One Black Rose Read Online Free PDF Page B

quickly to change into my own bathing suit, which was a solid dark blue. I grabbed sunglasses and my iPod, threw on a white and green cotton summer dress, and headed back down.
    As soon as Carley and I went out onto the porch to wait for Nick, he pulled up. Since Carley’s house was across the street from the ocean there was beach in every direction, and by eleven a.m. the three of us were stretched out on towels by the water, enjoying a perfect summer day.
    Almost instantly Carley looked like she had gone to sleep. Lying on her stomach, with a hat propped over her head and her headphones in, she looked like she had no intention of moving for hours. I looked over at Nick. He was propped on one elbow, playing some game on his phone. There was a white streak of sunscreen on the side of his face. I pointed it out to him and he sheepishly wiped it away.
    “So, Nick, what do you know about the Roths?” I asked, trying to keep my tone casual. Judging by the quick look he gave me, I had probably failed completely.
    “Already bitten by the Roth bug, are you?” he asked, looking up from his phone and grinning.
    “What does that mean?” I asked, flipping through the pages of a magazine without really looking at them.
    “It means that every girl that sees a Roth swoons,” said Nick, dramatically putting the back of his hand to his forehead. “I don’t know how they do it, but girls love them.”
    I cleared my throat. “Are the Roths all boys or something?” I asked, sitting up with my arms as props.
    “There are three brothers. I think. I can’t remember all their names, but the oldest is Holden or something like that.” I could tell Nick really couldn’t care less about this subject. “I’ve seen every girl in Castleton try for him, but I’ve only ever seen him with other Roth girls or the Cheshires.”
    “Actually, it’s Holt,” Carley piped up as she rolled over to look at us.
    “Oh, so you wake up to talk about the Roths?” Nick asked, eyeing her.
    Carley grinned and sat up. “Definitely.”
    Nick rolled his eyes and went back to playing games on his phone.
    “Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked her. I’d been waiting all day for my chance to confront her about yesterday, so it came out more harshly than I meant it to.
    “I just thought it would be funny,” she said awkwardly. “I didn’t realize you really didn’t know. Sorry.”
    I glared at her, but she ignored me.
    Carley looked at me and continued: “Holt is the oldest Roth. I think he’s like twenty-two. His brothers are about our age. I don’t know as much about them. Holt is pretty well known around here. Mostly as a heartbreaker. Every new girl that comes into town sees him and goes crazy. He’s gorgeous. Easily the most attractive guy I’ve ever seen. Of course, probably part of that is that he’s never been interested in anyone. Like what Nick says, I never see him with local girls. I didn’t want to tell you all that, because you seemed to like him yesterday.”
    “You thought I liked him?” I asked. Carley shrugged. I didn’t know if I liked him. I definitely didn’t dislike him, but I was dismayed that Carley had noticed so easily.
    When Carley didn’t answer I asked, “So, he hangs out with girls all the time?”
    “HA. No, not really. Holt Roth doesn’t have girlfriends, except for his cousins and the Cheshires,” she replied, grabbing the tanning lotion and slathering more on.
    I wondered if I should ask about dinner that night or maybe what movie we were going to watch, just so that I appeared to want to talk about something other than the Roths and the Cheshires – but since I didn’t I simply said, “Who are his cousins?”
    “They’re these beautiful girls who stay at the house for the summer. It’s kind of weird, though, because they don’t look much like the Roth boys, then again I’ve never seen any of their parents, so maybe they just got different genes.”
    “All of the Roth boys look the same?” I