The Summer of No Regrets Read Online Free PDF

eyes with him. She was terrifyingly beautiful: strong and sleek. Luke froze.
    My knuckles were white on the railing. “Get big!” I yeled.
    “Stand up!”
    He must have wondered where the disembodied voice was coming from, but he didn’t dare look away from the cat. He got to his feet and began backing away from her. I could see that he’d soon be trapped against the bushes. I had to think like a cougar. Luke certainly wasn’t going to.
    I clambered down the ladder. The cougar didn’t even look at me. I had nothing to fight her with. I tore off my Nonni coat, not sure how that was going to help. All I could hear in my ears was my own holering. I had no time to consider whether I was crazy.
    Luke was yeling “Get away!” At the cougar or at me, I couldn’t tel, but I raced forward and began whacking at the cat with my coat. (Yes, I realize now, I was crazy.) The cougar shook her head, like the coat was an annoying insect. She laid her ears flat and opened her mouth. Four huge canines gleamed in the morning light. Her muscular shoulders rippled as she moved toward us, and a hiss like a rattlesnake came from her throat.
    Luke was breathing hard. “Holy shit,” he said. The cougar circled. She was fixed on Luke. I scooped up a handful of dirt, rocks, and fir cones and threw it at her face, but she didn’t even flinch. I kept swinging my coat.
    Luke grabbed a broken tree limb and thrust it at her. She snarled. My coat caught on a branch, and she swiped at it with a plate-sized paw. I felt naked without my coat. Undefended. I’d die here with Luke. Realy die. Not like in the stories I made up.
    Focus , I told myself. Breathe and focus .
    I read an article about a woman kiled by a cougar in Colorado. The cat had sunk its teeth into her head and neck and peeled her scalp back. That’s how they’d find us: scalped, covered in leaves with all our vital organs eaten out. I wished I covered in leaves with all our vital organs eaten out. I wished I knew less about animals.
    Luke swung the tree limb in front of us. The cougar stayed in a crouch, her tail twitching, her eyes locked with his. I became a two-legged rock thrower. “Oh, God!” I kept screaming, “O-god-o-god-o-god-o-god-o-god!” I yeled myself hoarse and went on yeling. I was drenched in sweat. We backed, one step at a time, across the clearing, past Eve. The cat folowed us step for step, tail low, icy golden eyes staring Luke down.
    Then, as if she’d suddenly thought of something better to do, the cougar relaxed. Her canines disappeared, and her tongue came out to lick her nose. And then she turned and walked into the trees. Stopping for a brief moment, she looked back at us as if to say, “Not this time.” As quickly as she had appeared, she disappeared.
    I colapsed against Eve. I was shaking and couldn’t stop.
    Luke’s face was covered in dirt and maybe tears. I’d prayed never to see him again, but now it didn’t matter.
    He held his hand out to me. I took it. “Thanks,” he croaked and puled me to him. He wrapped his arms around me. He was shaking, too. We stood that way for a long time. I smeled the wet wool of his sweater. He put his chin on my hair as if we’d always known each other. I felt the fear drain out of both of us.
    Devon had never, ever held me like that. No one had.
    Luke stepped back and looked at me, his hands still on my arms. Then he stepped into the clearing and picked up my Nonni coat from where the cougar had tossed it. Three huge rips ran down the back of it. I shivered and he put it around me. “Here’s your hero cloak,” he said.
    His eyes were so blue I thought I’d fall into them and drown. I wanted to touch his jaw where it curved down to a strong chin streaked with dirt. His lips were wide and kissable. He smiled.
    And then, in the middle of the most romantic moment of my life so far, I opened my mouth and said, “You do look like Trent Yves.”

    Yves.”

chapter
five
    “Omigod, omigod, omigod,