Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Volcano Summer: A Second Chance Romance
    Volcano Summer: A Second Chance Romance
    Volcano Summer: A Second Chance Romance
    Ebook90 pages1 hour

    Volcano Summer: A Second Chance Romance

    By Iris Forester

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    When Acacia is in college, life is full of shiny objects, and she doesn’t recognize a real gem when she finds him. Caught up in the unfamiliar power of her own beauty, she lets her life be thrown off course by another man. She realizes her mistake too late, and stumbles across several continents and a world of personal transformation, trying to regain what she once had. This tale of second chances holds promise for anyone who believes, deep down, that it’s never too late.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBryant Street Shorts
    Release dateSep 26, 2020
    ISBN9781094413761
    Author

    Iris Forester

    Iris Forester is never happier than when she’s tossed everything aside to follow one of the story threads that cross her path. She shares her home place with eagles, ravens and owls — but also makes time every year to spend in New York City. When she’s not writing, Iris works with paint, clay, and various difficult creatures.

    Read more from Iris Forester

    Related to Volcano Summer

    Related ebooks

    Contemporary Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Gabriel & Holly

      Feb 8, 2021

      The first day was the most daunting. It helped that she’d arrived last night to settle herself in the cottage annexe before first contact this morning. Still, nerves attacked her as she stood before the door of the imposing but charming ivy-covered 1

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Way with Bea

      Sep 8, 2020

      Bea walks into the classroom wearing the clothes she had on the day before. The Teacher understands that this is going to be a bad day. Bea’s hair is uncombed, face unwashed. She arrives precisely twelve seconds late. Not so late that the Teacher has

      10 min read

    • Article

      Benjamin Nugent

      Jun 15, 2018

      Claire’s roommates threw her out on November third, for falling behind on rent and hogging the Xbox. During the next three weeks, she lived in other people’s houses. She missed the Xbox, but couch surfing was like a game. She had to not smell like co

      20 min read

    • Article

      Sienna’s Monster

      Sep 10, 2023

      Sienna lived with a monster, but no one else knew it. The first time Sienna realized her monster wasn’t like the rest was in fourth grade. The whole grade assembled in the auditorium. A police officer watched them enter from his place on the stage. H

      27 min read

    • Article

      Having your CAKE

      Jul 21, 2021

      Having your CAKE
      13 min read

    • Article

      Sienna’s Monster

      Mar 10, 2021

      Sienna lived with a monster, but no one else knew it. The first time Sienna realized that her monster wasn’t like the rest was in 4th grade. The whole grade assembled in the auditorium. A police officer watched them enter from his place on the stage.

      26 min read

    • Article

      Last Love

      Dec 8, 2023

      Last Love
      13 min read

    • Article

      Lost Children

      Aug 4, 2022

      Lost Children
      5 min read

    • Article

      Winds Of Change

      Dec 10, 2019

      “Till the end of the pitted and dusty lane, she was a dry, brown leaf swiftly floating down a clear stream. Part of it was easy, the part about being brown. ‘Brown as mud and common as mud,’ Aaji would scream every morning waking her up. The rest of

      9 min read

    • Article

      Somehow

      Mar 15, 2018

      Somehow
      4 min read

    • Article

      Who We Were WHO ARE WE NOW?

      Apr 8, 2020

      Who We Were WHO ARE WE NOW?
      7 min read

    • Article

      Announcing the Winners Of Our 100-WORD CONTEST

      Jul 17, 2021

      Eager to try your hand at the 100-word genre? Submit your best work – fiction or nonfiction – in just 100 words in our second annual 100-Word Contest, returning this fall. Bookmark writermag.com/contests for more information. BY ALICIA LUNA Today, I

      5 min read

    • Article

      Captive Audience

      Jun 12, 2023

      Captive Audience
      1 min read

    • Article

      Intelligent Creatures

      Jul 6, 2023

      Intelligent Creatures
      19 min read

    • Article

      The Quiet Boy

      Jan 28, 2019

      The Quiet Boy
      29 min read

    • Article

      Book Review

      Nov 16, 2022

      Book Review
      3 min read

    • Article

      Dance with Me

      Sep 17, 2021

      Dance with Me
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Nanny

      Dec 15, 2019

      There isn’t much in the house,” Mary said. “I’m sorry.” Kayla looked around, shrugged. “I’m not even that hungry.” Mary set the table, bright Fiestaware on place mats alongside fringed cloth napkins. They ate microwave pizzas. “Gotta have something a

      21 min read

    • Article

      Better

      Aug 12, 2019

      Better
      18 min read

    • Article

      The Shortest Day

      Oct 13, 2017

      The Shortest Day
      10 min read

    • Article

      The New Arrival

      Oct 1, 2020

      Maya had never visited the public library before, and at this rate it looked like she never would. She knew it was around here somewhere, but the fog was so thick she could barely see her sneakers. Putting off her homework had been a mistake, but get

      6 min read

    • Article

      Everything But The Kitchen Sink

      Oct 10, 2021

      When Mary Little walks into her kitchen on Tuesday morning, the sink is under the window. At first she can’t even find it. She looks at the space where the sink is supposed to be, at the end of the island, and the sink is gone. Her son, Ben, sits the

      18 min read

    • Article

      Come With Me

      Nov 22, 2018

      Come With Me
      23 min read

    • Article

      Failure to Thrive

      Dec 15, 2019

      Alice read John Mark’s letter, her eyes narrowed, as I paced our tiny apartment. The envelope contained instructions for retrieving two sets of human remains from the University of Florida. I sometimes worked for John Mark, the director of the Milwau

      20 min read

    • Article

      The Bridle

      Oct 10, 2021

      Saliva pooled on her tongue beneath the rusty depressor. She endured a constant urge to swallow, afraid of choking on her own fluids. The taste of metal and blood are so akin, it is easy to mistake one for the other. This early in the day, blood was

      11 min read

    • Article

      Sisters and DAUGHTERS

      Jan 23, 2024

      Sisters and DAUGHTERS
      6 min read

    • Article

      Layover

      Sep 8, 2020

      Lara was supposed to have breakfast with Selin, a friend from middle school who had a long layover in Paris. It was eight thirty, and Lara was frustrated not to have the morning to herself before teaching in the afternoon. She loved the early, luxuri

      13 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Volcano Summer

    4/5

    9 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Engrossing and encaptivating! If you have some great stories like this one, you can publish it on Novel Star, just submit your story to hardy@novelstar.top or joye@novelstar.top

    Book preview

    Volcano Summer - Iris Forester

    Chapter One

    Acacia rushed into freshman chemistry lab late; she’d run across the campus barefoot and had to pause outside the door long enough to wrestle back into her stupid little spike-heel sandals. She’d been late on several previous occasions, but she had never let things slip so far as to have to show up in the short red club dress from the night before. The other students in their jeans and T-shirts looked at her knowingly, and a couple of them smirked. The professor, a no-nonsense woman and rising star in her field, stopped talking and glared at Acacia.

    Nice of you to drop in.

    I’m sorry, Professor Wilkins.

    Well, it’s not me you need to apologize to. Your lab group had to find someone to take your place. You can’t expect them to wait for you every time.

    Oh. Acacia stood just inside the lab door, feeling angry to be put on the spot. All she was doing was living her life; the scheduling just got overbooked sometimes. It wasn’t fair for the professor to act like everyone else in the class was all offended.

    Well, um…. She looked blankly at her lab group, where a third person was now sitting on the stool that used to be hers.

    The professor sighed deeply, and looked around the room. Every other lab group also had three.

    Do any of you want to volunteer to take on a fourth person? Professor Wilkins asked in a resigned voice. Nobody in the room moved.

    I’ll just assign you randomly. I don’t have time for this. Without looking, she set her pen down on a page of her class book, and then peered at the list of names where it had landed.

    That’s Jaqui, Damian, and Eliza— your group will take in the latecomer. she announced. My apologies, she added, glancing over at one group of students in the back.

    Acacia walked across the lab room in her tight little rayon dress and put her books down at the end of the counter. Her new lab partners looked at her without enthusiasm.

    Despite Acacia’s embarrassment, there did seem to be a silver lining to the new arrangement. This was only the third week of class, but Acacia had already become aware of Damian. He had strong broad shoulders and fine blond hair highlighting his tanned arms. His hair was sun-bleached, like a surfer’s, and even his eyebrows were pale gold, almost white against the bronze. She’d looked for an excuse to start up a conversation with him, but he had always seemed to brush past her without seeing her. Even now, after shooting her a brief blue glance when she reached the table, he’d looked down at the jumble of apparatus and began moving it around.

    Damian’s appearance, however, wasn’t the only thing Acacia had noticed. He always seemed to know all the answers to the professor’s questions, and he often stayed late to talk to her after class, making it impossible for Acacia to linger near him and chat. Now, on his lab team, she would have a reason to talk to him. Hoping to remedy the bad start of their introduction, Acacia gave him a bright, twinkly smile.

    He didn’t smile back. Alicia’s heart fell; she felt stupid. Hanging back behind the three of them, she watched as they set up a complicated system of glass tubes in order to perform the distillation process that the professor was explaining. In a few minutes, Eliza turned and handed her a glass bulb with two tubes leading out of it. It looked like a beet made of glass, Acacia thought.

    Here, do you want to attach this? she asked. Acacia awkwardly took the bulb in both hands. She tried to match the configuration of tubes in front of her to the model that was on the screen of the open laptop on the counter. Making her best guess, she settled it into a clamp and began to tighten the clamp screw. Damian’s hand shot out to prevent her. He curled his hand briefly around hers, and she felt a swift thrill through her body.

    No tighter, he warned. Those bulbs cost over a hundred dollars and they crack really easily. Professor Wilkins was just telling us to be careful before you came in.

    You should just let her learn by making mistakes, said Jaqui, and Eliza smirked in agreement. Damian turned swiftly on both of them and answered in a soft but forceful tone.

    She’s part of our team now. We’re working together. He spoke with calm conviction, and the two girls looked down. In an attempt to mend things, Jaqui turned to Acacia and pointed at the top of the bulb.

    This part’s pretty wide, so we don’t have to actually line it up perfectly. It’s OK to just have it loose.

    Acacia nodded and tried hard to focus on what came next. She was frankly amazed at Damian’s defense of her. Having another person step forward on her behalf was not something she was used to in her life, and she was touched by the rapidity with which he had prevented her from making a stupid, costly mistake.

    For the rest of that class period, however, it seemed that Damian was carefully keeping his distance from her. When they all stood together at the lab counter, he kept edging away to keep one or both of the girls between them, and he didn’t look at Acacia once. At the end of class, he was out the door before Acacia had even gathered up her things.

    Other boys on campus were less reticent, however, and Acacia felt like a butterfly, willingly sampling nectar from a wide range of flowers. Feeling pretty was still such a novelty to her that it pushed everything else out of her thoughts. Damian’s disinterest had been a blow, but she was willingly distracted from that disappointment when a guy in her dorm named Marcus embarked on a serious campaign to seduce her. She ended up dating Marcus for most of her freshman year, and then went through a rapid-fire series of four other boys, one after the other. As for Damian, he proved to be a fair-minded, hard-working lab partner, but Acacia never did manage a personal conversation with him throughout the entire semester, and he never again singled her out in any way. They had no other classes together, and she rarely spotted him on campus.

    Chapter Two

    College moved fast for Acacia,

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1