Saratoga Woods 02 The Edge of the Water Read Online Free PDF Page A

an orphanage in Uganda by a family on the island. Why they were a couple was a mystery to Jenn. Derric was tall, athletic, and terrific-looking, from his gorgeously and deliberately shaved head to his perfect toes. Becca was . . . Well, okay, she’d lost the blubber she’d been carrying when she’d first landed on the island and Jenn had dubbed her SmartAss FatBroad. But the rest of her was exactly the same: hideously dyed dark brown hair, thick rimmed glasses out of another century, shapeless clothes, and so much makeup that, if the circus wasn’t going to be her next stop, she needed to rethink her destination. Derric and Becca were living proof that opposites attracted. All they had in common was brain power, and
that

they had in mountains.
    They sat at one of the library tables, across from each other but still conversing quietly. They seemed even more intensely focused on each other than usual, and when Derric’s whispered “No, that’s just the point. It does bother me. And it would bother any other guy, and it
would
bother you if the tables were turned. Why don’t you get that, Becca?” came across the room, it caught Jenn’s attention in a way that only a hint of great gossip ever could. Was there—gasp!—trouble in paradise? She could only hope. If there were potholes in true love’s road, she wanted to be the first to know about them.
    Unfortunately, Becca’s response didn’t give her much to go on. She said quietly, “It doesn’t
mean
anything and it never could. Why don’t you get that?”
    “How am I
supposed
to get it?” He shoved back from the table.
    “Derric, you said we could talk about this.” Becca reached for his arm and closed her hand over his chocolate skin. He was meant to cover her hand with his, Jenn figured, but he wasn’t about to do that. He was totally pissed.
    “Every talk we have ends in the exact same place,” he said fiercely. “‘It doesn’t mean anything.’”
    “Because it
doesn’t
.”
    What doesn’t? Jenn wanted to yell. What, what, what for crying out loud? But before she could get an answer to this or even imagine one, Derric had shaken Becca’s hand from his arm and had stormed out of the library, the walking cast he wore no impediment to him. The door hit back against the wall so hard that even Squat looked up from his math.
    For her part, Becca stared after him. Slowly she removed from her ear an earphone that she always wore, in class and out. She got away with this for reasons Jenn hadn’t ever been able to figure out. It was like the creepoid put a spell on people. Whatever she wanted, she always,
always
ended up getting.
    Jenn couldn’t resist, so she didn’t try. She rose from her position at the computer and sauntered over to the FatBroad’s table. She was thinking, Bet he breaks up with her butt by the end of the week.
    Becca turned her head slowly and looked at her, “As if that’ll change anything in your life,” she said.
    Jenn stopped in her tracks and examined the other girl. “What’s with you,” she demanded.
    “Nothing you’d ever understand,” Becca told her.

FOUR
    B ecca King knew that Jenn McDaniels hated her because of Derric. There were probably other reasons—beyond her inclination to be generally snarky just for the heck of it—but Derric was the main one. He’d taken a terrible fall in Saratoga Woods not long after Becca’s arrival on Whidbey Island, and his time in the hospital after that had offered Becca the chance to get to know him. From the first instant she’d seen him on the ferry coming from Mukilteo over to Whidbey Island, she’d felt drawn to the African boy. That he’d also felt drawn to her was still what it had been from the first: something of a miracle to Becca.
    She hadn’t thought of Jenn McDaniels and her place in Derric’s life as she’d got to know him and maybe this had been a bad thing. But the truth was that with Derric she’d felt safe, treasured, understood, and accepted in