“Ugh! What was the point of registering online?”
“Come on.” Samantha led the way to the registrar’s office. “Where’s your normal sunshiny self?”
“Back in Houston. Dad ruined my life dragging us to Podunk, USA.”
“We’re living at the beach. I’ve died and flown to heaven.”
“You’re so easily pleased. Now I feel all guilty and shit.”
Someone jostled into Samantha’s elbow, and she fumbled with her phone, almost dropping it.
“We’re gonna get trampled. We gotta move.” Piper took hold of Samantha’s arm and dragged her back into the foot traffic. Samantha kept thumbing through the app as if more knowledge could save her.
“It says here that...” Samantha glanced up to show Piper her phone screen and watched horrified as her friend approached a folding ladder erected below Moonglow Cove High School signage. A maintenance guy stood on the top rung, tightening down the “M” with a power drill.
Terror shot adrenaline through Samantha’s veins. “Piper, no! It’s bad luck!”
“What?” Her bold friend stopped directly underneath the ladder and turned to look at her. She extended her arms wide, touching both side of the ladder. “It’s an old wives’ tale.”
Samantha took a giant step forward, grabbed Piper by the wrist and yanked her from under the ladder just as the maintenance person bobbled the power drill and it fell right where Piper had been standing two second earlier.
Thunk.
“Holy shit.” Piper peeked at the drill that would have conked her on the head. “You saved my life.”
They stared into each other’s eyes as the maintenance guy jumped from the ladder to retrieve his drill, apologizing profusely.
“I’ll never mock your crazy superstitions again.”
“I’m just glad you’re okay.” Samantha wiped sweat from her forehead, then linked her arm through Piper’s again and skirted her around the ladder.
“This school is out to kill me. I told you I didn’t like it here and—” Piper stopped dead in her tracks, and Samantha was two steps ahead before she realized Piper had stayed rooted.
“What is it?”
“Changed my mind. Ilovethis place.”
Samantha pushed her glasses up on her nose and squinted at her friend. “Huh?”
Piper nodded toward the water fountain. “Pinch me. I must be dreaming.”
Samantha followed her foster sister’s gaze andbam!It was like something from the romance novels she read in secret so Piper wouldn’t tease her.
There, in the illuminating glow from the overhead skylight, stood a handsome, dark-haired guy in a letterman jacket. He was tall, around six feet, broad of shoulders and narrow of waist. His teeth were straight and white. Dude coulda modeled for a dental commercial. In his left cheek, a dimple grew with his expanding grin. He wore tight jeans, Converse sneakers and a tight black T-shirt. His skin was beach-bum tan, the color of cinnamon-soaked peaches. His nose crooked slightly, as if it had been broken, as if he wasn’t afraid of a fight.
His good looks had a Mediterranean vibe. Whatwas his ancestry? Italian? Greek? Spanish? She studied him, intrigued.
Italian, she decided before she ever found out his last name.
Inside her chest, her heart did a crazy bump and grind, stalling her breath in her lungs. Her hormones gripped her in a sultry heat that blistered a trail from her cheeks, down her nape, and around her spine to lodge squarely in her gut before spreading electric shock waves straight to her girly parts.
She met his dark brown mischievous eyes and welcoming grin, and Samantha was a goner.
Mine, she thought greedily. This one was heaven sent just for her.Thiswas what she’d waited for her entire life.
Her nerve endings tingled, and her brain locked up as saliva filled her mouth. She hopped right onto the highspeed train to Sexy Danger Town and never looked back.
Piper poked her in the ribcage, and she didn’t even notice. With his stare latched tightly onto hers, the Italian Stallion sauntered toward Samantha.