Destined by Lanie Bross Read Free Book Online Page B

off-the-shouldergray sweater, definitely not her usual club getup.
    “Where were you tonight? I tried to call a hundred times and you didn’t answer. Remember our agreement?” He sat down hard next to her.
    Jasmine shrugged, trying to detangle some of her long, curly dark hair, then giving up. “I was home before nine, if that counts for anything.”
    She fiddled with the ring with little circle cutouts he’d won her at the carnival years ago. Then she took another drag from the clove cigarette, blowing out the smoke without inhaling it. She always fidgeted.
    Their mother used to smoke the same type of cigarettes, though Jasmine probably didn’t remember it. Every time he caught a whiff of the familiar aroma, it made something twist in his stomach—half longing, half nausea. They were so alike, Jas and their mom—both thin and stubborn and always moving.
    Sometimes Jasmine would say something or gesture with her hands and it would bring back a memory from the dark place Luc had buried it.
    He rubbed his eyes again, feeling the exhaustion sink down into his bones. The accident. The fight with Karen. Looking for Jas. Everything seemed to catch up with him at once, just like after an overtime game, and he wanted to close his eyes for a week.
    “So, how come you didn’t answer your phone?”
    She picked at an invisible thread from her sweater for several long moments before she answered. “The ringer must have been off.”
    “Yeah, but you could have been hurt, or …” His voice trailed off as he thought about the woman slumped over that steering wheel.
    About the girl with those crazy eyes.
    “Dead of boredom?” She pulled her phone out and made a production of turning the ringer back on.
    “Wow, Jas, thanks for the extra effort.” Luc stretched out his legs on the narrow iron stairs. “You know, I heard somewhere that the point of phones is so people can actually call you.” But he was relieved. “Anyway.” He nudged her with his shoulder, “What the hell
did
you do tonight?”
    “I rode the bus for a few hours.” Jas pushed him back with her shoulder, something they used to do for hours while sitting on the couch watching cartoons when they were younger. It became a game, who could get the last nudge in. “Some crazy artist lady talked my ear off. It was kinda funny.”
    “Why funny?”
    Jasmine didn’t answer directly. An expression—almost of pain—passed quickly over her face, but it was gone before Luc could identify it. “Don’t worry,” she said abruptly, stubbing out her cigarette, “I’m sorta over late-night bus riding now. Besides, I’ve heard the real crazies hang out under the boardwalk.”
    “Yeah. And the serial killers.” Luc rubbed his forehead. He was still wound up. Jesus. He needed to relax. “Karen’s party is tomorrow,” he said. “You could come with me.”
    “I thought I wasn’t allowed out after dark.” Jasminerolled her eyes. “Besides, Muffy and Buffy and the rest of them make me want to puke. Seriously, Luc, you could do better than Karen. She isn’t going to magically make everything better, you know.”
    Jasmine’s words—sudden, unexpected,
true—
shocked him into silence for a second. Jas was like that: flaky, fidgety, distracted one second and the next saying something that cut straight through Luc, straight past the layers of bullshit.
    “I like Karen,” he said shortly. Karen was smart and funny and made him feel like someone. Any guy in his right mind would be in love with her. Most guys
were
.
    “What do you two even talk about? Trust funds and Jet Skis?”
    Luc could feel Jasmine staring at him, but he refused to meet her gaze.
    “Karen’s super smart, Jas.” He tried to work up a sense of outrage on behalf of his girlfriend, but he was simply too tired. “She got into Stanford on early admission, remember?”
    “Doesn’t her dad have some campus building named after him?” Jasmine asked. “That’s how it works with rich kids,