Ten Read Free Page B

fun.”
    There was that word again. Fun . Had she really lost that side of her? No, she was sure she could be that girl again, the girl that laughed and joked with the one guy on the planet with whom she felt she could be completely herself.
    “We are friends,” she said. “And we’ll have fun this weekend. I promise.” Even if I die trying .
    T.J. arched his brow. “Yeah?”
    Meg eyed the footbridge. The white foam of a retreating wave sparkled in the dim light. The timing was perfect.
    A grin stole across her face. “Yeah. Starting now.” She spun on her heel and took off running across the isthmus.

FOUR
    MEG’S BACKPACK THUMPED AGAINST HER HIP AS she ran. She didn’t even look at the ocean to see if a rogue wave might be gathering to wash her out to sea. She honestly didn’t care. She was so elated T.J. still wanted to be friends with her that death at the hands of a merciless current seemed a small price to pay.
    He hadn’t spoken to her since Homecoming. The whole thing had been a perfect storm of not awesome. The image of Minnie’s face when she’d confronted Meg was imprinted on her brain. Eyes rimmed red from crying, mascara running in jagged black trails down her face, sunken cheeks, pinched jaw. You’re going to Homecoming with T.J.?
    Minnie had flown into a crying rage. She grabbed Meg’s shoulders so fiercely she left five-pointed bruises on each side. You’re going to Homecoming with T.J.? She spat the words out, her fingernails digging through the thin cotton of Meg’s T-shirt and her eyes dashing back and forth across Meg’s face. This wasn’t her friend, this wasn’t the person she’d known for years. She’d been replaced by someone irrational and crazy. It was one of the scariest things Meg had ever seen.
    She’d been determined to tell Minnie the truth but there, in the moment, confronted with Minnie’s pain, she just couldn’t do it. Their friendship was more important to her than a boy.
    No. No, of course not. Why would he want to go with me?
    Then she’d texted T.J. to say she couldn’t go. Not even a call. It was the coward’s way out, but she knew if she faced him in person, her resolve would crumble.
    And that was that.
    Meg forced the painful memory from her mind as she reached the far side of the isthmus, where the footbridge gave way to a sturdy outcropping of rock. The point rose before her, tall and massive, and slightly out of place. Stone steps led up from the beach. Hewn into to the stark granite of the island, each step was polished flat and smooth—probably more a result of the elements than of foot traffic, Meg guessed as she hurried up them—and cut a gray path up the side of the forested hill.
    “Meg, slow down!” T.J. hustled up the steps behind her.
    “What, can’t catch me, Mr. Football?” Meg said with a laugh. She was surprised how easy it was to slip back into flirt mode with T.J. Like she’d never left it. She bolted the last few steps and emerged in a clearing at the top of the hill, T.J. right on her heels.
    “Damn, you’re fast,” he panted. “Didn’t think a writer would have that in her.”
    “Har har,” Meg said, wrinkling her nose. She couldn’t keep from smiling, though.
    “Hell of a climb.” T.J. pointed behind Meg. “But worth it, don’t you think?”
    Meg turned and caught her breath.
    White Rock House rose before them. A cross between a lighthouse and a Creole mansion, it stood like a shining white-washed beacon in the middle of nowhere. A covered patio with a wrought-iron balustrade stretched across the front entrance and disappeared around the eastern corner, and the peaked gables on both the second and third floors hunched forward over the windows, guarding them, perhaps, from the onslaught of Mother Nature. A huge four-story tower emerged from the middle of the house looking like it didn’t actually belong to the gabled façade at all.
    Meg’s eye caught something glistening on the side of the house. She squinted and