The Summer Girlfriend (Heart Beach, #1)
Kristina Forest
For all the Jersey girls
Prologue
Heart Beach, New Jersey
1974
The ocean-gray house was two stories tall. The white paint on the window shutters, wraparound porch, and front steps chipped in various places. The top step sank in the middle and wood splintered at its center. The front lawn was unkept, and weeds swayed back and forth in the brisk March breeze.
The house didn’t look abandoned necessarily, just neglected. Momentarily forgotten. Especially in comparison with the other pristine homes lining either side of the street.
All in all, this particular house wasn’t anything special.
Not yet.
That yet was imperative to Jeremiah Smith I. He had a talent for looking at something and sensing its hidden potential. Believing in what could be and believing in himself and what he could do for his family were what had gotten him this far. Keys in hand. A Sold sign planted in the front yard. His wife, Minnie, by his side, their six-year-old daughter, Celeste, staring up at the timeworn house with curious, captivated eyes.
“This house is where Dr. Thomas vacationed with his wife every summer?” Minnie asked, voiced tinged with skepticism. She wrapped her wool coat tighter around herself as another gust of wind blew down the street, bringing with it the salty smell of the Atlantic Ocean. Minnie’s high-volume curls whipped about her face, and she fought to tame them into stillness. She fastened Celeste’s knit hat tighter on her head and then she looked up at her husband and waited for his answer.
Jeremiah took a moment to admire his wife, which he did often. With her thick hair, chocolate brown eyes, and smooth brown skin, in his opinion, she was more beautiful than Pat Cleveland, more alluring than Donna Summer. Pretty Minnie had been her nickname growing up back in Florida. He and Minnie met almost a decade ago at Riley University in northern New Jersey where Minnie had been a junior on a full-ride scholarship, working at the campus bookstore. And Jeremiah, the same age as Minnie but not a college student, had been an evening-shift custodian. Late-night chats among acquaintances had turned into friendship, then turned into romance. When Minnie mentioned how much she missed the ocean, Jeremiah had driven her an hour and fifteen minutes to the Jersey shore in his battered Ford pickup. Once they reached the beach, Minnie had kicked off her shoes and run toward the glistening waves. Not knowing how to swim, Jeremiah had watched from the shoreline as Minnie dove into the ocean and glided through the water like a mermaid, or a siren.
He’d known then that he wanted to marry her. Known that he wanted to make her happy in every way possible and that he would work hard enough to make it so that she could swim in the ocean whenever she wanted.
Now that day was finally here.
“Jeremiah?” Minnie prompted, her brow arched. He still hadn’t answered her question.
“Dr. Thomas said he hasn’t been to the house in almost eight years,” Jeremiah replied. “Not since before Celeste was born.”
“Looks that way,” Minnie mused.
Dr. Thomas was Celeste’s pediatrician. He was an older, self-made Black man with his own medical practice, and Jeremiah admired him greatly. When Jeremiah mentioned that he was looking to buy a summer home in a beach town that was friendly to Black folks, Dr. Thomas recommended Heart Beach, a barrier island along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in central New Jersey. The small beach town was founded in 1911 by an affluent Black couple who purchased land and sold plots to others who faced discrimination while trying to purchase vacation homes or open businesses in other parts of the state. Now, over sixty years later, the town had flourished into a thriving, tight-knit community. Dr. Thomas had offered to sell his vacation home to Jeremiah—he hadn’t been to Heart Beach since his wife passed in ’65. The house had been more for her enjoyment than his own. Without children or other living relatives, Dr. Thomas had no one to leave his home to. He hadn’t wanted to sell the house to just anyone. But Jeremiah wasn’t just anyone.
“I want you to have the house,” Dr. Thomas had said. “You can leave it to your daughter, and your daughter can leave it to her children, and so on. A house like that deserves to be kept in a family for generations.”
Now Jeremiah looked up at the house and tried to imagine the future Dr. Thomas spoke of. He glanced at his wife’s perturbed frown and smiled as he planted a soft kiss against her temple.
“Don’t worry, baby,” he said. “We’ve got at least three months to fix it up before summer. Come on, let’s take a look inside.”
Eager to finally explore the house, Celeste skipped up the walkway ahead of Jeremiah and Minnie.
“Be careful on that top step!” Minnie called. Celeste gingerly hopped over the broken wood and paused in front of the door. She spun around to face her parents and flashed a sweet smile, as darling as ever with her round cheeks. She was the spitting image of her mother.
Jeremiah winked at his daughter as he fit the key in the lock and turned the knob. The floorboards creaked beneath their feet as they stepped inside. The spacious foyer was empty. The entire house was empty, in fact. Dust particles filtered through the air and sunlight slanted through the windows. A wide staircase led to the bedrooms upstairs. It was a big house, and there was much to explore. But what caught their eyes immediately was the large bay window in the living room to their right.