All-American Princess - Maggie Dallen Page 0,13

“Welcome to Pinedale,” I said to Lila with a bright smile and a far less depressing tone.

She grinned. “Thank you. I’m so happy to be here.”

Jack made a snorting noise, and while I glanced over at him, Lila didn’t seem to notice. She was too busy looping her arm through mine and nodding toward the group who’d stopped whatever they were doing to stare at the newcomer. “Will you introduce me?”

“Uh, sure,” I started, but Amber interrupted.

“Are you going to Pinedale High this fall?”

Lila seemed to notice Amber for the first time, and her smile fell a bit when she turned to face her. “Possibly.”

I exchanged a quick look with Jack. Possibly? What did that mean? School started up in a week and she wasn’t sure if she was going?

She seemed to read my mind because her gaze moved back to meet me and she ducked her head a bit, her voice softening even more. “Things are a little… up in the air for me and my sister right now.”

Now, I wasn’t much of a tough guy. Jack played that role for both of us. But I swear, I felt the urge to pick up a sword and battle every one of this girl’s demons. “We’d be lucky to have you if you stick around.”

I was rewarded by a smile that was almost sweet. It would have been all the way sweet if there hadn’t been a hint of something naughty there as well.

Something seductive.

I took another step back, but with her arm tucked in mine, that meant we were both moving away from Amber and Jack, and I let her steer us toward the group of onlookers who weren’t even pretending not to stare.

As soon as I introduced her, they stopped staring and the questions began. It didn’t start well.

“Where are you from?” Zoe asked.

“California.”

“What part?” Tom asked.

“Los Angeles.”

I winced inwardly on her behalf as that answer was met with varying degrees of disdain. California was sort of a curse word around here to begin with since the tourists who came through here often called California home.

Let’s just say the ski crowd that came through town rarely left a good taste in anyone’s mouth, so California had become synonymous with uppity snobs. And Los Angeles? Yeah, that only made things worse.

“What are you doing here?” one of Amber’s friends asked. She didn’t try to be polite about it.

Lila stiffened a bit against my side, but she kept her chin held high. Too high, actually. Was it my imagination or was she looking down her nose at Amber’s friend. “Slumming it,” she said.

The silence that followed was deafening. Lila broke it with a laugh. “I’m kidding. Jeez, totally kidding.”

The joke did not go over well. What had already felt tense was now becoming weird, even by Pinedale standards. I could practically see the walls going up as Lila was judged and found lacking.

She did not fit in here.

Thank goodness for Amber. She joined us, with Jack following, hanging out on the outskirts of the circle as he was wont to do. He’d be no help, but Amber was exactly the sort of friendly face this group needed to ease the awkwardness.

She broke the tension and got conversations started, taking the heat off Lila. I cast her a grateful look, and she gave me an answering wink.

“Hey Brandon?” Lila said, drawing me ever closer.

“Yeah?”

She nodded toward the lake where two couples were swimming, including my football teammate Ryan and his girlfriend, Kimmie. “Would you join me?” she asked.

I glanced around and saw that everyone else was diving into the cooler full of beers that Ryan and his friends had no doubt brought. I wasn’t into drinking. When the entire world finds out that your beloved dad was a user who overdosed, you tend to steer clear of drugs and alcohol. Or at least I did.

“Sure, why not?” I went to lead the way, but Lila was way ahead of me, stripping as she walked.

Holy crap. The girl wore a bikini, but it was skimpy beyond belief. I heard the chatter stop behind me and knew I wasn’t the only one watching. I wasn’t the only one getting a show.

When she reached the rock ledge where others had been diving, she never even stopped to look back at the mortals in her wake. She didn’t even stop to assess the lake before diving in headfirst in a graceful display that left us all speechless.

I didn’t turn around to see what the others