Read Online A Twist of Hate by Crystal Hubbard - Free Book Online

“You don’t know what I think.”
                  “She kissed me . I didn’t kiss her. There’s a difference.”
                  She laughed. It wasn’t a happy sound.
                  “She caught me by surprise.” He placed his hand flat on the wall of the narrow passageway between the rows of courts, blocking her exit route. “She just grabbed me and did it. My reflexes were slow. I didn’t get much sleep Friday night. Neither did you, remember?”
                  “You don’t owe me an explanation, Camden.”
                  “Apparently, I do.”
                  She pursed her lips, angry at herself. “This isn’t about me or Bitsy. It’s about you. My dad is in the Players Lounge with Mr. Abernathy. Go introduce yourself. Feel free to tell him that you’re my friend. Ask him to write a college recommendation for you. Isn’t that what you wanted from me all along?” She ducked beneath his arm and stormed away.
                  “I would never—Siobhan, please!” He went after her. He jumped ahead of her on the stairs. “Michael set that date up a long time ago. I didn’t want to go. I definitely didn’t invite Bitsy to kiss me.”
                  “Oh, yeah?” she nearly yelled. “Why not?”
                  “Because I’d rather kiss you!” he shouted.  His eyes, those mesmerizing pools of gold, jade and umber, didn’t waver from hers. “I haven’t been able to think of anything else!”
                  She heard her father’s voice. Lowering her own, she said, “Maybe I want to kiss you, too! You don’t make it easy when you go around slurping on a ding-a-ling like Bitsy. What kind of name is Bitsy? My grandmother had a cat named Bitsy! That cat was dumb and mean, which is a terrible combination! Do you know how rare it is to find a dumb cat?”
                  “It was barely a kiss,” he assured her, although his head reeled with the fact that she maybe wanted to kiss him too. That news was better than any of his college acceptance letters. “It was just a little peck. It lasted about two…no…more like a second and a half.”
                  “Spare me.” She started up the stairs.
                  “Why are you so jealous?”
                  His words, combined with his irritating calm, stopped her cold. i am not jealous! resonated in her head. If he wants to waste his kisses on the personification of clueless, that’s fine with me. Jealous! She scoffed at the notion as she stomped up the stairs. I don’t care who he kisses!
                  On the tail of that thought came the truth. I don’t care who he kisses—as long as it’s me. She whipped around at the top of the staircase and glared at him. He leaned against the wall, smiling. He looked so perfectly divine in his tennis whites, she almost forgot to be furious with him.
                  “Your fly is open,” she said.
                  It wasn’t, but it pleased her when he jumped to look.
     
    ***
     
                  Damon Curran was tall, a solid four inches taller than Camden, who was exactly six feet. Mr. Curran had a trim, elegantly muscular build maintained through tennis, basketball, and golf. He still looked like the standout college tight end he’d been, even though he had notched his last touchdown catch more than twenty years ago.
                  Camden shook Mr. Curran’s hand vigorously after Siobhan’s grudging introduction in the Players Lounge. “It’s an honor to meet you, sir. I study your work. The way you incorporate the landscape into your designs…the history museum you designed in Lisbon, and how you incorporated a vision of the future into the structure…I…Wow, I can’t believe I’m actually meeting you.”
                  “Thank you.”