Crush by Caitlin Daire Read Free Book Online Page A

lapsed into silence as we inspected an end-of-summer sales rack for bargains.
    “So I saw that your Dad put out a little wedding announcement in this morning’s paper,” Tamara said a moment later. “Your new stepmom has nice eyes.”
    “Yeah, she does,” I said with a nod, recalling the picture they’d chosen to use in the announcement. It was just Karen and my Dad in the photo, but Brad and I had gotten a mention in the text below the picture. I hoped Tamara hadn’t read much of it, but as luck would have it, she had.
    “The announcement also mentioned something about her having a son,” she continued, giving me a side-eyed glance. “Bradley or Brandon, or something like that?”
    Damn, she never missed a beat.
    “Err…yeah. It’s Brad.”
    “What’s he like?”
    “Brad ? Um…” I stalled for time and turned my head to a rack of scarves, not wanting to reveal anything in my expression that might make her suspicious. “He’s okay, I guess.”
    “Is he hot?”
    I shrugged and turned back to face her. “I don’t know,” I lied. “I wasn’t really thinking anything like that about him when we met. I mean, he’s my stepbrother now.”
    Her eyes crinkled around the sides. Dammit, she knew I was hiding something. “Well, what’s he like? Personality wise, I mean.”
    “Um…I guess you could say he has all the charms of a forced redundancy email.”
    She laughed. “Ohhh, now I see why you’re being all weird about it. You totally hate him, but you don’t want to make things awkward for your Dad.”
    I feigned a laugh of acknowledgement. “Yep, that’s it,” I said. “That’s exactly it.”
    Except it wasn’t.
    If only she knew the truth.
    I felt bad for deceiving my friend, but I still had no idea how to tell her about my real feelings towards Brad. It just seemed so…wrong. It was okay, though. It was just a teeny-tiny little crush, and it would be gone soon. He was all the way over in Hattiesburg all semester, and it was easy to forget a crush when there was some distance between the two people involved. Or so I hoped.
    “Well, it’s not like you’ll have to see much of him, except maybe over Thanksgiving and Christmas,” she said, seemingly satisfied by my answer.
    “Yeah.”
    “So is there anything else on your mind?” she asked, her eagle eyes focused directly on me as I ran my hand over a silk scarf.
    “Actually, yeah, there is. There’s something else about this whole marriage which is worrying me. After the announcement ran in the paper this morning, my Dad got two threatening letters emailed to his office . Isn’t that awful? And that’s just the start. You know how intolerant some folks in these parts can be.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Tell me about it. Racists are such dicks. I hope your Dad is okay.”
    “Yeah, he’s used to it, as sad as that is. It’s not just the racist people, though. He called me a couple of hours ago to talk to me about it. Apparently one of his colleagues is annoyed at him because he feels like my Dad is betraying the cause by marrying a white woman.”
    Tamara nodded slowly. “Yeah, I know a few people like that. On the one hand, I can see their point about wanting to be with someone like them who understands and shares the things they’ve experienced, but on the other hand, love is blind. It doesn’t care about race or sex or anything else, and honestly, who you fall in love with is no one else’s damn business, in my opinion. I mean, if Ben had freakin’ blue skin, there isn’t a single person in the world who could convince me not to be with him just because he was different to me.”
    Ben was her boyfriend of a year. He was an economics major at Overton, and he was a really decent guy.
    “Yeah, you’re right. I wish everyone could see things like that,” I replied. “Oh, and come to think of it, Ben was looking a little blue last time I saw him.”
    She laughed and playfully swatted me, her dark eyes sparkling with mirth. Her