Push and Shove: The Ghost Bird Series: #6 (The Academy) by C. L. Stone Read Free Book Online

warming the skin. “I’ve told you. You were this little haunted girl. You snuck out alone, and spent hours walking, or sitting in a tree staring off and watching the street. All I had to do was look at you and I knew. Something was wrong. I saw someone like us. Beautiful girls like you don’t hide themselves in trees all day like that.”
    It was true. Back then, I’d climb a tree and spend the day dreaming about a normal life. My heart strangely warmed at the idea that not too far away had been Kota. I could imagine him sitting under some tree, just out of sight, trying to figure out a way to talk to the invisible girl. It was like something out of a book I’d read. And I couldn’t totally blame him if he was trying to talk to me and I was the one making it difficult, and I had been.
    “Maybe it wasn’t the best way to approach you,” he said, “but when I saw you that night, I really thought you were running away for forever. I didn’t want you to just disappear. I thought I could just talk you out of it. Then I met you.” He lifted his eyes, meeting mine again. “And you were smart and sweet.” His hands gripped my legs tighter. “The next thing I knew, I was inviting you to spend the night. I was surprised you agreed to stay.”
    Heat rose in my cheeks. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
    He looked down at my knee, and traced a couple of fingers across my skin, following the outside of my leg. A small smile played across his lips. “I probably should scold you for spending the night in the bedroom with a guy you don’t know.”
    “Then I should scold you for inviting strange girls into your bedroom in the middle of the night.”
    He rocked back on his heels, laughing. “Okay. I guess we were both a bit reckless that night.” His smile caught fully this time. “So you’re not mad at me?”
    “For what?”
    “For practically stalking you when you first showed up. And for Max. I didn’t realize he’d hurt you that badly. That was my fault.”
    Angry? Kota had flipped my entire world upside down. Before him, there weren’t people like Hendricks to tell me what to do, or McCoy who haunted me still, or people like Jade or any mysterious Academy secrets.
    But there also wouldn’t have been any of the guys. Despite my own messed up and confused feelings for them, they were there for me, in the only way they knew how. Maybe it wasn’t the best, but it was who we were now. And being who I was, the haunted girl with a broken family, where else did I belong?
    I could only offer Kota a small smile. “I can’t be mad about something I don’t regret. Unless you wish you hadn’t.”
    Kota did a small eye roll and popped me on the thigh playfully. “Sorry, sweetie. Too late to change your mind now. You’re one of us.”
    I giggled. “Yeah well, joke’s on you. Mean’s you're stuck with me.”
    Kota chuckled. He slipped back down until he was on the floor. He caught up my legs, holding onto one of my feet. He smoothed his palms over one, massaging my toes. He picked up one of the polish bottles, a clear coat, and opened the top. He stuck his nose close to the top, sniffed and recoiled. “This stuff is worse than Gabriel’s shampoos.”
    Kota swiped at my toes with the polish, and while he was painting, he directed me on how to play the game. He told me the rules, taught me more about drifting, when and how to use the speed bonuses.
    When the clear polish dried, he picked up the other polish bottle. This one was a deep hunter green.
    “Where’d you get that stuff, anyway?” I asked.
    “I’ve borrowed some of this from my mom before,” he said. “The clear polish was for red bug bites. The nail polish remover I’d gotten when you painted our nails so I could get this green color off.”
    “Did you take the green color from Gabriel?”
    Kota nodded. “I don’t know why. I picked it up and just brought it home.” He opened the top and wiped the brush against the lip. “Sorry