Thicker Than Water (The Briar Creek Vampires Book #2) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse by Jayme Morse Page B

to
find jewelry to wear besides her bat pendant because although she
loved it, the pendant just didn’t look right with the
dress.
    When Lexi opened the dressing room door,
Mary-Kate stared back at her with a shocked expression. “You won’t
be needing any of these to try on,” Mary-Kate said, motioning to
the pile of dresses that she had collected from the store for Lexi
to try on. “This one looks amazing! It’s definitely the
one.”
    “Thanks,” Lexi replied, studying herself in the
mirror. “I actually love it, too, even though I didn’t think I
would.” She stepped back into the dressing room again to change
into her clothes.
    When she was done, Mary-Kate was waiting
outside looking at shoes. When Lexi approached her, Mary-Kate
asked, “Have you thought about how you’re doing your
hair?”
    Lexi shrugged. “Not really. I was thinking
about just wearing it straight.”
    “You can’t wear it straight,” Mary-Kate replied
matter-of-factly, shaking her head. “Why don’t you come over to my
house before the dance, and I’ll do it for you?”
    “That’s fine,” Lexi replied. She made a mental
note to not go upstairs this time without Mary-Kate. Then again,
getting attacked by Mrs. Lawrence probably wouldn’t be as bad as
being stuck in Violet’s house for the night. Violet and Tommy were
being overly nice, for once, but Lexi knew she had to listen to
Austin’s advice in her dream. It was fake; her aunt and uncle were
just trying to gain her trust for some reason. Maybe they were the ones who had her tombstone made and put into the
graveyard. It wouldn’t surprise her after the way they had treated
her before the accident. When Justin got into the accident, he had
been driving home to ask Mrs. Collins if Lexi could live with them
because he had seen firsthand how crazy her aunt could be. Just the
thought that her own family could be thinking of doing such a thing
sent a shiver down her spine.
    They turned the corner to pay at the cash
register and got into line behind a man with short brown hair. When
he turned his head to the left, Lexi realized that it was
Craig.
    Judging from the way Mary-Kate’s face lit up,
Lexi realized that she had spotted him, too.
    “Hi, Mr. Lindstrom!” Mary-Kate said
enthusiastically.
    Craig turned around. “Hey, Mary-Kate.” He
turned to Lexi. She felt his hazel eyes looking her over. “Hello,
Lexi,” he said quietly.
    “Hi,” Lexi replied, hoping that she wasn’t
blushing as much as she felt like she was.
    “Are you chaperoning the homecoming dance again
this year?” Mary-Kate asked, in a hopeful voice that made Lexi look
at her oddly.
    Craig nodded. “Yup, I am. I hope to see you
there.” He winked at Lexi. “Both of you, that is.”
    Lexi smiled and blushed. “We’ll be there,” she
replied. Lexi glanced over at Mary-Kate to see if she had noticed
the wink. Her face didn’t indicate that she had. Lexi felt really
conflicted about whether or not she wanted Mary-Kate to know.
Although Lexi knew it would be bad for anyone to find out, it would
sort of be a blessing in a way. Lexi really needed someone to
confide in about it, but she wasn’t about to tell Mary-Kate unless
she somehow figured it out on her own.
    Everyone in Briar Creek might know
everything about everyone else, but Craig was one secret that Lexi
didn’t want to get out. He might be her only way to escape from
Briar Creek.
    ****

Chapter 10
     
     
    The next morning, Lexi went to school feeling
slightly less awkward. Now that she knew that Craig was into her,
she didn’t feel so weird about looking like a dork playing sports
in front of him. She was even beginning to wish that Briar Creek
High had a swimming pool so that she could strut around in her
bikini.
    Even though she wasn’t sure how much she
actually liked Craig yet, she knew one thing was for sure: focusing
her attention on him was helping Lexi keep her mind off of Gabe. As
much as she didn’t want to admit it, Lexi missed