Everafter (Kissed by an Angel) Read Online Free PDF Page A

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    “Hey, what’s everybody looking at?” Bryan had returned, skates in hand.
    “Your family’s fabulous connections,” Chase said.
    Bryan laughed. “That’s my uncle for you, hanging out with the rich and powerful. Actually, he’s done a lot of fund-raisers for the community.”
    As the group moved on, Ivy hung back, her eyes drawn to a photo at the end of the hall. Two kids, seven or eight years old, wearing oversize hockey shirts and Santa caps, stood on ice skates, grinning at the camera, their arms around each other. Little Bryan and Luke, long ago, probably during a Christmas vacation.
    “Recognize him?” Bryan’s voice sounded close to her ear.
    Ivy glanced sideways. The others had gone on. “How could you have turned on your best friend?”
    “Easy,” Bryan said. “Luke wasn’t going anywhere. But I was, Ivy, and still am. Tragic, isn’t it?” he added, then laughed in the same deceptively easygoing way he hadlaughed about his uncle’s connections. It chilled her to the heart.
    “Want to be my skating partner?” he asked.
    “You’ve got one waiting,” she replied, with a nod toward Kelsey, who had turned back, looking for Bryan.
    “Oh. Her.” He smiled at Ivy, then moved on.
    Ivy reluctantly followed, promising herself she’d return to the photos as soon as she could sneak away. For a while she skated with Max. Each time she banked the curve at one end of the oblong rink, she stole a glance at the snack bar, wishing her friends would quickly get thirsty so she’d have an excuse to check out the photos. There were dividers between the concessions and the risers that surrounded the rink, but the food area was still visible, and Bryan would be watching if she left the ice alone.
    At the moment, he was skating with Kelsey and a little girl. The child, wearing a hockey camp T-shirt and helmet, her braids flying behind her, was grinning from ear to ear.
    Max followed Ivy’s eyes. “The kids love Bryan. He’s a great coach. My dad says he’d make a great salesman.”
    Ivy moved a stride ahead of Max and turned to skate backward, facing him. In her search for someone who may have seen something without realizing its importance, Max was a good place to begin. “When did you guys first become friends?” she asked.
    “In college.”
    “Not till then?”
    “It was during hockey season, actually, a party after a big game. It kind of surprised me that Bryan would hang with me—you know, him being a star on campus.”
    It didn’t surprise Ivy. Bryan would like a rich friend with expensive toys—like a boat.
    Max smiled. “Then when we found out he was working just ten miles from my house every summer, it was awesome!”
    Ivy nodded. “I guess so! You liked the beach. You both were boaters.” She continued to skate backward, observing Max’s face.
    “Well, Bryan didn’t know much about boating, but he really liked it.”
    “Yeah?” Ivy said. Max allowed Bryan to drive his cars. Would he hand over the key to a boat? Probably.
    “We started coming down weekends in May to putter around.”
    At what point, Ivy wondered, had Bryan formed his plan to kill Luke and dump him in the ocean? And how successful had he been at washing away every bit of evidence? Maybe, if he was in a hurry—
    Ivy saw Bryan coming up behind Max, staring hard at her. She turned to skate side by side with Max, so their conversation wouldn’t look like an interrogation.
    “Would you take me out in your boat?” she asked.
    “Sure. Which one?”
    She hesitated. “The powerboat.”
    “That’d be great.”
    They skated a few more loops together, then Ivy saw Dhanya and Chase leave the ice, and hurried to join them. “Hey, guys.” She dropped down on the lowest bench of the riser. “Hungry?”
    Dhanya glanced at Chase. “Maybe food would help. . . . He’s not feeling so good,” she told Ivy. “The lights are bothering him.”
    Ivy glanced up at the rink lights, then studied Chase’s face.
    He