Hard Raine Read Online Free Page B

beach and a pool.  Not to mention a housekeeper and a cook to cater to his every whim— and his own chauffer to take him anywhere he wants to go.
    And all this without having to deal with foster parents. If only I could be so lucky.
    I wasn’t sure how my foster family would react to my going over a boy’s house every day, and I didn’t want to risk them getting into my business.  So I told them I joined the track team at school and had to spend all summer practicing in order to get my running time down.
    Then every day, I dress up in running gear and jog around the corner, where Raine waits for me on his motorcycle with that killer smile. 
    In other words, it’s turning out to be the most amazing summer of my life.
    As we lay by the pool taking in the sun and reading the trashy magazines I brought over, I hear the housekeeper approaching from behind us. 
    “I brought you kids sandwiches and lemonade,” she says, setting a silver tray heaped with goodies on the table between our lounge chairs.
    “Thank you, Mirabeth,” I say, and Raine echoes the same thing. 
    “It’s so nice that Raine has a friend over,” she says. “Let me know if there’s anything else you need.”
    “Thank you, Mirabeth,” Raine says. “That will be all.”
    “ That will be all ,” I mimic once she’s out of earshot.  “I know you’re rich and everything, but why so formal?”
    He shrugs.  Like me, he’s wearing sunglasses, so it’s hard to read his expression. “She’s nice and all, but she asks a lot of questions.  I think she knows the Everly’s are never here and she’s trying to fill some kind of parental void for me.  Which is nice, don’t get me wrong.”  He takes his glass of lemonade from the tray and sips it through the straw.  “But I’ve never had parents and I’ve never wanted them.  I can look out for myself just fine.”
    “Yeah, me too.” I say, taking a bite of my sandwich.  “I can’t wait to get the hell out of that house I’m in and go to college, where I can finally be on my own.”
    He tilts his sunglasses down, assessing me. “Why are you in such a hurry to leave? You said your foster family was perfectly nice.”
    I turn away and stare out at the pool, painfully blue under the summer sun. “They are, I’m just over being in someone else’s care.”
    Silence settles between us, then he asks, “What do you want to go to college for?”
    I think about it for a long time. “I don’t know yet,” I finally say, reaching for my lemonade and taking a sip. “All I know is that I want to be a career woman. I see myself coming home after a long day, wearing a women’s business suit—the kind with the blazer and the skirt. Then I get home to my neat, perfectly-decorated little condo. I kick off my high heels, settle down on the couch and pull some papers out of my briefcase.  Then my smokin’ hot fiance calls and asks what I’m doing that night and I’m like ‘I have so much work to do, I don’t even know where to start.’ Then he’s like ‘let me come over and bring some wine and give you a foot massage before you dig into all that work.’”
    I cut my eyes over to Raine, who has a hint of a smile on his face. “You’ve really thought that out, huh?”
    I shrug self-consciously.  “That’s the life I want, but I have no idea how to get it. I mean, do I want to be a lawyer or an advertising manager or a human resources executive?”  I shrug again. “I have no clue.”
    “You’ll figure it out,” he says. “You’re wicked smart—you’ll be able to do anything you want.”
    “What about you?” I ask.
    “Business school at my adoptive father’s alma matter.  It’s part of the whole deal.”  He casually waves a hand over the pool and toward the gorgeous white mansion behind us.  “All I have to do is get good grades, keep my head down and follow in his footsteps, and this will all be mine someday.  And in the meantime, I’ll get to benefit from it