After Summer Read Online Free Page B

on her list of preferred activities. Kelsi headed across the lawn toward the front door, trying to ignore the worst of the mayhem. When she was shoved by a particularly rowdy group chanting fight songs, she almost called Taryn to come rescue her.
    But she took a deep breath and reminded herself not to judge anyone. Everyone around her was having fun. And why shouldn’t they?
    She might not know why all these people seemed to think being so loud and drunk was delightful. What she did know was that she’d never felt anything as good as the heatthat flashed over her when she made it up the front steps and found Tim standing there, waiting for her.
    He was so hot, it amazed Kelsi that he was actually hers. Those hazel eyes and his dirty-blond hair all worked together to give him that J. Crew model look that Kelsi adored. Except that he traded in his trademark oxford shirt for a ripped Hanes tee sloppily marked pledge with a black sharpie.
    He smiled when he saw her. “Finally,” he said.
    He reached out and pulled Kelsi close by hooking his hand around the nape of her neck. He kissed her long and hard, and was grinning wider when he pulled away.
    “Hi,” Kelsi whispered. It had been two days since she’d last seen him, and they’d talked about fifty times in the interim. Even so, it had felt too long. He leaned close to kiss her again, and the chanting of a frat song faded far into the background.
    “Isn’t this insane? The brothers said this isn’t even half the people who’ll show up here tonight. We have more than forty kegs!”
    “Wow! That’s amazing!” Kelsi said, trying her best to sound genuinely impressed.
    Tim led her away from the crowd to the side of the house. Her ears were already ringing from all the noise and she wasn’t even inside yet.
    “Weren’t you gonna come with Taryn?”
    “She had to bail. You might need to give me a ride back to school tonight.”
    “My roommate took off for the weekend,” Tim said, high-fiving a bouncer who was guarding a quiet back staircase. “I’m telling you that with full and total respect for your feelings on the sex subject,” he added, flashing a grin at Kelsi. “But I thought you should know that Matt won’t be busting in if we want to have a nice, quiet sleepover. Or a loud, passionate sleepless sleepover.”
    Kelsi couldn’t help but laugh. She loved fooling around with Tim, because, unlike guys she’d dated in the past, he never pressured her. While he made no secret of the fact he would love to have sex, he also never made her feel weird or awkward about saying no.
    Whenever you’re ready is cool, he always said with a kiss and that sweet smile that made her melt.
    “But we can talk about that later.” Tim ran his hands through her dark hair. “Right now, there’s a ton of people I want you to meet.”
    Kelsi cuddled underneath Tim’s arm, and followed him through the thick heat of the overcrowded rooms. While it wasn’t at all her scene, Kelsi still felt like she belonged.
    Because she belonged with Tim.

4
    “You’re not even listening to me!” George gasped, pretending to be outraged. He stopped dead in the middle of the high school corridor, and Beth had to haul him out of oncoming traffic before he was trampled.
    “I just came up with the most fantastic idea for a new television series ever, ” George continued, not seeming to notice that Beth had just saved him from certain death by student stampede. “You were pretending to listen, but you weren’t at all. You didn’t even laugh. If I didn’t know such a thing was impossible, I might think you were bored with the G-Man.”
    “I was listening, George,” Beth insisted, shifting her heavy pile of textbooks from one sore arm to the other. Her daily swim practices made her muscles ache. All her hard work hadpaid off; Beth had made the swim team. She and George had celebrated over chili dogs and Cokes in town, and now Beth was knee-deep in her regular practices. “But if I