Broken Silence by Natasha Preston Read Free Book Online

in the sun with Oakley all day sounds pretty perfect to me.
    “This is getting scary so don’t go anywhere,” she said. I’m not the one that goes anywhere.
    Shortly after the film finished, Mia and Leona pulled up outside. They never usually took so long, but I was grateful they had – at least there’d been time for things to relax a little between me and Oakley. Mia’s jaw dropped as she walked in. She dropped Leona’s bag and ran to Oakley.
    “Oh my God!”
    There was a lot of hugging after that. Leona took to Oakley straight away and refused to leave her side.
    “We should get to Ali’s now, kids,” Sarah said. “Maybe we can meet up soon though?”
    “Tomorrow?” Mum said and hugged her.
    Oakley smiled. Everyone else had said goodbye. I wasn’t quite sure what to do. Well, I knew what I wanted to do, but it was completely inappropriate in front of an audience. Screw it. I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around her.
    She gripped hold of me and buried her head in the crook of my neck. I felt like I could breathe again. I had missed this so much. She clung onto me as if she was afraid I was going to disappear if she didn’t. I gently pressed my lips to the top of her head and held her tighter.
    I didn’t want to let go, even when her arms loosened around my waist. She had to leave though. Gritting my teeth, I let go. When she took a step back, I felt like I was being kicked in the gut.
    She stared up at me with those sky-blue eyes and said, “See you soon?”
    “Yeah. Tomorrow.” Twenty-four hours away. Man up, Cole!
    “That sounds good,” she replied and bit her lip nervously, releasing it as she smiled.  I groaned internally: she was sexy as hell.
    “Oakley, get your tiny backside in the effing car,” Jasper shouted, breaking our probably not-even-a-moment moment.
    She rolled her eyes. “That’s my cue. Bye, Cole.”
    I nodded once. “Bye.”
    Mum closed the door, and Mia turned to me. “Well, well, well.”
    Holding my hand up, I said, “Don’t say a word.”

Chapter Five
     
    Oakley
     
     
    I felt as if I had been in the boxing ring with Mike Tyson. I had been travelling for almost a day, but that wasn’t the exhausting part. At least our first meeting was over, and hopefully the next time we saw each other things would be okay.
    “How did it go?” Mum asked as soon as I was in the car and closed the door.
    “Better than I expected, actually. I thought he would shout and chuck me out.”
    Jasper turned in the seat. “He was never going to chuck you out.” Yeah, I knew that really. He had every right to though. “So he still loves you then.”
    My jaw dropped open. Did Jasper have absolutely no respect for anyone’s privacy. “You listened!”
    “Yeah of course I listened! Well, I tried to. I only heard that bit before I was hit repeatedly by Kerry. You wanna do that girly thing where you over-analyse every little detail? What did it mean that he sat so close to you? Did it mean anything ? Was it accidental or—”
    “Shut up, Jasper,” I snapped. “What’s wrong with you?”
    “Isn’t this the kind of shit girls do?”
    “You’re not a girl.”
    “Yeah but you have no friends, so I thought I’d try cheering you up.”
    I stared at him blankly, hiding how much I wanted to shove him out of the car. “Thank you, that really helped,” I replied dryly.
    He wasn’t wrong. I didn’t really have friends. There were a few girls at work I spoke to and occasionally went out with, but I wasn’t particularly close to them. I didn’t want to get close to anyone.
    “Enough now, Jasper,” Mum said, shaking her head at him. Jasper was stuck inside a teenage boy’s mind, and I wasn’t ever sure he would grow up.
    “Was it nice to catch up with Jenna?” I asked to change the subject.
    I saw her smile in the mirror. “It was. I worried that it would be awkward at first, but it’s like we’ve never been apart.” See, that was true friendship. I envied Mum a little