Sharing Sam Read Online Free PDF

millennium.
    Sam opened the back door and slid in. “You seem to have this habit of rescuing me.” He smiled at Sara. “I’m Sam Cody.” He extended his hand. She stared at it, surprised, then shook it.
    “Sara,” she responded. “You know my sister?”
    “Yes and no. Mostly no.”
    “Take my advice, go with the no.”
    Sam leaned forward, elbows on the back of the bench seat. He was so close. I felt impossibly dizzy. I clutched the wheel till my fingers ached.
    “She saved my life,” Sam confided to Sara.
    Sara eyed me with new respect. The clot of traffic broke, and I stepped on the gas.
    “I more or less gave him a Band-Aid,” I clarified.
    “She ripped off her T-shirt to bind my wounds,” Sam said.
    Sara gasped softly.
    I shrugged. “Well, I couldn’t just let him die.” I looked in the mirror and managed to return Sam’s smile. “Where are we going?”
    “Kayla’s,” said Sara.
    “No, I meant Sam.”
    He hesitated. “Drop me as far north as you’re going.”
    “It’s pouring. I might as well take you home, Sam.”
    He shook his head. “No, really.”
    “Let her take you home,” Sara advised. “Trust me. She has no life.”
    I sent her my most withering look. She did not wither. She didn’t even shrivel up around the edges. “Savor your last few hours on earth,” I told her.
    Sam leaned back. I checked the mirror. He was grinning. His T-shirt was a wet second skin. Very becoming. He winked at Sara. “Beneath that playful banter lies a deep sisterly bond, right?”
    “Beneath that playful banter lies deep sisterly hatred,” Sara replied. “You have any sisters?”
    “Two brothers, younger. One just right for you, actually.”
    “Where do they go to school?”
    Sam looked out the window, suddenly quiet. “They’re … somewhere else.”
    “Where?” Sara persisted.
    “Sara, where do I turn for Kayla’s?” I interrupted.
    “Bahia Vista. Duh. You’ve only been there, like, ten thousand times.”
    “I was hinting you should stop the inquisition. Duh.”
    “I was just asking—”
    “Stop asking.”
    She turned around, arms crossed, sending me her own version of a withering look. A few minutes later I pulled into Kayla’s drive. Sara leapt out without a word, slamming the door. The window glass shuddered.
    I smiled weakly. “Sibling rivalry, I guess.”
    “It’ll pass.”
    “You can sit up front, if you want. The seat’s premoistened.”
    Sam joined me. I watched Sara slip into Kayla’s house. “I don’t know why she hates me so much.”
    “It’s normal.”
    “If my family’s normal, we’re all in trouble. Put on your seat belt, okay?”
    “She’s probably intimidated.”
    “Intimidated?” I asked, backing out of the drive.
    “She’s got this smart, beautiful—” Sam began, then paused and fumbled with his seat belt. “Uh, sister. Sure, she’s going to feel intimidated.”
    Beautiful
was not a word I’d ever heard in connection with my person. My cheeks sizzled. I lowered the window a little more, soaking my left arm.
    I savored the word. Sam, this beautiful guy sitting next to me in my smelly-dog station wagon, had just called
me
beautiful.
    I realized I hadn’t spoken in a few aeons or so.
    “Do you intimidate your brothers?” I asked quickly.
    Sam laughed at some private joke. “No. No danger of that. They pretty much think I’m crazy.”
    I shot him a glance. “Should that worry me?”
    “Probably.”
    I stopped at the corner. “So where to? And don’t say ‘wherever.’ It’s pouring and I’ll feel like a jerk if I just let you off by the side of the road so you get even more soaked. Besides, you heard my sister. I have no life.”
    Sam tapped grease-stained fingers on the dash. “Okay, then. Out Clark Road, past the highway.”
    I nodded. We drove in silence for a while, the rain hammering. “I didn’t see you yesterday at school,” I said to fill the quiet. “I mean, in study hall I noticed …”
    “I was working. At