The Wrong Side Of The Tracks (Leighton) Read Free Page A

tips suddenly feeling self-conscious of their perfection.  What made him so sure she went to Leighton Prep?  Did he own this side of the tracks?  She had every right as he did to be cutting through these trees.  Alexandra looked back up at him and he had a devilish grin on his face, not devilish/flirtatious, more like devilish/mean.
    “ Hurry home princess, before Mommy and Daddy put your face on a milk carton,” he sneered.
    Her lips curled down and she looked at him in disgust.  Today was not her day.  And why was something so mean and ug ly coming out of something that good looking?  A flood of anger and frustration that had been building up all day inside her began to bubble over.  She swung her designer bag over her shoulder and stomped passed him so aggressively it barely phased her when the back of her hand brushed against his warm bare skin.  As she stomped out of the tree line she heard his deep demeaning laugh growing farther away.
    Alexandra ’s mind was whirling as she walked the rest of the way home.  She kept picturing Maria’s look of disgust on her face when she realized she and Alex had on the same shoes, and then she’d imagine how pathetic she must have looked leaning against Camryn’s locker crying because she had been ditched, then she would see the boy in the woods laughing at her and telling her to go home.  It was an embarrassing movie on repeat playing over and over in her brain. 
    Alex kicked her boots off on the sun porch, and wandered through the doorway into the kitchen, then yelped.  She had been so busy replaying her day of shame she hadn’t even noticed her Dad’s huge SUV looming in the driveway.  Her dad was sitting at the counter with his ear-piece on nodding his head and shuffling through papers that were laid out in front of him.  He looked up and smiled, and raised his finger to his lips in a ‘Shh’ position, indicating her was on the phone.  She dropped her bag on the floor next to her feet and waited for him to finish.
    Her dad, Davis Raker, probably seemed very intimidating to anyone who didn ’t know him personally.  He was in his late thirties, about six feet tall, and in great shape.  His five mile runs every morning since she was old enough to remember were definitely paying off.  He had jet black hair and pale blue eyes like Alexandra, and dressed impeccably well. His silver Rolex clanked against their marble countertop as he gathered up his paperwork and placed it inside his leather briefcase.    He was obviously trying to get off the phone, but whoever was on the other end of the conversation wasn’t in any kind of hurry. 
    “ I told you, we will do whatever you want, AFTER November.  That kind of publicity is not what I need before the election.”
    Alexandra smirked, you ’d think she her father was running for president not the mayor of Leighton the way he was talking.  Although he did plan on taking his political career to the next level and run for governor next year, he was taking this election way too seriously.
    “ I’m not being inconsiderate. I’m being logical.  I know this is important to you and we can do something huge, it doesn’t have to be the specific date of the accident, it’s the twentieth anniversary all year long.  Okay, we’ll talk about this later I really have to go I’m running late.  I love you too.”
    Alexandra ’s ears perked up, she had assumed it was someone he worked with by the way he was talking.  Why did he just say ‘I love you?’
    “ Who was that dad?”
    “ Your nana, being her usual pain in my ass,” he grunted, noticeably irritated by the conversation.
    “ What did she want?”
    Mr. Raker stopped packing his bag and looked up at her.  This would be the moment his wife would scorn Alex for not knowing her place or being disrespectful, but they were two completely different people.  Davis’s face softened, and his lips curved up in a small smile. 
    “ Your Grandma wants to do