Summer Attractions Read Online Free Page A

he’d missed seeing it.
    “When did you move to America?” she asked.
    “I was ten.” He’d opened up the discussion by telling Jemma the story about his mother, but at the same time, his tone shut the door on any further questions about his past in Rio.
    Jemma simmered in frustration; he was simultaneously open and closed all at the same time, and she didn’t know what buttons to push to generate simple consistency.
    So she didn’t even try. Let him think that she was perfectly fine with him being stupidly mysterious. He’d not see her carefully-disguised interrogation coming.
    “No menus?” she asked.
    He shook his head. “You want me to order for you?”
    Jemma hated anyone ordering for her, but it would be way too difficult to muddle through without a menu or understanding of the language and cuisine, and she wasn’t a fan of that knowing look he wore when she was clearly over her head. “Sure.”
    The waiter approached and Gabe answered one of her questions without her even trying to hide it; he rattled off the order in what Jemma could only assume was flawless Portuguese. It certainly seemed to trip off his tongue well, and she couldn’t help but think that speaking his native language gave him a whole new level of authority and control. It also brought out what were probably his natural hand gestures, and Jemma enjoyed watching him lose himself in the culture he likely never got to experience when he was in the States.
    She was all set to ask him her first casual question when he trumped her.
    “So you know Colin O’Connor?” he asked, not casually at all.
    It didn’t matter how many times she had this conversation, she never really enjoyed it. There were too many potential mines in the questions people liked to ask, and she never felt comfortable either telling the truth or lying. Even worse, Gabe struck her a perceptive observer, and no doubt he’d figure out very quickly how uncomfortable she was talking about him.
    “You know I do,” she answered carefully.
    “It was a good article,” he said.
    An understatement of the century and they both knew it. It hadn’t been just good; it had been a great profile of a rising athlete. An athlete who was considerably tight-lipped with all the other members of the press. That had been something Nick and his boss, Duncan Snyder, had asked Jemma when she’d interviewed for her position at Five Points : “why would Colin O’Connor confide in you, when he’s famous for never saying more than is required to the press?”
    The problem was there were so many ways to answer that question.
    Probably the most accurate one was, “because he’s in love with me.”
    It was also the one answer she’d never given and she certainly had no intention of giving it now. “He’s my best friend,” she said to Gabe, which was one of her favorites because it was technically true.
    Gabe’s nod of understanding and dry chuckle pissed her off. It shouldn’t; she saw it enough. It wasn’t the first time she’d heard the insinuation, voiced or silent. It wasn’t even the hundredth, but it was either Gabriel getting under her skin or the straw that broke the camel’s back, because she snapped.
    “I have a lot more to offer Five Points than a friendship with Colin O’Connor,” she retorted bitterly. “Besides, we’re not even speaking right now.”
    Jemma knew the moment the words were out of her mouth she’d made a huge mistake in losing her temper—enormous, really, because Gabe’s eyes shone and his lips twisted into what might have been a very attractive smirk except she was pissed and panicking and she wasn’t in any kind of position to notice his lips. Or at least that was what she told herself.
    “Had a bit of a falling out, did you? Nick’ll be disappointed to hear that.”
    Nick was one of the few people who suspected there was a hell of a lot more to Jemma’s story about Colin. He’d never exactly pushed for the truth, but she knew how much he