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

it’s not pink.”
    “I don’t need pink all the time. I like other colors, too.”
    Kota smiled. He held my foot against his thigh, and aimed the color at my toes.
    He managed to finish the first coat of color and was halfway done with the second when the sound of keys in the door rattled through the house.
    “Dakota?” Erica called from the door.
    I stiffened, dropping the controller in my lap and turning slightly.
    “Hi mom,” Kota said, unflinching. He held on to my foot and continued to focus on one of my toes. “You’re back early.”
    Erica groaned from the hallway beyond where I could see. “Oh, you wouldn’t believe it. There’s a new manager and she has completely muddled the schedule. Why does every new manager think they have to redo the entire system when they arrive?” Erica appeared from the hallway, her dark hair down and wearing light blue nurse scrubs. She dropped her purse, jacket and nurse’s badge on the table. She turned, her face lighting up when she spotted me. “You’re not Kota.”
    “Down here,” Kota said, applying polish to the brush and aiming the tip at one of my smaller toes. He hovered the brush as he did it, trying to position it just right.
    Erica crossed the room until she stood over us. She planted her hands on her hips. Her lips parted for a moment and then broke into a crazy smile. “This is adorable.”
    Kota looked up, lifting an eyebrow. “What is?”
    “Stay right there,” Erica said. She went back for her purse, fished out her cell phone, and came back. She held it up, poked at some buttons and snapped a picture of the two of us.
    Kota dodged his head, blinking and holding a hand up in front of his face. “What are you doing?”
    “You guys look so cute together.” She tapped at her phone again and snapped another picture, then turned it to show me. “Kota, you’re so sweet on her, it’s ridiculous.”
    “I’m just fixing her toes. They were chipping.”
    “I’d expect that of Gabriel. From you, it’s romantic.” She dropped a palm over her heart and sighed loud. “None of my high school boyfriends did that. What have you two been doing alone in the house?”
    “We were playing games and then I painted her toenails,” Kota said. “We’ve been downstairs the whole time.”
    “Are you taking her out tonight?”
    Kota dropped the polish brush back into the bottle, and tilted his head back. “It’s a school night.”
    “So?”
    Kota grunted. “I was just going to hang out with her here today.” He collected the mess of paper towels and cotton balls on the floor and stood up, crumpling them into his hands. “We’ve been out a lot lately.”
    “Oh really?” Erica beamed. Kota ignored this and walked into the kitchen. Erica turned on me. “So what were you really doing?”
    I blushed, sensing she was assuming more from us than what was really going on. “Oh... Um, I was just playing the game.”
    “He wasn’t playing with you?”
    “Well he did, and then when he let me beat him the first time, he started teaching me how to...”
    Erica’s mouth popped open. “He what? He let you win?”
    A finger dropped to my mouth, hovering over my lip. “Only the once.”
    Erica planted her palms on her hips again, turning to the kitchen. “Dakota Jameson Lee! Get your butt in here.”
    Kota dashed back into the room, his eyebrows up, his hands up in surprise. “What? What’s wrong?”
    “Did you let Sang win a game?”
    Kota rocked his head back. “Just once.”
    “Why in the world would you do that?”
    Kota’s mouth dropped open. It was the first time I’d seen him so stunned. “What? I was trying to be nice.”
    “Letting someone else win is what you do with little four year olds. Not with girls.”
    Kota’s cheeks lit up. “I didn’t know.”
    “Well think before you do that again. You never just let a girl win at anything. If I ever hear you doing it again, I’ll ground your butt.” Erica sank down onto the couch, kicking off