Blaze Read Free Page A

handed to me in front of the boys.
    Mark leans forward in his seat, obviously scanning for a herd of cattle. I must distract him. “Sooo, soccer, huh?” I say.
    “Yup, love soccer…” His brows pull together as he continues his quest for cows. By now we’re both sitting up, our bodies leaning forward in anticipation.
    “Team looks good,” I try again.
    “Yup.” My ploy to distract him with a soccer-centric conversation clearly isn’t working. He adds, “So, what’s the deal with you and the comics?” As if I can be distracted so easily .
    “Read ’em, draw ’em. Yup, I sure love comics…”
    I glance over, and Mark pretends to press his face into the windshield. “Where’s the cows? Where’s the cows?” he says and grins at me.
    We both burst out laughing. I lean back in my seat, and he shifts his body in my direction and casually raises his left knee, opening his legs toward me. Which only makes the proximity of what lies under his thin shorts seem more undeniable. I focus intently on the road ahead. My mind is no longer thinking of cows.
    “Seriously, is ‘Blaze’ your nickname because you’re so into comics, or maybe because you drive so fast?” I glance toward him, and he narrows his eyes. “Or are you a closet pothead?”
    “Blaze is her actual name.” Josh leans up between the seats, reminding me that Mark and I aren’t alone. “Dad was really into Ghost Rider as a kid, so he named her after Johnny Blaze. Mom got smart by the time I came along, and that’s why I got a normal name.”
    “Why don’t you play your DS?” I suggest kindly, then shoot my head around to emphasize, “Josh!” in my evil older sister voice.
    “I’m good.” Josh leans his elbow on my backrest. I reach back and knock Josh’s elbow so he does a face-plant against my seat.
    “Okay, okay.” He holds up his hands in surrender. “Ajay’s using the outlet back here, I need you to plug me in.”
    “Fine,” I say and wait for Josh to hand me the car adapter for his game.
    “I’m playing Sonic Rush,” Ajay says. “Wanna sync up?”
    I glance in the rearview mirror, and Josh gives me a troubled glance before turning around in his seat to face Ajay. Andrew and Dylan huddle around to watch the rousing DS battle on the teeny-tiny screens. It suddenly feels as if Mark and I are alone, which makes me remember to be nervous all over again.
    “So, Blaze, huh?” Mark tips his hat back and bops up and down in a solicitous way. He is actually flirting with me , I think as I flip my blonde ponytail off my shoulder. And more amazing still, I’m flirting back .
    “Yeah, it hardly suits me.” I face forward and blush as sweat lubricates my grip on the steering wheel.
    “Oh, I don’t know,” he says. “I imagine there’s a burning flame in there somewhere.” With my peripheral vision I catch him glancing at my chest. Instead of getting grossed out, like I do when Dylan peeks, I feel a ka-POW! surge in my lower belly. Flustered, I squint out the windshield.
    “Yes!!” Half the back seat lets out a cheer over something Sonic Rush–related, and Mark turns around. As he’s distracted, I allow myself a look of shock over his attention. I blink quickly as my mind screams, He’s totally coming on to me. Doesn’t he know about Su-per Virgin Girl? Chastity of Steel? Nobody comes on to me! By the time he turns back around, I’ve managed to rearrange my face into a normal expression.
    “I used to rock at Sonic.” Mark laughs. “So, you never answered me. What’s with this great attraction to comics?”
    “Oh, well, my dad really got me into them.” Without meaning to, I start talking nonstop, telling him all about Dad’s prize collection of comics. From there, I launch right into telling him about how he took off to become an actor in New York City.
    “Any chance you saw that episode of Law & Order where the guy seems all straitlaced, but meanwhile he’s killing college girls and throwing them into the