Waking Up to Boys by Hailey Abbott Read Free Book Online

own bedroom, but Sara motioned her inside. “Come on, I need your help,” she begged. “What do you think…does this look okay?” She pulled a soft cotton American Apparel wrap dress with thin lavender stripes from her closet and frowned.
    “It’s nice,” Chelsea said, feeling awkward that Sara was asking her for fashion advice. Had she not noticed that Chelsea basically lived in wetsuits and track pants?
    “Yeah…,” Sara said skeptically. “Yeah, but too girly. I need something more authoritative and better for hiking.”
    She rummaged in her closet and came up with a cream-colored button-down shirt with a green fern print from Banana Republic.
    “I like it,” Chelsea said. “The leaves are perfect for a nature walk.”
    “Yeah?” Sara slipped off her ruined blouse and tossed it in the corner of the room, pulling on the new shirt and buttoning it up, leaving it just a little open around her neck. She twirled around so Chelsea could get a better look. “What do you think?”
    A stab of jealousy shot through Chelsea when she saw how good Sara looked. The blouse hugged her curves, showing and hiding skin in just the right places, her tan radiant against the cream-colored fabric. Even though Sara had planned her whole outfit, the blouse swapped in perfectly to match her dark trouser jeans and brown leather sandals. “You look great,” Chelsea admitted, looking down at her own shorts and flip-flops, which suddenly seemed very boring.
    Sara acted unusually happy with Chelsea’s answer. “I’m so glad!” she chirped. “I haven’t even worn this yet, but I knew it would come in handy sometime.”
    “Oh. Yeah,” Chelsea said dubiously. She bought only clothes that were super-comfortable, and that she knew she would actually wear.
    “Okay, almost showtime,” Sara murmured, probably more to herself than Chelsea. She suddenly looked nervous again, as she took a couple of small sips from her Vitamin Water. “You’re coming, right?”
    Chelsea had actually been planning to go wakeboarding instead, but Sara was looking at her so expectantly that she couldn’t think of a way out.
    She followed Sara’s brisk stride to the meeting point by the lake, and Chelsea couldn’t help being worried for her. She knew the Glitterlake Resort summer tourist crowd pretty well—well enough to know that the last thing they’d want to do on a balmy Saturday afternoon in the recreation capital of Northern California was take two hours to go on a nature hike and learn how to identify plants. Tourists around Tahoe liked action, partying, and spending money, and that translated into sports, nightlife, and gambling. Nature walks just didn’t fit into the equation, and even though Chelsea wasn’t crazy about her half sister’s sudden and unexpected intrusion into her life, she wasn’t looking forward to watching her learn all of this the hard way.
    The girls rounded the bend leading up to the trailhead of the small, seldom-used two-mile hiking trail that wound its way around the resort’s property. Chelsea stopped, shocked when she saw a crowd of at least thirty people. She picked out her mother and father immediately, and a few of the elderly couples and families staying at the resort. But the biggest surprise was the sheer number of guys in their late teens and early twenties who had, apparently overnight, developed a rampant curiosity about plant identification. Amongst them she spotted Tim, Joel, Ted, Leo, and—Chelsea couldn’t believe it—Todd. The glare of the sunlight was pretty bright, but Chelsea would recognizethat thick dirty-blond hair and those piercing lake-colored eyes anywhere.
    The crowd of guys broke into spontaneous applause and whistles when Sara approached. As she headed toward the front of the crowd, Sara’s shoulders straightened and her walk became more purposeful. By the time she turned to face them, every trace of the anxiety was gone from her face. She smiled and waved.
    “Thank you all so