The Other Boy Read Online Free Page A

faucets for hot and cold. She scowled and dried her hands on her sweatpants.
    There were three other doors in the hallway besides the one leading to the bathroom. The first room had an antique rolltop desk pushed against a wall, an old sofa, and a bookcase overflowing with books and papers. A laptop sat on the desk. That must be the room they’re using as the vineyard office, Maddy thought. She peeked into what must have been her parents’ room next. A big bed with an old brass headboard stood in the middle of the room, surrounded by a sea of boxes. Every room had funny slanted walls and low wooden ceilings. Maddy felt like she was on a ship.
    There was only one door left, at the end of the hallway. “Is this end room mine?” Maddy called down the stairs to her mom, who was still clattering around in the kitchen.
    “Yes, it is!” she called back.
    A cool breeze blew against Maddy’s face as she walked in the door. Across the room, big glass doors leading to a balcony were flung open. The walls were a soft sage green. One wall slanted down almost to the floor. A little corner alcove held a built-in cushioned bench covered with pretty pillows. The polished wooden floors were bare except for a few woven rugs. A four-poster bed was covered with a green and white fern-patterned bedspread. There was a big, old-fashioned wardrobe in one corner and a white vanity table, the kind with a mirror on top, and a cushioned stool.
    Maddie sat on the corner of the vanity table. What was she going to do here? Everything was so little and creaky and old. She felt caged in already. She stood and went over to the open doors. The green rows of grapevines stretched out for miles before her, with rolling grassy hills in the background, streaked here and there with bands of dark pine trees. Far away, on a hill, the tiny red dot of a tractor moved slowly across the landscape. Maddy couldn’t help thinking of the view from her room back in the city, with the bay spread out like a wrinkled blue sheet, the Golden Gate Bridge shrouded in fog, and the city crowded to the edge of the water.
    She reluctantly dragged the big blue suitcase into her new room from the hall. She felt exhausted, like she’d been traveling for a week. Just that morning, she had woken up in her own huge bed on silky Egyptian cotton sheets, snuggled up under her plush brown duvet in her room, with its remote-control lighting and sleek stereo system. But now she was sharing a room with eight million mosquitoes and Lord knew what other wildlife. And there was no escape.
    Maddy gathered up an armful of dresses and skirts, most of them still on the hangers, and started stuffing them into the wardrobe in the corner. It took about thirty seconds for her to fill up the hanging section.
    She struggled to shove in a few more pieces, then stared first at the wardrobe and then at her suitcase in dismay.
    She hadn’t unpacked even a quarter of the things she’d brought. Panting a little, she managed to shut the wardrobe door by hurling her shoulder against it. She stood back. The sleeve of a cashmere sweater was stuck between the door panels.
    Maddy flopped onto the fluffy bedspread like a wet rag. “Ooohhh!” she moaned to the ceiling. “I am officially living my worst nightmare.”

Chapter Five
    When Maddy’s cell rang at dusk, she snatched it like it might magically transport her back to civilization and save her from morosely staring out at the gathering blue and purple shadows on the lawn.
    “How’s the prison inmate?” Morgan crackled from the other end.
    “Oh my God! I am so glad you called!” Maddy cried, sitting up in her chair and lowering her feet from the porch railing.
    “Hey, don’t hold back or anything.” Morgan
    laughed. “So, is it awful or what?”
    Maddy stood and began pacing between the room and the porch, holding the phone in a death grip.
    “There was a pig in the driveway when we drove up!”
    She yanked the phone away from her ear to dull the