Cruel Summer Read Free Page B

nerve. How can she show her face?’
No matter how many times Ryan had told Katie it wasn’t her fault, he
had still been able to feel her guilt. That was Katie all over – she did the time even if she hadn’t committed the crime.
    The grief hadn’t hit Ryan until he’d seen Janey’s mum. Up until that point the funeral had been a spectacle – easily the most dramatic episode they’d ever dared
screen, probably the highest ratings their little soap had ever won. When he saw Mrs Bradshaw, however, her perfect-hostess exterior betrayed by the watery eyes and wavering breaths, it all became
real. Janey wasn’t an actress who’d left the series to film some straight-to-DVD movie; she was
gone.
    The crunch of gravel under tyres snapped Ryan back into the moment. This was it. The others had arrived.
    Katie left the dishes and turned to the patio doors. ‘Ryan! They’re here!’ She chewed her bottom lip. ‘I’m really nervous.’
    He took her hand. ‘Don’t be – it’ll be fine,’ he said, although he couldn’t deny a couple of butterflies of his own. ‘We’re all friends,
remember.’
    The pair headed through the lounge and upstairs to the bedroom floor, which was also the entrance level. From the hallway, Ryan could hear the voices on the driveway. The butterflies in his
stomach turned into fireflies and his initial nervousness became excitement. He threw the door open and galloped onto the drive.
    A glossy orange jeep, looking like it had come straight from a pop video safari, was parked next to Katie’s rental halfway down the drive. Definitely Greg’s choice, Ryan guessed.
Typical of him to go for the flashiest thing available.
    Greg was already unloading suitcases from the boot. His sister, Alisha, struggled out of the back seat, a huge box of rattling bottles on her lap.
    She took one look at Ryan and screamed. ‘There he is!’
    ‘Oh, my God!’ Ryan burst into a run while Katie hung back, seemingly unsure of herself. Alisha placed the box on the drive and threw her arms around him.
    ‘You look so good!’ Ryan told her. ‘Really, really well.’ Normally, this was something you’d say to an octogenarian recovering from a hip transplant, but in this
case Ryan meant it; Alisha
for once
looked really healthy – i.e. neither wasted nor hungover, which, for her, was quite something. Her tight black curls had been coloured a warm
caramel shade which made her blue eyes sparkle even more than usual next to her light-brown skin.
    ‘Thank you!’ Alisha grinned. She still had that gorgeous husky voice. ‘As do you, baby boy. Have you been working out?’
    Ryan blushed. ‘Yeah. A little.’ Every day, in fact, but he thought it best to play it down.
    Alisha moved on to Katie with more screaming. Alisha’s volume button started at about eleven and didn’t turn down.
    Greg rolled Alisha’s suitcase towards her before wrapping Katie up in a hug. ‘All right, Katie?’ Greg kissed the top of her head. ‘How’s it going?’
    ‘I’m good, thanks,’ Katie said, smiling. ‘How are you? Beyond looking insanely buff!’
    Greg flexed his biceps for her. ‘Shucks, thanks.’ He winked. Ryan burned with envy. Even a visit to the gym
twice
a day wouldn’t earn him a body like Greg
Cole’s. He had to admire it. Through the cotton of his T-shirt, Ryan could see Greg’s arms, chest, stomach – everything was taut, lean and defined. As a superstar pro footballer,
his body was his career.
    There was no mistaking the fact that Greg and Alisha were twins. Equally irresistible, they were poster twins for physical perfection but, if that wasn’t enough, those incredible blue eyes
were
identical.
    Greg left Katie and turned to Ryan, who held out his hand. Greg shook it, perhaps a little awkwardly. Ryan didn’t know quite what to say to Greg – he’d not had so much as a
text from him all year. Theatre and football make for odd bedfellows, he figured.
    A beautiful girl walked around the bonnet of