Beautiful Stranger Read Online Free

give me that look, all sad and disappointed.”
    â€œAh.” She folded her arms, leaning as casually as she could against the wall. “Well, first of all, I can’t suspend you for smoking because you’re not on school grounds.”
    â€œReally?” Bright, hopeful eyes in a face streaked with tears.
    â€œI could have you sent to study hall for leaving campus—”
    â€œOh.” Deflated balloon. Shoulders drooping, head dropping.
    â€œâ€”but I don’t see what purpose it would serve. You have enough study hall for fourteen people already.” She sighed. “I want to help you, Crystal. I wish you’d let me.”
    Abruptly the girl put her back against the wall and slid down to sit on the ground, her elbows braced on herupraised knees, her hands over her face. “You can’t do nothing.”
    â€œAnything. And you’d be surprised.”
    â€œYou don’t know,” she said miserably. “You don’t know what those girls say about me. I hate them.”
    Marissa knelt, trying to be as ladylike as possible in a straight skirt. That was one thing her old tent dresses had afforded that she’d never truly appreciated—freedom of movement. “You want to walk back to school with me? We can talk in my room. I don’t have a class for an hour.”
    She shook her head. “I want to go home. Can you call my uncle?”
    â€œSure.” She reached into her purse and took out a tiny cell phone. “What’s the number?”
    Crystal looked up. “It’s a beeper.” She gave the number and Marissa punched it in, then held the phone loosely as she examined the girl. “Someone hurt you today?”
    She blinked. Nodded, her mouth tight. “I know how it looks, you know, but I’m not a slut. I never was.” She raised her head. “I swear it on a stack of Bibles.”
    â€œI believe you.” She hesitated. “Is it different people or someone in particular? If there’s someone in particular, I can make sure it stops.”
    â€œGet real.” She rolled her eyes. “Like I would rat someone out like that.”
    The phone trilled lightly in her hand. “Hello?”
    â€œThis is Robert Martinez,” he said. That voice—it rolled over her in a wave of color, a rich sienna, like the skin on his arms. “You beeped me?”
    â€œYes. This is Marissa Pierce, Crystal’s math teacher. She’d like to come home. Is that all right?”
    â€œIs there something wrong? Is the baby okay?”
    â€œThey’re both fine. She’s just had kind of a bad day.”
    â€œA bad day? What does that mean?”
    Crystal said, “Ask him if I can walk over to where he’s working and I’ll tell him what’s going on.”
    Marissa repeated the information.
    â€œThat’s fine. Look, I know she’s right there, but is there something going on I need to know?”
    â€œYes,” Marissa said.
    â€œCan you bring her over? Or meet me somewhere?”
    â€œSure, I’ll bring her.” Crystal rolled her eyes. Marissa grinned. “Where are you?”
    He gave her directions. It was only three blocks west, in the heart of the historical district. “We’ll be there in five minutes.”
    Marissa stood, brushing her skirt down. “Come on, kiddo.”
    Crystal stood, wiping hard at her face with her sleeve. “Why are you always so nice? Don’t you know people take advantage of you?”
    â€œI’ll take my chances.”
    Â 
    When Robert’s beeper had gone off, he’d been high on a ladder in the foyer of a Victorian ruin. His crew was working on the restoration of a mansion that had been built with mining money just before the turn of the century. Neglected for more than twenty-five years, rumored to be haunted, Rosewood would provide the centerpiece for a historical renewal project that the town of Red Creek hoped