Читать книгу The Man She Loves To Hate - Kelly Hunter - Страница 7

‘HANNAH, wait up!’ Jolie Tanner slipped out of her house yard and slammed the wire gate shut behind her as she raced to catch up with her friend. Usually Hannah called out on the way past, or Jolie waited on the step for her—the plan wasn’t foolproof but they’d been walking to school together since kindergarten and, unless one of them was sick, they had the routine down pat. ‘Han!’

But Hannah didn’t slow down or turn around. Hannah kept right on walking.

Cole walked with Hannah today and that was unusual. Cole was Hannah’s big brother. Big as in seventeen years old and tall and strong and in his final year of high school. Big as in handsome, and popular, and good at absolutely everything.

Cole had shaggy black hair, olive skin, and green green eyes framed by dark curling lashes. Cole left every Hollywood teen heartthrob for dead. Including the vampires.

Hannah adored her brother. Jolie adored him too, although Jolie’s adoration of late had been tinged with an awareness she couldn’t describe. She’d begun to feel tongue-tied around him. She didn’t know where to look or what to do. Hannah had noticed. Hannah had started teasing Jolie about her stupid reactions to Cole.

Was that why Hannah wouldn’t turn around?

Because Jolie knew Cole was too old for her, too everything for her, and that he would never look at her like that. It was just a phase she was going through. That was what her mother had said when Jolie had mentioned—kind of—that she got clumsy around Cole Rees these days. Rachel Tanner had smiled her crinkly smile and told Jolie she’d grow out of it eventually.

Her total crush on Cole Rees was nothing to worry about. It was just a phase.

‘Hannah, wait up.’ Slinging her bag more securely over her shoulder, Jolie began to run to catch up.

‘Just keep walking,’ said Cole.

‘But what do I say?’ asked Hannah, her eyes stricken and her expression piteous. ‘Cole, she’s my best friend. What do I say?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Do you think she knows?’

‘How would I know?’ Cole Rees didn’t know anything any more. He’d thought his parents’ marriage was solid. Not great, but solid. He’d thought his father walked on water. Reality had come as a shock. His father had been having an affair—for over a year now he’d been having an affair. With Jolie Tanner’s mother. His father had admitted it last night in a blazing row. His father wanted a divorce. Cole and Hannah had been upstairs but they’d heard it all. The accusations, the acknowledgement, and then the tears.

So many tears.

Jolie called out again, and Cole kept right on walking. Little Jolie T might have been just a kid but she was already a beauty. Hair the colours of firelight and big grey eyes that seemed to see everything. Jolie’s mother was one of the most beautiful women Cole had ever seen. Jolie would be the same. Just give her time.

And then Jolie was beside them on the footpath, those big grey eyes bright and her red ponytail bouncing. ‘Hannah, did you do the homework for the test?’

Hannah said nothing. Hannah shot him another pleading glance and Cole wished himself somewhere, anywhere, else.

Jolie had been in and out of their home since she’d been tiny. She wasn’t family but she was a part of Cole’s life—a part that he’d taken for granted and been used to. Hannah’s friend. Quirky. Funny. Always scribbling in a little notebook she never would show anyone. Cole had asked Hannah what was in it once. Pictures, Hannah had said, so he’d then had to ask the obvious. What kind of pictures?

All kinds, had been Hannah’s reply. Animals, people, colour. She drew everything.

Cole had found the notion oddly fascinating.

‘Han,’ whispered Jolie again, bringing Cole back to the present with a scowl. ‘Did you do your homework?’

Hannah shook her head to signify no, and then just put her head down and kept right on walking. Not a lot of homework happening in the Rees household last night.

Cole glanced at Jolie and saw the puzzled hurt in her eyes. Grimly he put his own head down and kept walking. Quickly. Silently. Trying to pretend that little Jolie Tanner wasn’t hurrying along beside them, trying to keep up with them, and wondering what on earth was going on.

That was the way the three of them walked to school.

Cole hated every step of it.

Something was wrong. Dreadfully wrong. Hannah wouldn’t talk to her, Cole had ignored her. Cole had disappeared once they’d reached the school buildings. Jolie had been hoping that once he’d gone, she might have more to say.

But Hannah wouldn’t even look at her.

‘Hannah, what is it?’ asked Jolie. ‘Say something.’

‘I can’t be your friend any more,’ she said in a choked voice, and Jolie looked closer. She was crying.

‘What?’ Jolie’s heartbeat tripled. ‘Hannah, what are you talking about?’

But Hannah had fled then, to the classroom, and by recess Sarah wasn’t talking to Jolie, either.

By lunchtime, not one of the girls Jolie and Hannah usually hung out with were talking to Jolie, and Jolie was beside herself. She went looking for Cole, and finally found him coming out of the library alone. He saw her. He tried to walk straight past her.

‘Cole,’ she said, scrambling to keep up with him. ‘Cole, there’s something wrong with Hannah. She won’t talk to me. She’s crying. Cole, she’s so upset. What’s going on?’ Jolie put her hand to his arm to slow him down and gasped as he wrenched violently out of her reach. ‘Please … I … I just want to know what’s wrong?’

‘Ask your mother,’ he said, and his voice sounded harsh and defensive. ‘And don’t touch me.’

Jolie blushed scarlet and put the offending hand behind her back. ‘I won’t touch. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.’ And when he stared at her with burning green eyes, ‘Cole, please. I just … Hannah hates me and I don’t know why,’ she pleaded. ‘Hannah, and Sarah, and now Evie and Bree too. No one will even talk to me.’

‘Why should I care?’ he said finally. ‘Why should I give a damn about you and your problems? Just stay away from Hannah and stay the hell away from me.’

‘But why?’ she whispered, fighting the urge to flee. ‘Cole, I don’t know what’s wrong. Cole, please.’ She didn’t know how else to phrase her question. ‘What have I done wrong?’