SVH08-Heartbreaker by Francine Pascal Read Free Book Online Page B

striped two-piece bathing suit and snatched a towel from the bathroom she shared with her sister. After giving her reflection a quick once-over in the mirror on her way out the door, she ended up yanking the rubber band off her ponytail. There. With her hair shimmering loose about her shoulders, she looked much more seductive. More like Jessica, she decided, a twinkle of secret amusement creeping into her eyes.
    Wild shrieks and a tumult of splashing greeted her as she stepped out through the sliding glass patio door. She was momentarily blinded by the sun's glare, but then the scene before her sharpened into focus.
    Elizabeth gave a muffled cry at what she saw. There was Todd, crouching over Patsy as she lay stretched in golden, queenly splendor on the chaise longue. She was on her stomach, and the back tie to her bikini top was undone.
    Todd was rubbing suntan lotion on her back with slow, circular strokes.
    At that moment he looked up, and his eyes met Elizabeth's. He stood up as if to greet her, but she'd already fled back inside.
     

Seven
     
    "Liz, please, talk to me. I want to know what the heck is going on!"
    Todd's concerned voice filtered through the locked bedroom door, causing Elizabeth to spill a fresh torrent of tears. Why was he pretending to be so innocent? Did he think she was blind?
    "I don't want to talk!" came her reply, muffled by the pillow she had pulled over her head. "And I'm canceling our date for tonight!"
    But Todd wasn't the type to give up easily. "Liz, this is crazy. You've been acting really strange these past few days. Are you sure you're all right?"
    "I'm just fine!"
    "Look, if it's because I was rubbing suntan oil on Patsy's back ..."
    So he knew she wasn't blind after all! "Rub all you like. I couldn't care less!"
    "Liz, this is really crazy," he repeated. "It was just a little sun--"
    But Elizabeth had shut out his feeble explanations with her pillow. She couldn't bear to listen to any more. The evidence had been right there before her eyes.
    Even so, she longed to believe Todd, to let herself be convinced it was all a hideous mistake. But it was useless. She might have inherited her looks from her mother, but her rock-hard sense of logic had come straight from her father. It was logical for Todd to fall in love with Patsy. And there were simply too many places in Todd's life where Patsy fit in just a little too neatly.
    Gingerly she lifted the pillow from her head. The thud of receding footsteps sounded Todd's retreat. For some reason that only made her feel worse. She felt abandoned, even though she was the one who had told him to leave. She couldn't help thinking that if he really cared, he would have tried a little harder to convince her.
    Abruptly the door to the bathroom that connected the twins' bedrooms burst open. Jessica, dripping wet, hurtled across the room to throw her arms around her sister.
    "I was coming up for extra towels, and I saw Todd. He said you'd locked yourself in your room and wouldn't talk to anyone. But I know you couldn't have meant me! Oh, Liz, what is it? Did you two have a fight?"
    Todd was wrong about Jessica, Elizabeth
    thought. Her sister really did have a good heart, even if it didn't always seem that way. Still, she was quick to disengage herself from Jessica's damp embrace.
    "I guess you can't call it an argument when you're not even speaking to someone," she sniffled, brushing the wetness from her cheeks.
    "Todd must have done something really awful to make you feel this way. You know, I've always suspected he was kind of a rat."
    Elizabeth wasn't sure she liked hearing Todd called a rat, even if she did feel like boiling him in oil at the moment.
    She sighed. "I guess I really shouldn't blame Todd so much. I mean, Patsy is--is--well, look at her. What boy wouldn't be attracted to her?"
    "Todd and Patsy?" Jessica's eyes widened. "I didn't know anything was going on between them."
    "Todd used to go out with her before he met me. Before she moved