Read Online Scaredy Kat by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel - Free Book Online

wasn’t happy.
    That was it. One minute he wasn’t happy, and the next week he was packing his bags. We were supposed to believe that the woman
     who came to pick him up the day he moved out, a perky blonde named (I kid you not) Chickie, was just a friend. Whatever. They
     live together now, in Florida. He doesn’t send birthday cards or Christmas cards. Or money.
    I have this ocean of rage toward my dad. I hate not having a father. I hate that we were so disposable to him. I hate that
     I look much more like him than I do my mother. But what burns me the most is the way he just cast my mother off. She’s much
     cooler with it now than I am. Don’t get me wrong, she’s not happy about it. She doesn’t speak fondly of him, or make excuses,
     or pretend like it was partly her fault. But after a year or so, she accepted what had happened.
    She said she’d carried it around long enough, and she just cast all her hurt and resentment into the Universe, and moved on.
     And even though I was still mad as all get out, I was glad that she was able to get back to her present and her future. After
     all, we still had each other. And we were fine, just the two of us. I was happy with the way things were.
    But I wasn’t the least bit prepared to see a cute guy coming out of her office.
    All this was going through my mind as I looked at the shaggy-haired guy. Which is why I have no idea what my expression looked
     like. And why I had no idea what to say.
    “Hey,” said cute shaggy guy.
    I could have come up with that.
    “Hey,” I replied. I tried to look casual, but I could feel my brow furrowing in sus-picion.
    “You must be Kat,” he said. He took a few steps toward me, then stopped about three feet away. Close enough for me to see
     that his eyes were a brilliant, sparkling blue.
    I nodded. I felt absurdly lucky to be Kat at that moment.
    “I’m Orin,” he said.
    I had no response for this magnificent piece of information. Max pulled on the leash a little until I gave him some slack.
     He walked right up to Orin, sniffed his knees, then curled up at Orin’s feet. I felt a stab of peculiar jealousy. This was
     a strange guy who had been in my house. Why was Max cozying up to him? It’s not like we knew for a fact he wasn’t an axe murderer.
    “Your mom and I did a few energy and healing seminars together a couple years ago,” Orin continued. “I was in the neighborhood,
     and I just happened to see her out by the driveway this morning, walking someone to their car. Couldn’t believe it was her.
     We’ve been sort of going over old times.”
    I nodded again. Mom sometimes went to seminars and conferences of a spiritual or metaphysical nature. I couldn’t remember
     her mentioning Orin, but she might have. I could have forgotten the name. The face, I would not have forgotten.
    “I do energy work,” Orin continued, since I was doing nothing to hold up my end of the conversation. “Reiki, polarity work,
     healing, stuff like that.”
    “Right,” I said, nodding. Like he’d gotten an answer correct or something.
    In spite of myself, I kept glancing over at the van Hecht house. When I had first seen Orin, he’d seemed to be watching that
     house. Or maybe he was just lost, or he saw a red-tailed hawk on the roof or something. But the thing is, he noticed me looking
     at the house. Because he started glancing over at it, too. I wanted to get away from Orin all of a sudden. I wanted to go
     back into that house.
    “Anyway,” I said, looking pointedly in the opposite direction from the van Hecht house, “I should probably get back inside.”
    Orin nodded. He gave me a smile that left me slightly weak in the knees.
    “I expect I’ll see you around,” he said.
    “Yeah,” I replied. Part of me wanted to shout it—pump a fist in the air. YEAH!!
    He started to turn, then he looked back at me.
    “I teach, too, you know. I was actually just talking to your mom about that. I don’t take on too many students, but