Austensibly Ordinary by Alyssa Goodnight Read Free Book Online

riffled through the pages all over again and then raised his eyebrows at me. “What’s it doing under a trailer park picnic table?” he asked, nearly swiping the leather volume through a salsa spill on the table as he moved to hand it back to me. I snatched it away from him.
    â€œMaybe someone had just bought it, needed a taco fix, and stashed it under the table to keep it away from a sticky-fingered companion.” I speared him with a look, curling my lip ever so slightly.
    Carefully wiping my hands on my napkin, I gently touched the tarnished hardware and brushed my fingers over the worn leather. It felt significant . . . substantial. As if secrets revealed inside would be held dear. I turned back the cover and read the flowery script with my bottom lip caught between my teeth.

    â€œ. . . I dedicate to You the following Miscellanious
Morsels, convinced that if you seriously attend to them,
You will derive from them very important Instructions,
with regard to your conduct in Life.”

    â€œIt looks like someone intended this as an instructional manual, but then never followed through with it.” I glanced up at Ethan, who was back to concentrating on his own taco. He shrugged in response.
    But I could. I could write in this diary from the perspective of my impending alter ego, recording thrilling adventures and dispensing exciting life advice to inspire the English teacher side of me. It sounded like the perfect outlet—judging by Courtney’s reaction, my friends weren’t ready to hear about my fantasy of “going rogue.” It could be my little secret, kept safe in this little book.
    â€œDo you think anyone’s coming back for it?”
    I scrunched my nose a little and ever so slightly shook my head, going for subliminal.
    Ethan’s lips twitched in amusement. “No way to tell. Why?” I frowned at him as he took a sip of beer.
    â€œCan’t you, for once, just be my partner in crime, Chavez?” I asked, thoroughly exasperated.
    The amusement disappeared, and I couldn’t interpret his long, steady gaze. Finally, he seemed to come to a decision. “Possession is nine-tenths,” he reminded me. “You’re in possession.”
    I looked down at the book, wondering if I’d glossed too quickly over the possibility that anyone would come looking for it, feeling vaguely guilty that I didn’t plan on leaving it for them to find, and a little bit thrilled with my decision. I’m sure I was grinning like an idiot when I looked up again.
    â€œSo . . . do you want me to smuggle it out in my pants, or ask the taco guy for some foil so you can wrap it up to go? Because I’m all in, baby.”
    My laugh sounded suspiciously like a guffaw. It was the “baby” that did it . . . and the gangster voice. I stared across the table at Ethan, his face now mostly in shadow under the string of lightbulbs hung up over the lot. Imagining myself with a secret life was one thing; imagining Ethan as anything other than a clean-cut, hardworking geek was completely laughable.
    â€œPerhaps Eliot Ness was a miscasting. You could hit the Driskill as Al Capone . . . or Pretty Boy Chavez.” I grinned.
    â€œI could . . . except, as I mentioned, I already have plans.”
    â€œRight. What did you say those were again?”
    â€œI didn’t,” he reminded me. “You ready to bust that book outta here?”

Chapter 4

    T hrilled with my luck in convincing Mom to let me “borrow” the entire rack of her latest finds, and exhilarated by my under-the-table score at Torchy’s, I’d hurried back home with a smile on my lips. Now I was sprawled on the couch in my little Doris Day— inspired garage apartment with a butterscotch Dum-Dum tucked into the corner of my mouth. I’d changed out of my teacher clothes and couldn’t decide what to do first. I was twitchy with excitement and eager to try on those dresses