Read Online The Wrong Path_Smashwords by Vivian Marie Aubin du Paris - Free Book Online

other hand. She stretched as far as she could, but his hand was still just a few inches too far away. She felt more tears of panic form in her eyes. She was going to get stuck up there, in the tree, and they were going to have to call the fire department to get her down and she’d be the laughing stock of the entire school—
    She screamed when something grabbed a hold of her hand, clenching her eyes shut as she was yanked off the branch, her body going into freefall and heading straight down to the ground.
    The crash was surprisingly not as painful as she expected. Her knee hurt a little, but other than that, the ground was soft and not at all dirty or unpleasant under her.
    It only took a moment for her to realize it was because she wasn’t on the ground.
    Her eyes flew open and she looked down at Will, who had her wrapped securely in his arms. He was flat on his back on the hard, unforgiving ground, holding her against his chest. He had caught her and protected her from injury, risking his own safety.
    “Will?” she asked fearfully, looking down at him from the shelter of his embrace.
    His eyes opened, one after the other as if testing to see if they still worked, and met her gaze. Then he burst out laughing. “You sure know how to fall,” he declared, still laughing. She scrambled up off of him and he sat up, rolling his shoulders. “That was the most ungraceful thing I’ve ever seen.”
    She flushed, then scowled at him. “You pulled me out of the tree!” she argued angrily. “You tried to kill me! What if I had fallen on my head?”
    “You’d get dirt in your hair and then go home?” he suggested. “Can’t be seen at school with dirt in your hair, you know. Your friends might not talk to you.”
    She frowned. “You don’t know my friends,” she argued, though he was right… If she’d gotten dirt in her hair, she would have gone home. Dirt in the hair would have been unforgivable by Claire’s standards.
    “I know enough,” he assured her. He stood and brushed himself off, then held out a hand to her to help her to her feet. Hesitantly, she took it, allowing him to pull her up with strong, slender fingers.
    She couldn’t resist a smile when she saw a leaf in his silky dark hair. Before she could think twice, she reached up and pulled it out, holding it up with a laugh for him to see.
    His eyes studied hers.
    She felt her smile die as their eyes held, heat rushing up around her. She couldn’t make herself look away, no matter how hard she tried, but again, she tried to tell herself it was just the adrenaline pumping through her veins.
    Sirens in the distance finally broke their stare. She frowned as they got closer, to the school, then looked up at Will, who had tensed. Wordlessly, he headed toward the front of the school, and after a moment of deliberation, she followed him. She couldn’t go to class without a late slip, so she would have to wait until the next period started before she could go in. And until then, she didn’t know where else to go. So she went with Will.
    He seemed surprised to see her behind him as he stood behind the bricks jutting out from the school building, giving them a perfect view of the cop cars that had gathered in front of the school. He glanced back at her, then returned his attention to the assembled cop cars.
    “What’s going on?” she whispered, leaning past his shoulder to see. She held on to him, afraid that if she didn’t, she would fall off balance and give away their presence. Her heart pounded nervously in her chest. She had never spied on anything before, and certainly not while cutting class. Would they get suspended if they were caught?
    Will’s body suddenly jerked forward, and then he was out from behind the bricks, stalking toward the front of the school. Annabelle started to protest, bewildered. For a moment she struggled internally, trying to decide if she should follow or remain hidden. Finally, feeling slightly ashamed of herself, she