Chapter One
Some kids were lucky not to have to hustle during high school. They got everything from their parents, including a plush allowance to pay for all their toys. No babysitting jobs. No pushing pizza slices. No busting their rear ends off to make a dime.
I, Lexi Black, wasn’t one of those kids.
According to my parents, if I wanted the new Artis makeup brush set, I was going to have to earn every single penny. I was getting close. Flipping through the dollar bills in my hand as I trudged down the ditch in a shortcut to my dad’s new house, I added up the dollars and cents in my head.
Only fifty more dollars to go. Today’s birthday party had paid off. One of the parents I babysat for in the evenings hired me to do face-painting at their kid’s party. It wasn’t exactly the kind of stage makeup I wanted to do when I finally busted out of this dinky little town, but it worked for now. I had a pocket full of money and a pink and purple sparkly butterfly spread across my face to show for it.
“And you thought those painting lessons wouldn’t pay off,” I said to myself with a mocking laugh. It was punctuated by the sound of rolling thunder in the distance, as if the heavens themselves were laughing with me.
Dad had paid for my lessons two years ago—it was the summer I’d been convinced I was going to go on to become as famous as Andy Warhol. Unfortunately, I quickly learned that painting on a canvas was about as exciting as watching ice melt.
But painting on a face? Now, that was fun.
I pushed my long hair out of my face, annoyed by the fact that the humidity from an incoming storm had ruined my straightening job this morning. At least my brand new foundation was standing strong. Changing makeup brands was like setting the tone for a fantastic new year. I was about to start my junior year at Rock Valley High next week and everything was going my way.
Thunder rumbled again in the distance and the raindrops that followed it seemed to argue differently. I clutched my face paint kit to my side and picked up speed. Running wasn’t exactly on my short list of talents, but a girl had to do what a girl had to do to keep her mascara from running. And as the rain began to fall harder, I broke into a sprint, altering course for a screened-in picnic shelter only fifty yards ahead.
My gladiator sandals squelched through the field, which was quickly becoming gross and muddy. I squealed as my foot got stuck deep in muck. With the strap of my face paint kit hanging from my teeth and both my hands tugging under my knee, I managed to disengage it. However, another step forward had me slipping and sliding in the slick mud as if this were some kind of yard game.
This time, there was no fighting it. The kids from the party would’ve yelled timber and giggled at my expense. Waving my arms crazily, I went down in an undignified mess of limbs and wet hair...butt firmly planted in a plot of wet grass.
“Why?” I threw my head back to glare angrily at the sky above. “Was that really necessary?”
Mud oozed through my fingers as I fisted the ground around me in defeat. I was just going to sit there and let the rainstorm wash me away. So long, cruel world. My older sister, Audrey, would jump at the chance to turn my bedroom into a music room for all her junk. Dad would probably use the college money he’d been saving for me to buy my new stepmom a MINI Cooper. Lucky her.
At the least, I hoped there was a Sephora in heaven.
But just as I was about to give up on life in general, the sound of feet stomping through the mud behind me had me twisting around to get a look. Was it the Grim Reaper, coming to take me away? I couldn’t be sure, but I definitely hoped so. A hooded dark figure with broad shoulders bore down on me, grabbing me around the waist and plucking me from the mud as if I weighed nothing.
“Come on, let’s go,” he growled, ducking his head against the rain.
I didn’t get a look at his face, but I could feel the strength in his arms as he pushed me toward the shelter. The rain was coming down in sheets now. I could hardly catch my breath. It wasn’t until we were inside did I finally manage to get a lungful of air.
The stranger released me, and I dragged my sopping wet sandals across the dry cement floor. I was officially soaked from head to toe. Gone was the last bit of straightened hair. If I was lucky, the concealer I’d carefully put over my horrible acne scars this morning was still in place. I could only pray that if I didn’t touch my cheeks, it would all stay in place.
If anyone saw me without my makeup, I really was going to need a Grim Reaper to put me out of my misery.
I dropped my rear onto the nearest picnic table bench and pouted, waiting for my skin to dry. It wasn’t until I dragged my eyes up from the floor to look at my rescuer did I snap out of the self-pity and dove straight into embarrassment territory.
“You?!”
“Me.” My rescuer smirked at me, as if he were trying to keep from laughing. He shook his dirty blond hair, sending water droplets flying. “Nice to see you again, Lexi Black.”
Every syllable of my name fell off his tongue like the electrifying sound of a guitar riffing. I knew that hair, just long enough to fall over his brow. The strong jawline and perfectly shaped nose. And most of all, those eyes so blue that a Robin’s egg had nothing on them. We’d met only a few days ago, at my dad’s work party for the new movie they were going to be filming at Rock Valley High this fall. I didn’t know his name, but I could pick him out of a lineup anywhere.
The mystery boy.
That work party was supposed to be all glitz and glamour, but had ended in me sitting alone sending snapchats to all my friends who’d abandoned me that night becaus
e it was so boring. The only not-boring part about that party had been meeting him...the boy who’d never given me his name and was now looking at me with a strange expression in his blue eyes.
“What are you, some kind of stalker?” I shot him a nervous smile as I tried to nonchalantly smooth my hair out. It probably didn’t help. I was sure I looked like a drowned rat and half of my makeup was gone. It was just my luck that today of all days I had to come face-to-face with the most gorgeous boy I’d ever seen in my sixteen years of life.
The side of his mouth quirked in disbelief. He pushed his six-foot-tall athletic frame onto the nearest tabletop and grasped the edge with his long, slender fingers. “I’m not sure I’ve ever been accused of being a stalker before. For the record, I was practicing my soccer moves before the monsoon came through and I had to rescue you from drowning. Now, I’m just waiting on my ride.”
“Yeah, well, thanks for that.” I stared hopelessly down at my blouse which had been soaked through and flecked with mud. Much like my mom’s expensive blouse I’d stained the night I met mystery boy, it was ruined. “You’re a nightmare for my wardrobe, you know that?”
He snorted and then smiled down at the ground, flashing his impossibly white and straight teeth. It was a nice smile, the kind that made a girl’s stomach twitch a little bit with the sensation of butterfly wings.
When we’d met at the party, he’d been all serious and tense, first accusing me of being the paparazzi—as if that would ever happen in Rock Valley High—and then, out of nowhere, coming to my rescue after I’d destroyed my mom’s shirt. He’d disappeared into the crowd after that. I’d tried to look for him, but there was no sign of the mystery boy. I had started to believe he was a figment of my imagination, but now, here he was again. In the flesh.
Definitely still a mystery.
“So, what’s your name, anyway?” I asked.
He froze, blinking at me as if in shock. “What? What do you mean?”
“Your name, silly.” I gave him my most flirtatious smile. It was one I’d perfected on the boys at school. “You know, the question people usually ask when they meet someone new. You know mine. It’s only fair that I know yours.”
“My name?” His face contorted as if I’d just asked him if the sky was blue. “It’s...Zane?”
It seemed like he was anticipating some kind of fireworks show from me after he uttered his name in such a weird way, but I just shrugged. It wasn’t the weirdest name I’d ever heard. Actually, it was kind of cool sounding.
“Thanks. I was getting tired of thinking of you as the mystery boy.”
Disbelief turned into a suppressed grin as he slid off the table and came to take a seat beside me. “So...you’ve been thinking of me?”
I threw my head back and laughed. Zane had some nerve. I liked it.
“Thinking about how you ruined my chance to work on that movie crew.”
He pulled his chin back and grimaced. “Hey! It wasn’t my fault you flattened that waiter and got shrimp sauce on your shirt.”
I gave him a sad smile. “Yeah, well, I guess it doesn’t matter now. I wasn’t even given the chance to charm my way into the makeup crew. All my hopes and dreams, down the drain, because someone wrongfully accused me of being a no-good sneaky reporter.”
“I’m really sorry about that, Lexi.”
One glance at the side of his face, and my heart sank. I’d only been teasing him, trying out my best flirting techniques, but he was staring hard at the floor as if I’d just accused him of capital murder. I’d never seen a guy be so serious. Usually, they were too busy hitting on me or tripping over themselves. I nudged him with my shoulder, smiling when he looked up at me.
“Hey, I haven’t given up yet. There’s a reason my sister calls me the most annoying person in the world. If I can’t charm my way in, plan B is to keep asking until they give up. No worries.”
He pressed his lips together for moment and then sighed. “For the record, I don’t find you annoying.”