Broken Creek (The Creek #1) Read Free Page A

big city girl, more like I was on loan from the country side, and I would return with interest.
    I did as Mom ordered and called Karina with my new phone.
    “Hello?” she answered with a questioning tone.
    “Hi.” I laughed at her confusion. “Mom got me a new phone and number, which I don’t even know what it is, but it just came up on your screen.”
    “That’s awesome. You on your way?”
    “Yes, getting gas and hitting the road.”
    “Be careful. Don’t play with that phone while you’re driving.”
    “Man, you’re a ball-buster and sound like my mom.”
    Karina just laughed and hung up on me.

    The drive was a long one, but the excitement of my newfound freedom and the road ahead of me made the time pass along with the miles. After driving five hours, I pulled into the dorms at TWU in Denton and found I had enormous amounts of energy and a new purpose in my life.
    I was meeting Karina Stillman face-to-face for the very first time; although with the amount of hours we’d spent on the phone, I felt like I had known her for years. The school was gracious enough to make our introduction weeks ago by email, and we’d been talking or emailing daily ever since.
    She was a year younger than me, and her background was more privileged, but she came from a broken home and knew what it was like to be raised with a missing father. She had two older brothers who’d fought to be the alpha of the family and caused more rifts than good, she told me.
    “You’re here,” a tall brunette squealed as she ran toward me. “I’ve been watching out of the window for a vintage bug to pull up and knew it had to be you. You look just like the picture they sent me.”
    “Hmm, they didn’t send me a photo of you.”
    “Oh no, that’s my fault. The file I submitted ended up being corrupt, and I never replaced it. I had no idea what it was for, so I didn’t put a rush on it, and they didn’t ask. My bad. Come, let me help you with your things because we’re on the fourth floor.”
    It took several trips back and forth to my car to get everything. I was grateful the school let me ship some things in, and I had gift cards from Dr. Palmer for any incidentals. Such a sweet man, he was too good to me and way better than the abusive father I was unfortunate to have had; although, Dr. P didn’t know about any of that.
    On my last day of work, he and Sara Beth surprised me with a laptop and monogrammed book bag, complete with a mini-course in how to hook it up to Wi-Fi.
    “I’m so glad you’re here. With almost a week before classes start, we have time to learn our way around. Someone’s already put a note under the door about a party on Saturday.”
    “A party? Already?”
    “It’s a school sponsored welcome party, so it won’t be wild,” she said, raising her palms up in a little dance.
    Grateful that the school had introduced us at the beginning of summer, we’d found many things in common. Both of us had long brown hair, mine a bit darker than hers, and we both were only daughters. We were close to the same height, but I had her beat in the hips department. My ass gave new meaning to junk-in-the-trunk.

    “Let’s go eat. Do you like sushi?” she asked, while she flipped her head upside down and ran a brush through her hair.
    “No, I don’t think so,” I answered with a laugh.
    She flipped her hair back and looked at me with her brows scrunched together. “You don’t think so? Have you even tried it?”
    “No, I haven’t.” What was I going to tell her? Hatman, a town of five hundred had a five star Sushi restaurant?
    “Do you like fish?”
    “Love it, all kinds. My ex is a pro fisherman.”
    “Good, then you’re trying something new.”
    “Is it gross?” I wrinkled up my nose.
    “If it were, people wouldn’t flock to it like crazy. C’mon, there’s a place right down the street. It’s called I Love Sushi, and I think you’ll be in good hands.”
    The sun had begun to set, so the top down on my