My Best Friend's Brother by Chrissy Fanslau Read Free Book Online

five. Now I was teaching him , and after he landed face-down in my chest twice, I wondered if he was just clumsy or a bit of a pervert.
    “Sorry.” He turned lobster red for a second time.
    The rink was pretty crowded. It’s one of the more popular hangouts for our school, besides the theater and fast food joints.
    After a few more tries, Luke gave up and watched me skate. I felt bad abandoning him, so we got hotdogs and shared a root beer in the eating area.
    It was pitch black out by 6:30, and the cold drove many people home. There were still lights and stars overhead, and despite the cold, Luke insisted he was having fun and wanted to stay longer.
    Jenna was there with Tom, though she couldn’t skate, so she spent most of her time on a bench. I wondered if her boyfriend was still at my house. And why she and Tom seemed closer than she and Jake did in the first place.
    “So what’s her problem?” Luke asked, motioning to Jenna as he moved sauerkraut from his plate to his hotdog.
    “Jenna just hates me.” She was talking to a bunch of jocks on her bench. Her eyes wandered over to us on occasion, with the obvious intention of checking out my boyfriend.
    “Isn’t it cold as hell in that skirt?”
    I laughed. “Maybe she’s still here because she can’t feel her legs!”
    After a few uneventful minutes Luke asked, “How long have you lived up here?”
    “Too long,” I said. “Can’t wait to move out.”
    “On your own…? Does that make you nervous?”
    “I dunno. Can’t be any worse than life now! And you?”
    He shrugged. “Didn’t have the best dad in the world, I’m used to being alone.”
    “Do you miss California?” I asked.
    “Nah. You’re not there.” He winked.
    I felt myself blush. “Did you have a girlfriend there?” I pried. If he didn’t, I’ll die of shock.
    “On occasion,” he breathed. “No one I was too crazy about.”
    He may not have been too crazy about them, but I‘m betting they were all hotter than me. Lilly-hot, probably.
    “Did you live in California long?”
    “Well, I traveled a lot.”
    “To exotic ski locations?” I grinned.
    “Yup. Only cool thing about my dad, he loves buying me plane tickets. He’s supposed to get me a trainer up here. Whenever he gets around to it,” he said with an eye roll.
    “I’m not my mom’s top priority, so don’t feel bad.”
    “Weird. I can’t get enough of you,” he said flirtatiously.
    I blushed. “At least someone can’t.”
    Before long, my eyes began to droop. It was getting hard to keep them open.
    “Are you okay?”
    “I hate to go home before curfew, but I’m exhausted.”
    “Why don’t you let me drive?” he offered. “You shouldn’t drive tired.”
    I gave him the keys to Mom’s car. My contacts were drying up in my eyes and it was hard to concentrate on anything.
    When he got me home, he handed me the keys. “I’ll just call a cab,” he assured me, since I was worried about how he’d get home.
    “Is it far?” I asked.
    “A couple of miles.”
    “Let me drive you, I can manage a few miles.”
    “No,” he insisted. “Seriously, it’s not a big deal.”
    “Okay. We’ll meet by my locker tomorrow?”
    He nodded. “Same time, same place!”
    I leaned forward and planted a kiss on his cheek. “I’ll see you then. I had fun.”
    He grinned. “I had fun, too.”
    We got out of the car and walked to the front door, behind which my father was waiting. Dad insisted that Luke not waste money on a cab— he’d drive him.
    “Okay, sir,” Luke said with a dry throat.

V
    Since Thursday was an early-out, Luke took me to Grizzly Mountain for a crash course in skiing. And I mean a crash course.
    “My girl has to be good on skis,” he said, with a smile and a wink. I was jittery, because skiing isn’t much like ice skating.
    After my hundredth fall, he explained stopping again. “When you want to stop, point your feet toward each other. Kind of like ice skating, it’s not as hard as you