Read Online The Color of Us (College Bound Book 2) by Laura Ward, Christine Manzari - Free Book Online Page A

tracks exactly, but there was no doubt that we were on opposite sides of something. I already knew that her parents must be well off since she was a member at Eagle Crest, but pulling up in front of her house was undeniable proof of how different we were.
    I shut the door of my Jeep and started up the front walk. All around me the lawn spread out in a huge carpet of perfectly mowed lines, just like a baseball field. There were no weeds in the garden, and the lawn was brushed clean of grass clippings, all of which made everything less real. Fake. As fake as all the other lawns I worked on every day.
    When I reached the porch, I looked up at the house itself. It was all impressive stone and shiny windows. Lots of fucking windows.
    I imagined that most people would call Alexis’s home stately. But I wasn’t most people. Fussy. That’s the word that came to mind as I took in the overwhelming amount of tamed beauty around me. Alexis had that sense of tamed beauty too, and I wondered what she would be like if she was ever truly set free.
    I intended to find out.
    I cast one look back at my Jeep still splattered with mud from my time on the levees earlier today. Parked at the curb, my ride looked like a bruise. Imperfection in a neighborhood that could be a Hollywood set. It didn’t belong.
    Neither did I, but I couldn’t force myself to care.
    I climbed the front steps, and with a jab of my finger, rang the doorbell. Through the large glass panels of the double front door, I could see a woman wearing a pantsuit and a matching frown as she walked toward me. She pulled one of the doors open just enough to speak through it. Her hesitance made me want to kick it in all the way.
    “Can I help you?”
    “I’m here for Lex.” My fingers twitched with the need to hold a cigarette, so I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jeans instead.
    “I’m sorry. You must have the wrong address.” The woman’s scowl said more than her dismissive answer. She started to close the door, and I put my hand on the handle to stop her before she could shut me out completely. I wasn’t going to be turned away like this. This was not Eagle Crest.
    The steely glare that had looked permanently etched onto the woman’s face just a moment before was immediately replaced with anxiety as I held the door open. For a second I saw myself reflected perfectly in her expression, and she was right. I was dangerous.
    “Hey, Mom.” Alexis ran up behind the woman and pulled on the door, opening it wider. “You met Liam?” She flashed me a smile that was so genuinely happy I wondered how I’d actually thought it would be possible to forget about her.
    “You know this…” Alexis’s mom turned to face me. “You know this young man?”
    I didn’t miss how difficult it was for her for find a label for me, and I was damn sure “young man” wasn’t the first thing that came to her mind.
    “Mom, this is Liam,” Alexis said, gesturing to me. “Liam, this is my mom, Claudia.”
    “Claudia.” I nodded my head toward her in greeting and held out my hand. It hung in the air, ignored, as Claudia’s mouth froze in displeasure.
    “Mrs. Sinclair,” she finally bit out. “You can call me Mrs. Sinclair.”
    “Right.” I gave her a lazy grin and returned my hand to my pocket, enjoying the way she bristled when I didn’t correct myself. Adults were so fucking attached to their titles, and I was always so tempted to ignore them.
    “Liam and I have plans tonight.” Alexis filled the heavy silence that had fallen between us. “I’ll just get my purse.” She ducked back inside the house, missing the horrified expression her mother now wore.
    Claudia was no longer looking at me like something disgusting she’d found on the bottom of her shoe. Now I was that shadow in the dark alley that made her want to pull her purse a little closer.
    “Plans? What sort of plans?” she asked me.
    “It’s a surprise.”
    “I don’t like surprises, young man.”