Tempting Faith (Indigo Love Spectrum) by Crystal Hubbard Read Free Book Online

from the more robotic movement of her fellows. Even her tumbling moves were as elegant as they were powerful, and Alex wanted to applaud along with everyone else after she completed a roundoff-backhandspring-back tuck tumbling pass that was so polished, even Marsh Spring fans cheered.
    She bounded back to the cheerleaders’ bench afterward, her smile warming the chilly Thanksgiving Day.
    Alex had no idea what was happening on the field, but he could have provided a detailed play-by-play of Faith’s every smile, laugh, shiver and wave. The other cheerleaders had an eerie sameness—blue eyes, strawberries-and-cream complexions, and blonde or light brown hair pulled into severe ponytails adorned with blue and gold ribbon curls.
    Faith was the one true individual among them, her fuller figure and distinctive hair setting her apart. The cheerleaders sat on their bench with their backs to the bleachers, and it was impossible for an onlooker’s eyes not to pause at the head of spiral curls in the middle of the bench. Untethered by satin ribbons, Faith’s curls bounced with her laughter and danced in the cold breeze. The ponytails on the other girls looked like dead things compared to the liveliness of Faith’s curls, which caught the sunlight and gleamed in a spectrum of browns ranging from dark gold to sienna.
    All the cheerleaders were about five and a half feet tall and probably no more than a hundred and twenty pounds, but Faith seemed taller because she stood straighter, her hair giving her another several inches over the other girls. Her arms and legs seemed longer and certainly more graceful. As easy as thought, she lifted her right leg in a high kick that left Alex blushing.
    A wolf whistle forced Alex’s attention from Faith to the group of young men sitting nearest him. They were natives, Dorothy High alumni home for the Thanksgiving holiday. Alex recognized all three of them because they had graduated in the same class.
    The thought made him chuckle. Socially, he wasn’t in the same class. Justus Wheeler was the richest man in Raleigh County, but the three guys leering at the cheerleaders and whispering about them were the offspring of Dorothy’s few well-to-do families. Leland Birch, Travis Gates and Ritchie Platt had gone on to college—Leland and Ritchie to Montgomery University and Travis to Mountain Valley Bible College. Of all his classmates, these three were his least favorites.
    “Al Brannon,” Leland said enthusiastically, displaying a smile crammed with crooked yellow teeth. “Man, what is up?” He held his hand up and out and waited for Alex to slap him a high five.
    Alex left him hanging.
    Leland lowered his hand and returned it to the pocket of his plaid flannel hunting jacket. He exchanged a shifty glance with Ritchie before he said, “Been keepin’ the home fires burning, man? I hear you’re working at Red Irv’s.”
    “Brody’s,” Travis chimed in. “Uncle Brody says Al’s the best he’s got in the shop.”
    “Good game today, Al,” Ritchie added. “Scenery’s not bad either.”
    “I’d tackle that curly-headed Black Bear in a red hot second,” Leland said. He pointed a gloved finger at the cheerleader’s bench, where Faith was sipping a steaming beverage from an insulated Dorothy Black Bears bomber cup clutched in her mittened hands.
    “Faith Wheeler,” Ritchie said, following up with a lascivious grunt. “Talk about hot cocoa. I wonder if she’ll be at any of the parties tonight.”
    “Your dad would shoot you if he caught you with Justus Wheeler’s daughter,” Leland laughed.
    “Justus Wheeler would shoot you if he caught you with Justus Wheeler’s daughter,” Travis retorted.
    “Hey, Al,” Ritchie called, “is Faith Wheeler with anybody these days?”
    With deliberate slowness, Alex took out another cigarette and lit it. By the time he’d taken his second draw on it, the college boys had figured out that he had no answer or just plain wasn’t going to