Tattered Innocence
Page 28
Raine slipped inside. She inhaled the metallic scent of old screen and watched Cal disappear around the corner of the last cabin.
He was a spinning vat of colors. Part of her wanted to jump in and twirl around. Part of her wanted to sprint for the gate out of camp.
He’d called her beautiful.
#
Cal shook his head and chuckled to himself as he strode away. Educating Raine was going to be serious fun.
He crossed the athletic field. Tomorrow the rectangle would fill up with sound and children and color. The anticipation he’d felt as a kid welled up in him.
A breeze ruffled the pines beside the gym in the moonlight. Cal’s eyes caught a flash of blond hair, a couple making out in the shadows near the gym doors. Aly. Nobody else had hair that long. And likely Garner Fritz, the guy she’d bee-lined toward on the Canteen porch.
Aly had gone out with a long succession of guys, trying to find one to plug into the place her father left empty. It didn’t take a psychologist to figure that out.
He picked up a rock, tossed it in his hand. Aly’s love language was touch. He’d heard Dad preach on the topic back when he used to listen. Cal made a point of touching Aly in a platonic way whenever they were together, but it hadn’t kept her from going out with jerks like Gar Fritz. He tossed the stone again and fired it at the side of the gym. It smacked against the bark siding ten feet from the couple. Aly and Gar sprang apart a heartbeat before Cal ducked out of sight.
Maybe that would help.
#
Raine dropped a pair of shorts into the scarred dresser drawer. The screen door squeaked open, then slapped shut against the doorframe. Aly breezed into the room looking like a Barbie whose hair had been bunched into a clip by a small child. A smudge of lipstick clung to one corner of her mouth.
Raine smiled at her. “Hey.”
“Oh, it’s you.” Aly blew her breath out and ran an appraising look over Raine. Her gaze stopped on the crook of Raine’s arm.
Raine scooped a quilt over her scar. She forced a smile into her voice. “Which bunk do you want?”
“I’ll take the top.” She snagged Raine’s dog-eared Bible off the upper bunk and tossed it onto the plastic mattress below. “How did I score the Bible teacher?”
Raine gritted her teeth. “I’m not ‘the Bible teacher.’ I’m Raine.” She would make friends this summer. With Aly. “I’ve got three older brothers, a psychotic Great Dane named Antoine, and my favorite show is Lost.”
A wry smile broke out on Aly’s face. “Lost. Isn’t that what you call people like me?”
“Are you?”
Aly nibbled off the rest of her lipstick. “In my sister’s opinion.”
“And in yours?”
“I know exactly where I’m going and how to get there. I’m half-way to a BA in marketing and I will own my own business before I’m twenty-five.”
Raine started to answer, but Aly cut her off. “This is where you tell me I’m going to hell.”
God, give me patience. “Look, I don’t know where all your drama is coming from, but I’m not the enemy. I could use a friend. If you don’t want to talk about God, fine.”
“Maybe I don’t need another friend.” But Aly’s voice had lost its hard edge.
“Let’s say we’ll try to get along since we’re stuck in the same room for the summer.”
Aly eyed her for a long moment. “Done.” She reached a slim-boned hand out to Raine. Raine’s fingers tightened around Aly’s.
“So, you have the hots for Cal, huh?”
Other titles from Ann Lee Miller
Book Review Sisters '12 Top 5 Reads
In the tradition of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, four friends navigate college and the drama churned up by their Florida beach band to cement friendship and more.
Avra wants love, but drummer Cisco—self-medicating from his parents’ divorce with sex and intoxicants—is a poor choice. Cisco hungers for fresh-baked cookies and the scent of family he finds at Avra’s.
Kallie shares her classically trained singing voice only with lead vocalist Jesse and fights to keep her heart safe. Jesse feeds on fame and hides more than insecurity beneath his guitar.
The friends surf ego, betrayal, and ambition and head for wipeout. But somehow, when they’re not looking, Avra’s God changes them all.
Cal walked out of jail and into a second chance at winning Aly with his grandma’s beater sailboat and a reclaimed dream of sailing charters.
Aly has the business smarts, strings to a startup loan, and heart he never should have broken. He’s got squat. Unless you count enough original art to stock a monster rummage sale and an affection for weed.
But he’d only ever loved Aly. That had to count for something. Aly needed a guy who owned yard tools, tires worth rotating, and a voter’s registration card. He’d be that guy or die trying.
For anyone who’s ever struggled to measure up. And failed.