Dark Heart Forever Read Online Free PDF Page B

who hadn’t bothered to torment me. He was nice enough … maybe a little dim. Eric glanced up at me once and started adding up the items. When he got to the Gazette he paused, taking in the headline.
    ‘So cool,’ he said, looking up at me. ‘That guy. Like some kind of superhero.’
    ‘Superheroes don’t exist,’ I said witheringly, grabbing the paper and stuffing it in my rucksack. ‘They’re for little boys.’
    Eric straightened up. ‘I know that,’ he said defensively. ‘It’s just, you know, pretty weird how he was kind of “wandering around” a mountain road.’ He put the rest of the stuff into a plastic bag. ‘You have to admit it.’
    I shrugged. ‘No, I don’t.’ I took the bag from him and handed him a ten-pound note. As he counted out the change, he kept looking up at me. I put the money in my purse and smiled tightly at him.
    ‘Hey?’ he said, recognition finally coming. ‘You’re Jane Jonas!’ He banged his hand triumphantly on the counter.
    I closed my eyes, hoping that when I opened them again he’d have disappeared. But he was still there.
    ‘Jane Jonas …’ He jiggled about on the spot. ‘You’re the girl from the accident.’
    ‘I’d appreciate it if you’d just shut up,’ I said coldly. ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’
    ‘Jane – Jane Jonas,’ he chanted, before his eye caught something behind me and he stopped.
    ‘She told you to shut up,’ said a voice I vaguely recognised. ‘So do it, moron.’
    There was a silence as I turned to take in my rescuer. Tall, blond, smiling at me now, tiny little creases around pool-blue eyes. I swallowed, realising once again that I wasn’t exactly dressed for the occasion.
    ‘Hi Evan,’ I said, willing my face not to burst into flames. ‘It’s OK. I can handle it.’
    Evan moved swiftly and confidently towards me and reached out his hand.
    ‘Let me take that,’ he said, grabbing the plastic bag. ‘And that,’ he slipped my rucksack off my shoulder. ‘You must be a little shaken up still … after what happened.’
    ‘I don’t—’ I started, as he pushed a stray curl off my face and tucked it behind my ear.
    ‘I know,’ he said softly. ‘You don’t want to talk about it.’
    I nodded, all the feisty draining out of me.
    ‘I’ll give you a lift back home.’
    ‘It’s OK. I’ve got my bike.’
    ‘And I’ve got a car.’ He opened the door to let me through. ‘So I win.’

    Evan drove slowly up back to the house. I hadn’t said a word walking to his car, and now that I was sitting in the front seat next to him, I just concentrated on not looking at him. I didn’t look at his long, muscular legs, I didn’t look at his strong, steady hands holding the steering wheel. I definitely didn’t look at his perfect, straight nose and his streaked, messy hair. But I didn’t have to – I had committed every part of him to memory in the entire half-hour I’d spent in his company since we’d met.
    I stared ahead of me as we pulled off the main road and focused on keeping my heart rate down. I should have been asking questions. Making conversation; something like, ‘Hey, I hear you ran away and lived like a vagrant for six months and caused your family no end of heartache and worry.’ But I couldn’t. His physical presence made me shyer than ever.
    It was a little like avoiding the elephant in the room.
    ‘You ever play pool?’ asked Evan eventually.
    ‘Pool?’ I shook my head. ‘There’s nowhere you can play pool here. Not for miles.’
    ‘I know a place.’ He glanced at me. ‘It’s a way out of here, but it’s a good place to hang out.’ I nodded, both hoping and dreading that his next question would be ‘Want to come sometime?’ When nothing came I stared out of the passenger window and studied the roadside bushes. Evan changed gear as we began the ascent up the mountain road and my heart beat more quickly. In a couple of minutes we’d be there, where that thing had forced Dad off the