Enticed:A Dangerous Connection (Secrets) Read Online Free Page B

Whittier made fun of me for wearing a Gap shirt that she was certain had belonged to her. Naturally I denied it. But when she claimed her mom had donated a bunch of her old clothes to a nearby Goodwill, I’m sure my face gave me away — I had found the shirt there the previous weekend.
    She and her mean, snooty friends thought that was hilarious. They called me Miss Goody Goodwill for the rest of the year. I never wore that shirt again, and I learned to shop at thrift stores in other towns.
    As soon as I’m done in the kitchen, I go straight to my room and begin sorting through the photos Michelle took today. This laptop is pretty old and slow — Trista gave it to my mom several years ago when she upgraded to a better one — but I’m the one who uses it most of the time. And fortunately, the apartment building has free Internet. I’m so driven to get this portfolio right that I work until I’m so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. To my surprise, it’s almost two in the morning when I finally shut down.
    The next day I get up and go straight back to work on this project. After hearing about Mom’s job situation, I am determined to get this thing up and running this weekend. I make a folder containing about forty photos similar to the shots in Mrs. Norbert’s portfolio, all of which I’ve titled and numbered. And if I say so myself, it looks fairly professional. At least to me. In the afternoon, I load about twenty photos onto my Facebook page.
    And then Trista calls to ask if I can babysit tonight. “I know it’s short notice and I know you usually go to youth group on Fridays, but the UPS guy that always delivers to the salon, you know the one who’s always so sweet and polite, well, he finally asked me out, and he seems like such a good guy and I just couldn’t say no, Simi.”
    I want to tell her no and that I really need to go to youth group, but I remember Mom’s job situation and reluctantly agree. Besides, the twins go to bed at seven thirty so I’ll only be chasing after them for a couple of hours. So, really, it will be a piece of cake compared to the weekend. Besides that, I can take my laptop and continue to work on my project once they’re asleep.
    “So can you be here by five?” she asks hopefully. “To help with the twins while I get ready? You know what a handful they can be when they know I’m going somewhere in the evening.”
    “Yeah, I do know. And yeah, I’ll be there by five.”
    So at a little before five, I leave Mom a note. And with the laptop in my backpack, I trudge down the stairs to Trista’s apartment on the first floor. Trista and the twins have only lived here about a year. They moved in right after Trista’s husband, Scott, turned into a three-time loser. At least that’s what Mom and Trista call him now. First Scott lost his job, then he lost their house, and finally he lost Trista and the kids by having an affair with one of their neighbors. I used to think he was a pretty cool guy, but now I know he was just a big jerk, which seriously makes me question my discernment skills when it comes to men.
    Not that I need to be too concerned about that just yet. But when I become a model, I might need to hone my ability to detect whether or not a guy is the real deal. I hope Trista is right about this UPS dude. She’s been crushing on him for a couple of months now, and I must admit he seems like a good catch. And for Trista’s sake, I hope he’s all she thinks he is.
    “Yay, you’re here,” she tells me as she opens the door with a flattening iron in her hair. “Leo, get off that table! Right now, before you fall and break your neck.”
    I hurry past her and scoop Leo off the edge of the coffee table, tickling him as I flop him onto the floor. Naturally, he thinks this is a great game and climbs right back on the table again. And before long, Lacy is attempting to do the same. To distract them, I go to their room where I act like I’m playing with their toys,