What We're Writing: If Summer Never Ends by Jenn McKinlay

 

JENN McKINLAY: I'm on deadline. I'm probably going to be late because this current romcom IF SUMMER NEVER ENDS (May 2027) has taken a few unexpected turns, such as...

     The look on Lorelei's face. I wanted to take a picture and frame it. She opened her mouth and then closed it. She blinked once, twice, and then opened her eyes wide. She glanced from the donkey's backside to me and then she huffed a sigh of outrage.

     “That is not a thing, Chance,” she said. “A donkey can’t tell if a person is lying.”

     Maybellene stomped her foot and brayed again.

     “Test her,” I said. “Tell her two truths and a lie.”

     “No, I am not playing whatever game this is.” Lorelei turned to walk away.

     “What’s the matter? Afraid?” I taunted her.

     “Afraid!” she scoffed. “That a donkey can tell if I’m lying? Get over yourself. I’m not afraid of anything, it’s just the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard and I know you’re pranking me.”

     “Am I?” I bit my lip and wagged my eyebrows at her. She glowered and I almost did a fist pump when I realized I was getting under her skin. I gestured to the donkey in the stall. “There’s only one way to see if it’s true. Two truths and a lie.”

     “This is ridiculous.” She gestured to Maybellene. “There is no way a donkey can tell if I’m lying and how will you know if I’m fibbing or not. We haven’t seen each other in a decade. You have no idea what’s happened in my life.”

     “That’s a fair point.” I scratched my chin. “I guess you’ll have to keep it to things I do know.”

     “Such as?”

     “You sing in the shower,” I said. “Really loudly.”

     Her face turned bright pink and she said, “I have never sung in the shower, you must be remembering a different girlfriend.”

     Maybellene spun around in her stall and stuck her head out over the half door. She stomped her foot and let out a bray that I swear sounded like the word “liar”.

     Lorelei jumped. Her eyes went wide. She tentatively put her hand on Maybell’s nose. “That was just a coincidence, right?”

     I shrugged. Maybell snuffled Lorelei’s hands and pockets as if a snack might have magically appeared.

     Lorelei narrowed her eyes at the donkey and said, “I stole a car when I was a teenager.”

     Maybellene didn’t bat an eyelash, but I did. “You what?”

     Lorelei waved a hand at me. “I returned it, it was fine.”

     “Say something I know,” I said. She was quiet for a moment, sifting through the memories of our time together to choose something I could verify.

     “Chance Whitaker was my first love.” Lorelei’s voice was soft and there was a vulnerability in it that about broke me.

     Maybellene didn’t even flick an ear. It was the truth.

     Lorelei glanced at me and said, “You know that’s true. I told you at the time.”

     “You did.” My voice came out hoarse and I cleared my throat.

     We glanced away from each other as Lorelei pondered what whopper to tell the donkey. She drummed her fingertips on top of the stall door and then snapped her fingers. “Got it.”

     “I was Miss North Carolina 2017,” Maybellene let out a high pitched heehaw and stomped around her stall.

     Lorelei burst out laughing. “I know it was a lie but you don’t have to be offended by it. It could have happened.”

     The donkey brayed again and Lorelei turned to face me with her eyes twinkling. “You know that was a lie as we were dating at the time and I am not a pageant girl.”

     I smiled at her. When she looked at me with that sparkle in her gaze, it was hard not to feel as if I’d been transported back in time to the summer we fell in love. The urge to hug her was almost too much to resist, but I liked my arms attached to my body so I refrained.

JENN: I think this snippet best answers the question, where do you get your ideas? Y'all, I have no idea where a lie detector donkey came from but I am already ridiculously fond of Miss Maybellene.

Side note: Lorelei and Chance pop up in THE SUMMER SHARE (May 2026) as a very small subplot and I liked them soooo much, I gave them their own story. 

Do you enjoy it when side characters get their own stories? Yes, no, or maybe?