Whisper (Novella) by CRYSTAL GREEN

to see any light, and as we embraced out there that night, I lost myself in him, the music from the club thumping on, pacing my heartbeat.
    Echoing a suddenly brighter future with my not-so-secret admirer on my side.

 
    If you enjoyed this story, please consider leaving a review at Goodreads or any reader site or blog you frequent.
    You can read about hellraiser rebel Micah Wyatt in
Honeytrap
, available February 2015 from InterMix—keep reading for a preview!
    And look for Carley and Bret to be characters in
Sugarbaby
,
a future Aidan Falls book!

 
    When the group on the dock finally saw us lying out on the lake’s shore, the attacks began, just like I told Evie they would.
    â€œShe came back to town? Unbelievable!” one of them yelled.
    â€œSmall town, small world! Too bad it isn’t big enough to make that bitch disappear!”
    From the towel next to me, Evie put her hand on my arm. In her unflappable voice she said, “Ignore them, Shelby. They’re just being dicks.”
    It didn’t really matter that the loud comments were coming from two girls I’d gone to high school with more than a year ago. In Evie’s world, being a dick was equal opportunity.
    I didn’t have to remind her that I’d gotten used to being raked over the coals like this the past couple of months, so I didn’t respond except to pat Evie’s hand in thanks. Then I tried to relax while I reclined on my back, dressed in my bikini, letting all the shouted comments evaporate like the May humidity.
    But my fan club wasn’t done.
    â€œLet’s see how fast she hightails it outta here when Rex comes!” This time, it was a guy’s voice.
    I bit my lip at the sound of Rex’s name, hurt tightening my throat. Rex, my first love . . . my first in a lot of things. The anguish trickled downward, into my chest, strangling my heart.
    Evie slowly sat up and, with smooth deliberation, flew the double bird to the small pack on the dock about a hundred feet away. They laughed and flipped her off right back.
    â€œYou’d think,” she said, all collected and cool, sliding onto her stomach, her long red braid smacking her shoulder, “that they’d grow up after some college experience, just like the rest of us.”
    I kept trying to act like what they were saying didn’t bother me. And like my stomach wasn’t tumbling about Rex coming here. The end of our relationship had been ugly—devastatingly ugly. I was the first to admit that I should’ve handled the breakup with Rex in a better way, but the kids here in Aidan Falls, Texas, loved their former star quarterback, and no one humiliated him—especially if that “no one” was a nobody ex who should’ve considered herself lucky to go out with a stud like T-Rex Alvarez in the first place, even if he’d . . .
    The memory crushed me.
Even if he’d cheated with a girl named Lana Peyton.
    As I peered from the corner of my eye, I saw that the dock kids had already gotten bored with hurling insults at me. They were unpacking a cooler, the gleam of beer bottles sparkling in the sun, the splatter of a hip hop song breaking the air as someone turned on a playlist and a couple ex-cheerleaders started dancing around.
    â€œLet’s leave,” I said to Evie.
    â€œHell no.” She stretched out like a cat in a sleek black bathing suit while the tiny hoop piercing in her lip caught the light. “And don’t you dare start bellyaching about how I forced you to come to the lake. You’ve been back for two days already and you hadn’t stepped foot out of your house.”
    â€œThey don’t want me here.”
    â€œJeez, Shel! You’re allowed to go anywhere you want in this town. Are you going to let them control you all summer? Besides, you’ve always had a way of making the others get bored with teasing you every day, all the way back to grade school,