Keeping Her Secret Read Online Free Page A

sat down, and they’d traded the typical get-to-know-you questions. Where are you from? What do you like to do? That sort of thing.
    He had a fun smile, made even more playful by the shaggy mess of chestnut curls flopping around with his every movement. The kind of smile that always received an answer.
    “Easy to space out during these things, huh?” he said.
    She loosed an embarrassed laugh, grateful for the excuse. “Yeah, I guess so.”
    He nodded, his smirk spreading into a full-on grin. “You going to the welcome bonfire?”
    “Bonfire?” She scanned the room, discovering kids filtering out in small groups. She hadn’t heard anything about a bonfire.
    “Of course she is,” Colt interjected, dropping an arm lazily over Riya’s shoulders. “We have four years to catch up on, after all.”
    Riya felt several people’s attention shift to her, both overtly and subtly. Colt Chastain stood out in a crowd. And so did, apparently, anyone he deemed worthy. She squirmed.
    “You really knew the twins when they were kids?” Trey asked, wonder in his eyes. “What were they like?”
    Riya laughed, remembering. “Colt was pretty much the same.” She cast a sideways glance at him, craning her neck to look up. “Except shorter.”
    Colt laughed.
    Trey shrugged as though he expected as much. “And Courtney?”
    Courtney turned at the sound of her name, her eyes taking in the situation with mild disapproval.
    Riya felt the smile drop from her face. She kept trying to picture Courtney from before, but the only image she could conjure was the moment before she jumped down from that tree and ran away from Riya’s kiss. A beat of silence hung awkwardly in the air. Even Trey’s easy smile lost some of its repose.
    Courtney, of all people, saved her. “Seriously, Trey,” she said with a click of her tongue. “You know I’ve always been perfectly fabulous.”
    “Aww, come on,” he laughed. “I want to hear about Courtney Chastain’s awkward years. Before she broke an average of two guys’ hearts per day.”
    Courtney? A man-eater?
    “No such thing,” Courtney said, placing a hand on her hip.
    Colt caught Riya’s eye, a smile teasing his lips. Riya tried—and failed—to stifle a laugh.
    “You two have something to say?” Courtney asked, threatening in a playful way.
    Riya shook her head, laughing. “Nope.” She held her hands up in surrender.
    “As the legend goes,” Colt said, “Courtney came out of the womb so perfect that the doctor instantly retired, claiming he’d never top such a career-defining moment.”
    A guffaw burst from Riya’s mouth. “Awkward, since they had to find another doctor to deliver Colt.”
    “And so began my life of playing second fiddle to the legendary Courtney Chastain,” Colt said.
    Courtney laughed while glaring at her brother’s sarcasm, and for a fraction of a second, everything felt right. Riya was laughing with her two best friends and the world rotated perfectly on its axis.
    “We should get going or all the good logs will be taken.” Trey waggled his eyebrows and made for the door.
    Only then did Riya realize that everyone else had cleared out of the cafeteria.
    Colt and Riya followed him. The three noticed Courtney’s absence when they reached the door of the cafeteria and turned to see her standing in the same spot.
    Colt’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “You coming, Court?”
    “Um.” She paused. “I’ll catch up.”
    Courtney hadn’t changed as much as she wanted everyone to think she had. The girl was still a terrible liar. Maybe it was the laughter they’d shared, or maybe it was glimpsing a crack of vulnerability in Courtney’s shell, but a surge of courage rushed through Riya.
    Regardless of the way her heart raced at every glimpse of Courtney, and the way her stomach clenched when she remembered the last time they’d parted, she wanted peace.
    “Go on.” Riya shooed the boys outside. “I need to talk to her, anyway.”
    Oblivious, Trey threw