Really Something by Shirley Jump Read Free Book Online Page A

were.”
    Allie drew her friend into a hug. Nevertheless, she knew the truth. “If I’d been fine just the way I was, people would have noticed me back then, talked to me. A man would have fallen in love with Allison Gray . And I think that if people find out that’s who I really am, that’s all they’ll still see, because I think they’re blind.”
    Vanessa just shrugged, as if she disagreed, but didn’t want to say anything.
    â€œAnyway,” Allie went on, “I’d rather not revisit the old days or talk to anyone from high school. So please don’t tell anyone it’s me.”
    â€œNo one’s figured it out?”
    â€œAre you kidding me? Believe me, all they’ve seen is this.” She ran a hand over her figure. “Especially people like Duncan. Speaking of him, what do you know about him now? Besides the fact that he’s only gotten sexier with age?” Allie and Vanessa began to stroll along the perimeter of the tent. Inside, the band launched into “What’s New, Pussycat?” with a high-pitched version of Tom Jones.
    â€œI don’t know much,” Vanessa said. “Hardly anyone sees him around town anymore.”
    â€œReally? He was like the poster boy for social butterfly.”
    Vanessa shrugged. “Ever since the car accident, he’s been kind of reclusive. Sticks to himself and doesn’t hang out at the Wild Hare anymore.”
    â€œCar accident?” A memory tickled in Allie’s head, a conversation with her mother that she’d cut short because she’d been running late for work or something.
    â€œIt happened years ago. The Henrys, of course, kept it pretty hush-hush. You know how John Henry was. More power than God over Tempest.” She rolled her eyes at the thought. “All I know is Duncan’s sister was hurt and another girl was killed. Rumor has it there was a carload of teens, coming back from or leaving a party. Drunk and driving. Not the best combination.”
    Allie absorbed that information, trying to fit it with what she already knew about Duncan. “He’s the last person I’d expect to become a recluse. Maybe he’s just working a lot?”
    Vanessa shrugged. “Maybe. He’s on WTMT-TV, doing the weather.”
    â€œWeather? He didn’t tell me that part. Just that he was on TV.” So Duncan hadn’t fulfilled his true dream after all. Allie didn’t know whether to be disappointed for Duncan or in Duncan. Why hadn’t he gone after the reporter job he’d dreamed of, the secret career he’d shared with her once? Had he been too scared? Not good at it? Or had his father’s dreams once again taken precedence over Duncan’s? “When he told me, I think he expected me to be impressed.”
    â€œAnd were you?”
    Allie trailed a hand along one of the ropes keeping the tent staked to the ground. The rough fibers chafed at her skin. “It wasn’t what I expected.”
    â€œHe gets it right ninety percent of the time, which means even I watch him. Indianapolis Monthly did a feature on him and named him, get this, ‘one of the most desirable bachelors in the state.’” Vanessa put little air quotes around the phrase. “Apparently he has a lot of fans in the cornfields.”
    Allie laughed. “Same old Duncan.”
    Vanessa cast a glance toward the tent. Inside the yellow-and-white striped canvas, human-shaped shadows danced. “I don’t know about that, Allie. I mean, I really only see him on the news, but even when he’s telling us how much rain to expect or whether that cold front will move in, he seems…different.”
    Allie scoffed. The real Duncan Henry had showed his colors years ago. The chances of him having an epiphany in the years since high school were slim. Particularly given the outrageous way he still flirted, as if he was God’s gift to female-kind—and a