She Loves You, She Loves You Not... by Julie Anne Peters Read Free Book Online

a ride?”
    “The trail’s just around the bend here.” She pivots and walks backward away from me. “I didn’t know Carly had a kid your age. She never mentioned you.”
    “I’m not a kid.” And thanks for the slap in the face.
    Finn smiles. “How old are you?”
    “Eighteen,” I lie. “How old are you?”
    She doesn’t answer. I’m guessing early twenties.
    I get in the car and start the ignition, expelling a sharp breath. I drive past her, speeding up so she thinks I’m cool. Yeah, I’m so cool. Watch, I’ll run right off the road or get hit by a semi. Out the rearview mirror, I see Finn veer up onto Caribou Mountain and just sort of blend into nature.

Chapter
6
    The front door shuts, and I jerk awake. I shift to sit up on the sofa, find the remote, and turn down the sound on the TV. Carly appears on the main-floor landing. “Oh. You’re here.”
    She sounds disappointed.
    She lowers herself into the velvet wing chair next to the sofa. All the furniture is new. Matching white leather sofa set and blue velvet wing chairs, which don’t exactly fit the whole rustic cabin illusion she’s trying to create. How many log cabins have four levels, floor-to-ceiling picture windows, and state-of-the-art electronics?
    “What’d you do today?” she asks.
    “Nothing. Took a drive. The job at the Emporium was already filled.”
    Carly makes a pouty face.
    “Maybe I could work with you,” I say.
    “Doing what?” She reaches into her purse for her buzzing cell.
    “I don’t know.” I think,
Handing out numbers to your johns?
    She ignores the call. She’s wearing this corsetlike top that pushes up her boobs, and knee-length black leggings. She’s poured a pitcher of lavender perfume on herself.
    How could Dad have fallen for a person like Carly? And vice versa. I can’t see them together at all. Now I wonder if they ever were married. Dad never talked about a wedding, and Carly’s kept her maiden name.
    Carly rolls her right shoulder a couple of times and says, “I pulled a muscle or something.” She winces. “Would you mind getting me the tube of Ben-Gay down in my exercise room?”
    As I pass her, she reaches out to clench my wrist. “I’m glad you’re here, Alyssa. You could come to work with me, but there wouldn’t be anything for you to do.”
    “I could collect the money off the dresser,” I blurt out.
    She slices me in half with a look.
    Oh my God. Did I say that?
    “Most of my clients are on account.”
    Which means she has regulars. She releases me.
    In the bathroom downstairs, she has drawers full of products—skin creams, anti-itch creams, muscle relaxants. The tube of Ben-Gay is half-empty.
    “Thanks,” she says as I hand it to her.
    I sit and watch as she presses a glob onto her fingertips and pulls down the strap of her corset. Traces of glitter sparkle in the sunlight streaming through the high arched window. She glitters her shoulders? Chest too. She doesn’t look or dress old enough to have a teenage daughter. I’m not surprised shewouldn’t want anyone to know about me. Still, it had hurt when Finn said that.
    There’s not one picture of me in this whole house. I’ve checked.
    “How did you hurt your shoulder?” I ask. Why don’t I just ask if she’s a call girl, stop dancing around the truth?
    “I think it happened when I was showing a new client how to lift weights properly.” She screws up her face. “He’s probably at Summit Medical right now in a full body cast.”
    My nose puckers at the menthol vapor, and I sneeze. I sneeze again. I have a really sensitive nose. Sarah wore this lemon-lime body gel, but it was light and delicate.
    Why does my brain always circle back to her?
    “Where’d you drive to?” Carly asks as she gets up and goes to the wet bar.
    “Around the mountain. Halfway around.”
    “You shouldn’t be wandering in the mountains alone, especially without a phone.”
    Well, excuse me if I’m restless and bored and I don’t have a phone