Pull (Seaside #2)(5)

“You’re getting the taffy wet,” a female voice said from behind me.

Slowly I turned around. It was the big-eyed girl from before.

Only now she was wearing a slick rain coat and rain boots.

“Caught that, did you?” I sneered. I wasn’t sure why I was so irritated. Maybe it was the rain. Maybe it was withdrawals from drugs. But I was pissed that the same girl who verbally attacked me from earlier would not only come back for more, but blatantly tell me something I already knew.

“I’m not stupid,” I said, shaking my head while still trying to shield the bucket with my body.

“Sure about that?” she asked, folding her arms.

“Are you seriously going to stand out here in the rain and challenge my intelligence?”

“That depends.” Her lips turned upward into a shadow of a smile.

Fine, I’ll bite. “On what, sweetheart?”

“Are you going to stand in the rain or move two feet and stand underneath the overhang from the building?”

Shit. I looked up. Sure enough there was a healthy overhang that could have been shielding me from the rain for the past two hours.

I shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “I like the rain.”

She bit her lip and looked around. People walked around us with their umbrellas, all trying to duck into the shops until the rain stopped. I shivered in response and waited for her to say something.

“You chose the right place to be then.”

If she only knew I had no choice whatsoever in the matter.

“Yup, guess I did.” Seriously I was getting nowhere with this girl.

All flirting genes apparently died in the car accident, while I was left very much alive and very much a loser. What a bright future I had!

I walked underneath the overhang and gently pulled her to my side. I could see drops of water fall out of my messy blond hair and onto my nose. “What’s your name?”

She shrugged. “That’s not important.”

Okay, different tactic. “Why the sudden Good Samaritan act?”

She laughed. “Ah, so he has read the Good Book.”

“Once or twice.” I grinned seductively.

“Then you should get your story straight.”

“Pardon?” I had the sudden feeling I was way out of my league. Trapped, without a way out.

“I wasn’t coming to rescue you.”

“So you were just going to walk by?”

She threw her head back and laughed, causing the hood of her jacket to fall back. Golden brown hair cascaded down her back.

My mouth dropped open. She really was a beautiful girl.

“Actually…” She placed a hand on my arm. “I was thinking of beating you and then passing you by.”

“And what purpose would that serve?” I smiled. I couldn’t help it.

“I would feel better.”

“And I would be beaten on the side of the road? Is my lot in life to be killed by roads or something?”

“Huh?” Her eyebrows drew together.

“You don’t watch much TV, do you?”

She shrugged. “We don’t have a TV.”

“Internet?” My mind was seriously going to explode. How did she live?

“Nope.”

“Phone?” I was grasping at straws here.

“For our house?”

I leaned in, my eyebrows raised up as if to say, Duh.

And again her teeth held captive her bottom lip as she looked away in thought. “I think we used to. But now we just have cell phones.”

“Thank God!” I shouted a little too loudly.

She shook her head like I was the weirdest person on the planet.

“I, umm…” I shifted the bucket to my other arm and scratched my head. “What I meant was…” Channel the Bible. “You should be thankful, or blessed, or something that you have, um, technology?” Yes, Demetri, she’s going to be eating out of your sticky taffy hands in no time.

“Right.” She chuckled and looked away. “Well, guess I’ll see you later.”

As she walked off, she stopped in her tracks and turned around. “By the way, I really did have a reason for coming out here… you know, other than to cause physical harm.”

“Oh yeah?” I grinned slyly and winked, waiting for the inevitable.

“Yeah.” She nodded her head and pointed behind me “Your car’s about to be towed. It’s parked in the handicap spot.”





Chapter Three


Alyssa


It was harder than I thought. Talking to him, I mean. To be honest, I hadn’t any idea how famous he was until some girls I’d graduated with ran into the shop and began giggling like little kids.

That was kind of how my life was, though.

Ever since the accident two years ago, I felt shut out of everything. Like I was a shadow going through the motions. Trying to smile at all the right times, and laugh when it was expected. I was the best worker my parents could ask for. I was first to arrive, last to leave. First to take up someone else’s shift. I even graduated early, so I wouldn’t have to be around the reminders anymore.

I liked life better that way. Predictable.

When you planned things, well, it was almost like some cruel joke from God. That once you told Him your plans, He’d try to ruin them. My parents said it wasn’t God’s fault — they also said it wasn’t mine. Did that make it Brady’s?