Back to You: A Hudson Family Series- Book 1- Synclair and Reece Read Free

limb like only a street rat could.
    He had never seen the street side of me, I was edgy sure, but he had no notion how much of a scrapper I could be. I craved to be better for him, someone worth his time, now I felt like maybe I had made a mistake. What if Reece was telling his friends he banged the loner chick in English Lit? What if they were all laughing right now?
    I didn’t think, I jumped out of the shower, toweled off and threw my unruly mane into a loose ponytail. My jeans, bra, shirt and shoes followed. I didn’t bother with make-up, what would be the point? The light freckles that peppered my nose weren’t going anywhere. I took a brief glance in the mirror. I absolutely wasn’t going to win any beauty contests today. Standing at 5 foot-nothing, I was clearly on the shorter side, throw in the boobs and hips and I obviously didn’t fit Seventeen Magazine’s waif thin model look.
    Forcing myself away from my reflection I grabbed my keys and went off to discover the truth.
    It didn’t take long to get to the cafeteria, it was in the student Union in the middle of campus. I stepped up to the giant glass doors. I knew the table that Reece and his friends always sat at. It was near a large set of open windows. It being April and the weather moderate, I knew those windows would be wide open.
    Since it was Saturday, it wasn’t particularly busy in the cafeteria and I could hear Reece’s friends’ laughter from where I stood by the door. Walking around to kneel by the cement wall under the open window, making certain I was crouched down enough so no one could see me from the inside, I talked myself out of a full-fledged panic attack.
    Why didn’t I just trust him? He had done nothing to make me not trust him. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. So I stood there in the warm Nevada sunshine and eavesdropped with my fingers crossed.
    “Man, I have to say I had my doubts.” That was Ron, the trust fund baby that lived off the leftover cheerleaders that Reece cast aside.
    “Seriously dude, I give you props, from what I saw today she has a fine rack underneath all those t-shirts.” That was Ryan. He was a blond, California surfer type. He held his own in the getting females department but his sentences usually started with dude. I have to admit the thought of Ryan thinking about my boobs made me want to throw up. Just ewww .
    “Shut up.” I heard Reece say. He sounded furious, but about what?
    “Come on Reesy, take the money, your earned it, you won. Now you can dump that skank and come to the bonfire tonight with me.”
    I recognized that voice, I knew that plastic, Barbie bitch. She was in my English literature class with Reece, she was constantly throwing me dirty looks. Her nails were always perfectly French manicured and her blond Barbie hair and blue eyes were always perfectly done up. Fuck, I detested this chick. She just called the man, I thought was special, Reesy! She gave him a pet fucking name? Really, I wanted to cut her, severely. I was so pissed off at Barbie that I almost missed the most significant element that came out of her mouth. Reece won? Won what? What was the game? And why was he now free to dump me?
    These were great questions, but before I could even wrap my mind around it, I was being pelted by water. Shit, the sprinklers. Who the hell sets off sprinklers at noon on a Saturday? I shrieked when the unrelenting stream hit me square in the face. Jumping up from my crouched position I came face to face with green eyes. I instantly glanced from Reece to the table in front of him. Five hundred dollars in crisp one hundred-dollar bills lay in the center. His friends looked away.
    It didn’t take a genius to put this puzzle together. Running to the pavement to get out of the sprinklers, I was met by a wild-eyed, breathing hard, panicked looking Reece, his guilty looking friends and a pompous looking Barbie.
    Reece reached for me, his eyes looked anxious.  I evaded