No Place Like Homecoming, Dallen, Maggie [beach read book .TXT] 📗

sweater were sticking to her, and her jeans had gone from form-fitting to second skin. Not that I was noticing or anything.

She looked just as put out to be in my car as I was to have to give her a ride. “Where to?” I asked.

She pointed to the cross street ahead of us. “Make a left.”

Silence fell thick and heavy in the car as I cranked up the heat so she wouldn’t get a chill.

“It’s only a few blocks,” she said. “I could have walked.”

I glanced at her in disbelief. “You’re welcome.”

She pinched her lips shut and stared straight ahead. “I’m just saying, I didn’t need help.”

“Are you always such a brat or is it me?” I turned to look at her.

Man, she was pretty. All lush lips and striking eyes, long lashes and high cheekbones. Even drenched and with wet hair clinging to her skin, she was hot. She was crazy beautiful—and she knew it.

“You didn’t have to stop,” she said.

“Oh. My. Freakin’—” I turned to face her again. “Would it kill you to just say thank you? Or, if that’s too much to ask, how about you just stay silent.”

She pursed her lips and stared at the road. “Make a right at the stop sign.”

More silence. And I was really starting to wish I’d left her to fend for herself in the rain.

She pointed. “This is my aunt’s place.”

I pulled up beside the house and parked the car. The girl was hopeless. She was impossible and annoying and way more trouble than she was worth.

If she would have just gotten out of the car right then and there, I probably would have happily gone on with my day. But no. She sniffled. And I turned just in time to catch it.

Ah crap.

Tears. Those were definitely tears. “Are you crying?”

I didn’t mean to sound so horrified. But I was horrified.

“No, of course not,” she said as she swiped at the tears. “It’s raining. Or didn’t you notice?”

I looked up at the roof of my car. My mom had taken the boys in our only decent car, so I was stuck with the clunker that broke down more often than it ran. I had problems. No doubt much bigger problems than miss ‘it’s so hard to find good help’ over here. And yet, I heard myself saying it before I could stop myself. “If you want to talk—”

“I don’t.”

“Okay, fine. I’m just saying, if you ever need anything—”

“I don’t need your help.”

The way she said it felt like a blow. I jerked back at the harshness in her voice, but the sadness in her eyes gutted me. “Got it,” I forced myself to say.

“I don’t,” she insisted. Clearly she didn’t believe me any more than I believed her.

“Of course you don’t.” I’d said it too mildly and watched as her eyes narrowed in response. But it did the trick. The sadness was replaced by annoyance, and maybe just a flicker of amusement at my mockery.

But, as if she realized she’d been amused at the same time I did, she paused with one hand on the door. “And I don’t need…friends.” She made a face like the word was hard to get out.

“Good.” I repositioned my hands on the wheel and kept my gaze straight ahead. Definitely not on the clothes that were clinging to her or the hair that was a disaster and just begging to be brushed back behind her ear. “Because I don’t do friends.”

“Of course you don’t.” She rolled her eyes, but she wore a little smile as she reached for the door. “So, look...I’m, um…” She looked out the window at the rain before turning to me with a look of resolve. “I’m sorry about the other day.”

I arched a brow as if I didn’t know exactly what she was talking about. “The other day?”

She narrowed her eyes and I couldn’t help it. My head fell forward with a laugh as she cursed. “Do I really need to spell it out for you? I was a jerk.”

“Yeah, you were.”

She lifted a shoulder, somehow giving off an utterly unapologetic vibe even as she apologized.

“So, wait, that’s it?” I said. “Aren’t you going to try to convince me you’re not really an entitled spoiled brat or…”

“Oh no. I am.” She gave me a cute little wink that on anyone else would have looked awkward and weird. “I’m just saying sorry I didn’t recognize you as the help right off the bat.”

I sort of choked on a laugh because...this girl. Seriously. She was unlike anyone I’d ever met, and for the life of me I couldn’t tell how much of this spoiled diva routine was an act and how much was real.

And I hated the fact that I wanted to know. Like, very badly.

“What do you say?” she asked as she stepped out into the rain. Leaning down to face me through the open door, she wore this grin. This wide smile that transformed her features and made her seem so much softer. It also made her whole body light up. It made her glow like she was sunshine and lightning and everything in between, and I…

I had clearly lost my mind. No one glowed, let alone like lightning. I shook my head to clear it. “What do I say about what?”

“Truce? I stay out of your way, and you stay out of mine.”

A huff of laughter escaped. “Deal.”

Five

Isla

My deal to keep my distance from Flynn was easier said than done. Over the next few days at school it became alarmingly clear that we had many classes together. And as he was a loner who liked to sit by himself in the back, and I had no desire to make friends in this town when I was sure to be on my way home in a matter of days…

“Do you need to borrow my book?” he asked in English class.

Ugh. He sounded like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. Like he was offering up