Painfully Ordinary Special Edition by Stephanie Amox Read Free Book Online

Finally ready,
we stood side by side in front of the mirror to assess our workmanship, smiling
at our reflections.
    “We did a pretty
good job.”
    I nodded “Yes, we did.”
    Leah spun, facing me with wide eyes. “What did you say?”
    I shrugged. “What? I just agreed with you. We did a pretty
good job.”
    Leah’s mouth dropped open. “Caiti, I didn’t say that out
loud. I was only thinking it.”
    My reflection looked back at me, shocked. Leah and I stared
at each other until we were interrupted by the sound
of the doorbell ringing.
    I took a deep breath. I knew she didn’t want to let it go,
but we would have to talk about it later tonight.
    “Okay, well, here we go,” I said
    I reached over and flicked off the light before we headed down
to meet our dates. When we got to the top of the stairs, Talon and Jace were talking
to my mom, expressions of great seriousness on their faces. They both bowed
their heads toward her, and took a quick step back. I decided to pretend I
didn’t see that. I didn’t want to have yet another unanswered question bouncing
around my head.
    “Hey guys!” Leah called brightly, skipping down the stairs.
    Mom smiled before heading back to the kitchen calling,
“Have fun!” over her shoulder as she went.
    Leah was already halfway down the stairs by the time I
finally snapped out of it and looked toward the entryway. Talon’s eyes were
flashing an electric blue.
    No, that can’t be
right.
    I blinked to clear my vision, and when I opened them, his
eyes were the beautiful brown I had come to know.
    It was just going to be a really strange night. There was no way around it.
    Leah was looking up at me, her perfectly manicured eyebrows
drawn together in the middle. I gave them all a smile and took one careful step
at a time. I was painfully aware of Talon’s eyes on me as I tried to
concentrate on not falling down the stairs.
    “Hey pixie girl, look at you,” chuckled Jace as soon as my
foot left the last step.
    Leah giggled and smacked Jace on the back of the head. I raised
my head shyly and looked at Talon. I didn’t know what he was going to think
about the way I had dressed. I had let Leah talk me into something that was
very different from the T-shirt I usually wore to school.
    He gazed at me with softness in his eyes and a tender expression.
“You look beautiful tonight.”
    I found myself blushing furiously. Talon and Jace opened
the front door and motioned for us to go through.
    Leah let out a low whistle. “Wow! We are travelling in
style tonight. Woo- hoo !”
    I tore myself away from Talon’s face long enough to find
out what had her so excited.
    “Holy cow! Where did you get those?” I pointed my thumb toward a huge
Jeep and a trailer holding two 4-wheelers sitting at the curb.
    Jace gasped in mock horror. “You didn’t think we would make
you walk to the bridge, did you? You
can’t drive a car up to it, you know. However, 4-wheelers are a different
story.”
    I rolled my eyes. “Well, of course we knew that. I just wasn’t aware you knew.” Where in the world did
they manage to come up with 4-wheelers? There was definitely more to Talon and
Jace than met the eye.
    Jace wrapped his arm around my shoulder and gave me a quick
squeeze. “For such a little pixie, you have no faith in our powers of
reconnaissance. You didn’t really think we would take you out in the middle of
the woods somewhere without checking it out first. What kind of escorts would
we be? Sheesh.”
    Leah raised an eyebrow at me. Did he just say escorts? Sometimes
they sounded like they belonged in another time.
    Talon placed one hand in the center of my back and the
other tucked an errant piece of hair behind my right ear.
    “So, where is the ladder?” Leah asked.
    Talon was clearly confused, “Ladder? What ladder?”
    “The one Caiti and I are going to need to get into this
beast.”
    I snickered. Leah caught my eye and winked. Soon we were giggling
so hard we were crying.
    Leah