the quiet, tree-lined road, sunlight dappling the hood of her faded red car.
    “Did you ask them?”
    “Nymph Island’s going up in a tax sale if I don’t save it by the end of summer.” Panic crawled over her and she just about had to pull over. She swallowed hard, bile coating her mouth. “I could lose everything.”
    “That’s heavy. And what do you mean, everything?”
    “I mortgaged the house before the Toronto show.”
    “The dud?”
    “Yeah, the dud show that went nowhere. My sisters don’t know.”
    “You’ve got to tell them.”
    “Why? So they can laugh and call me Failey all the time, and for good reason? Besides, they’ll just freak out and make it into a big deal.”
    “It is a big deal.”
    “Only if I fail.”
    “Right, and you don’t fail. Except on your driver’s test.”
    “That’s because I was rear-ended! It wasn’t my fault.”
    “Hailey, I know they’re going to be over the top, but they’re your sisters. They’re not in school anymore. Stop making excuses on why you have to protect them.”
    “Mom put the cottage in trust in my name.”
    “That doesn’t mean you have to solve every little problem. What does Catherine say about all this? Did you tell her?”
    “She said to sell it.”
    “So, then?”
    “I can’t. I can’t be the one who loses it. Not after it’s been in the family for over a century.”
    “There’s no question of that, but maybe it’s time. Maybe fate or destiny or the man in the moon or whoever your mom talks about wants it back. Lease is up, babe. Let it go. Easy solution.”
    “I know.” Hailey remained silent for a moment. “I just…I want to try. I don’t want to give up. And there’s nothing my sisters can do other than stress out about it all.”
    “Hey, I thought I was a Summer sister.”
    Hailey laughed at her friend’s tone. Simone had spent almost as much time at the cottage as the four Summer sisters and had been dubbed an honorary sister with her height marked off in the cottage’s kitchen doorway along with the others. But Simone was different. Simone knew everything and wouldn’t butt in unless Hailey asked her to.
    “You’re just getting where you’ve always wanted to be,” Simone said. “And while I hate to say it, the sacrifices you’ve made for that place are holding you back. If this was a costly time-share in Florida, you’d have sold it by now. The cottage is a sentimental money pit. You haven’t even gone to Europe to photograph the Sham-Wow because of it.”
    Hailey blinked back the tears. “I know,” she choked out. “And it’s an Apennine chamois. Mountain goat.”
    Simone’s voice transferred into her “let’s get our business done” tone, and the tension in Hailey’s shoulders vanished. Simone was ready to help. She didn’t have to do it completely alone. “So?” she said. “How soon can you have your photos over here?”
    “Thursday or Friday.”
    “Did you want to