TROUBLE, A New Adult Romance Novel (The Rebel Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

smiling.   He actually has the nerve to smile when I’m upset.
    “You’re surprised about that?”   I throw my hands up and let them fall down to slap my legs.   “I don’t get you, Colin.   You paint like a master, you swear like a trucker, and you smile like an angel.   You are a walking, talking, out-loud lie of epic proportions.”
    He stands there for a few long seconds frowning at me before he responds.   “Uhhh … I’m not exactly sure … did you just compliment me or insult me?”
    “Arrrgh!” I scream, storming off.   I stride through the office and out the front door of the garage.   I cannot stand to be in the same room with that man for another second.   I’m liable to nub him to death with my pitiful used-to-be fingernails.
    “Where are you going?”   Colin’s behind me, yelling from the doorway as I trudge across the parking lot.
    “None of your beeswax!   Leave me alone!”   I have no idea where I’m going, but he doesn’t need to know that.
    I spy some golden arches in the distance and decide this is probably the best place for me to burn off my anger.   I can get a free ice water and use their bathroom - double score.
    Putting all my anger into my stride, I make it to the fast-food place in under five minutes.

CHAPTER FOUR

    I’M SUCKING DOWN THE LAST bits of an ice water delivered through a fat, plastic, yellow-striped straw when I spy a pregnant girl coming in the door.   She looks like she’s ready to pop, and the minute I spy her cankles I recognize a kindred spirit.   I totally feel her pain.
    She looks over at me and smiles shyly.
    I smile back because for the first time all day, I feel like I’m looking at someone who can understand what I’m going through.   It helps to not feel like the only one in the world suffering like I am.   There are now two potbelly pigs in the house.   I wonder if she snorts when she laughs too. I never used to do that.
    She goes up to the counter and orders.   When she gets her tray, she walks over in my direction.
    I quickly look down at the table, embarrassed about being caught staring.   I know I hate it when people do that to me.
    “Hi.   Is this seat taken?” she asks, gesturing to the spot across from me.
    I look around at all the empty tables around us.   We’re the only ones in the whole place.   Why does she want to sit here?
    “No, I guess not.”   I squirm a little in my seat.   I’m not used to strangers approaching me, and now this is twice in one day it’s happened.   Am I wearing a sign that says, Make friends with me, I’m lonely ?
    “Good.   Because I am sick and tired of sitting in the corner alone,” she says, smiling again.   Her teeth are so white they glow.   Her hair is pulled back in a slick pony tail and her skin is flawless, the color of dark mahogany.   I can’t stop staring at her face.
    “What?   Do I have something on me?   A sesame seed?”   She wipes at her cheek.
    I shake my head.   “No.   I was just admiring your complexion.   You’re one of those pregnant girls who glows.”   I sigh heavily.   “I’m the kind that tarnishes and blotches.”
    “Oh, flub that.   You’re gorgeous.”
    I smile.   “Flub that?   That’s original.”
    She shrugs as she chews a bite of her happy meal hamburger.   “You know.   Gonna have a baby and all. Gotta start going with the Rated-G stuff.”
    When I see her eating the little kid meal and her round little face, it strikes me how young she looks.   “How far along are you?” I ask.   What I really want to know is how old she is, but I don’t want to be rude.
    “Eight months, three days, and forty some minutes.   I am so done with the pregnancy, you have no idea.”
    I rub my belly absently.   “Oh, yes I do.   Believe me.”
    She grins.   “Oh.   I guess you do.   That’s cool.”
    I glance at her ring finger.   It’s empty like mine.
    Catching me staring, she holds up her left hand.   “Nope, not