Summer of Secrets Read Online Free Page B

that,’ Izzy said. ‘We’ll drag the guys along too. It’ll be cool.’
    She looked beseechingly at Caitlin. ‘You’re not really miffed, are you? I think Tom’s quite impressed by you, actually. Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if you two got it
together, and me and Jamie became an item and––’
    ‘Hang on!’ Caitlin objected, rummaging in her drawer for some sun block. ‘I’ve only known the guy for an hour and besides, I’m not sure I even like him. You weren’t exactly flattering about him.’
    ‘That’s because he isn’t empathic to my persona,’ Izzy declared. ‘Whereas you, with your kind of naïve, unsophisticated approach to life . . .’
    ‘Oh, thanks . . .’
    ‘No, it’s a compliment,’ Izzy assured her. ‘You’re just Tom’s type. I was far too fiery and ambitious and – well, full-on, I guess. Besides, we’ve
known one another since we were snotty little kids, and that kind of kills passion, doesn’t it?’
    ‘I guess,’ Caitlin said, nodding.
    ‘He’s OK, really. And the Porters are loaded, you know,’ Izzy babbled on. ‘I mean, seriously in the money. And they know just about everyone worth
knowing.’
    She winked at Caitlin.
    ‘Besides, where’s the harm? It’s not like you’ve got a boyfriend, is it?’
    ‘How do you know?’ Caitlin burst out and then inwardly kicked herself for making it so obvious that Izzy was right.
    ‘If you had, you’d have talked about him,’ Izzy remarked. ‘And think about it – my party’s coming up and you don’t really want to be the only girl there
without a guy, do you?’
    ‘You said Summer hasn’t got a boyfriend,’ Caitlin said quickly. ‘It won’t just be me.’
    ‘Summer won’t come,’ Izzy said. ‘I mean, I’ll invite her, but she’ll come up with some lame excuse. She always does. Mind you, if the rumours are true . .
.’
    ‘Yeah, what about the rumours? You were going to tell me––’ Caitlin began.
    ‘Hey, you two – we were actually thinking of leaving today if it’s all the same to you!’
    Jamie thumped on Caitlin’s door and began to hum ‘Why are we waiting?’
    ‘Dead right – he needs to get started,’ Tom added, shouting up the stairs. ‘That old banger of his will take forever to get to the end of the street!’
    ‘Is he always this up himself?’ Caitlin demanded, picking up her camera and slinging it round her neck.
    ‘Oh, loosen up!’ Izzy snapped. ‘Just look on him as a bit of practice. From what I can see, you sure do need it.’
    Why, thought Caitlin to herself, as Tom threw the car round yet another bend at breakneck speed, can’t I be like Izzy? There she was, ahead of them in Jamie’s
open-top Midget, her dark hair blowing out behind her like one of those shampoo adverts and her arm resting ever so lightly across the back of the driver’s seat. Whereas Caitlin’s hair
was a mass of windswept tangles, she had grit in her left eye and she was already feeling nauseous, although whether this was caused by the recklessness of Tom’s driving or the content of his
conversation, she couldn’t quite work out.
    ‘That vehicle of your brother’s is total crap, you know,’ he told her. ‘He really should take my advice and trade it in for something with a bit of power behind
it.’
    And, ‘Honestly, if I hadn’t pitched up at that sailing club in Cairns and shown him the ropes, your brother would have made a total ass of himself on the reef.’
    And, just as she was about to open her mouth to defend Jamie, ‘But sorry, I’m going on and on about Jamie when really I should be telling you about me.’
    He was unreal, Caitlin thought, only half listening to an outpouring about his triumphs on land and sea during his gap year, his reason for opting not to go to uni – ‘Honestly, who
needs it? It’s who you know, not what you know that counts’ – and his plans to take over his grandmother’s chain of antique shops when she retired –
‘Easy money – conning