Angels in Pink: Holly's Story (Lurlene McDaniel (Mass Market)) by Mcdaniel Lurlene

Author:Mcdaniel, Lurlene [Mcdaniel, Lurlene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307433121
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2007-12-18T00:00:00+00:00

thirteen

FROM THE MOMENT Kathleen opened her eyes, she wished she hadn’t. Light poured through her bedroom window, stabbing into her eyeballs like daggers. Her head hurt and her lips felt glued together. She moaned and put her pillow over her face, wishing the daylight away. Slowly, images of the night before came back to her. She recalled blinking lights, driving music, the cool interior of Carson’s car and his hot breath on her throat and . . . nothing else.

She peeked out at her bedside clock radio. Eleven o’clock. She’d slept far into Sunday morning, and she wondered why her mother had let her. She staggered to the bathroom, splashed cold water on her face, looked at herself in the mirror and made another moaning sound. She was wearing her green sleeping T-shirt emblazoned with SNOW WHITE LIVES!, with no memory of having put it on.

She knew she had to go out and face her mother. What would she say? A wave of nausea hit her and she returned to bed just as her cell phone chirped. She saw Carson’s number and thought about not answering it, but then realized he might be able to fill in the blank spaces in her memory.

“You’re alive?” he said when she answered.

“Barely.”

He chuckled.

“How many of those coolers did I drink?”

“One too many.”

She saw nothing humorous in her situation. “Um—how did I get home, and in my bed?”

“I brought you in. And I did it without waking your mother too. You owe me, babe.”

“My clothes—”

“I’m innocent. I poured you into bed, pulled up the covers and left. Honest.”

Maybe she’d gotten up and changed and just didn’t remember. “Are we still friends?”

He laughed suggestively. “Very close friends.”

An image of herself pawing his body flashed and she sat straight up. Her head pounded. “Did we—I mean—how close are we?”

“Are you asking me if we’re now ‘friends with benefits’?”

His use of the familiar term so embarrassed her that she felt hot, then cold all over. She squeezed the cell phone. “Please tell me.”

He waited a few torturous beats. “Believe it or not, I prefer my girls to be alert, aware and in full control of their senses when things get hot between us.”

Relief rushed through her. “So I’m still—?” She couldn’t get the word out.

“You’re still the one I want more than anybody.”

“Really?”

“From the first day we met.”

“Oh, Carson! I’m so sorry about last night.

I—I didn’t mean to—to go crazy that way. I’ve just been sad for so long and I wanted to be happy again. Forgive me?”

“Nothing to forgive. It was nice to see your wild side. And there was another fringe benefit.”

“What was that?”

“I left the party stone cold sober.”

As it turned out, Kathleen didn’t have to tell her mother anything about the night before, because when she ventured out of her room, Mary Ellen wasn’t home. She’d left a note on the counter saying that she’d gone off to church and lunch with Stewart, the man she was seeing from the multiple sclerosis support group.

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