Free Secrets and Shadows by Shannon Delany

my pride might have stepped in and made me see sense. Besides, regardless of the additional income, what would Pietr say?
    I gnawed my lower lip. Pietr hadn’t said much of anything these past few days. And Derek gave me his puppy dog eyes. And a tidy stack of bil s like it was nothing. “Okay.”
    I could talk Dad into this. It was business, not pleasure.
    And I could be professional. I’d be instructing him. It wasn’t like we were starting a relationship. So what if he was my old crush? “Fine. Two days each week. Your choice.”
    “Tuesday and Thursday,” he said without hesitation.
    “Oh. Okay. Tuesday and Thursday.”
    “Wil he…” Derek paused, looking up into my eyes as he put out a hand to help me down.
    “What?”
    “Wil Pietr give you any problem?” he asked. “I know there’s something going on between you. Even if Sarah doesn’t.”
    “No,” I took his hand, but I wasn’t as certain as I sounded. I slipped my leg over the saddle to dismount.
    Images flooded my brain again, blurring my vision and toying with my perception. I only saw one thing clearly.
    Pietr kissing Sarah.
    I fel forward.
    And Derek caught me.
    He held me against his body, sliding me slowly down his front until the breath caught in my throat and my boots touched the ground. Nose to nose, he smiled at me. “I don’t want to cause you any trouble,” he confided. “Even though I think you could do much better than Pietr Rusakova.”

    He released me. “Tuesday,” he confirmed, walking back to the waiting car.
    Yeah.
    It was sure to be no trouble.

CHAPTER TEN
    “Sorry you’re stil grounded,” Sarah said one morning in the hal way, sans Pietr.
    Was there anyone who didn’t know?
    “So how did your rendezvous with Max go, you shameless girl?” she teased.
    Seriously? That was the rumor explaining why I’d gotten grounded? My makeup application skil s were surely not that good or the CIA would be contacting me any day about working deep cover. I’d kept my ears closed to what people were whispering, but rumors flew around Junction fast as hayseed in summer.
    I refused to show shock. “It was as much a surprise to me as it was to you.”
    “Are you two going out?”
    Pietr appeared, lugging Sarah’s backpack along with his own. He watched me a moment, then searched for the nearest clock.
    I focused on Sarah. She was smiling. Being supportive.
    Dammit.
    Her hand slipped into his, and she swung it gently. Casual y. Like they were really together.
    Dammit.
    My lies and choices had led us al here, so I couldn’t—wel , shouldn’t —blame her. But I did. For so much. “It wouldn’t work out with Max and me.” My eyes drifted to Pietr’s and managed to hold them for the length of one sentence: “Although he’s amazingly sexy.”
    Pietr gave no sign of hearing. He wasn’t looking at me anymore. He was watching the clock.
    Again.
    “Sorry. Max is a hottie.” Sarah linked her arm with mine and sighed, leaning against me. “There’s someone out there for you, Jessica. Closer than you think.”
    I fol owed her gaze across the hal way.
    Derek stood spotlighted in the stark autumn sunlight, blond hair glowing, bright eyes smiling to match his handsome mouth as he joked with his footbal buddies. He must have felt our eyes on him, because he paused and looked at me, his smile broadening into an easy grin.
    “He’s a looker,” she confided, giving a little wave as she clung to me.
    I bit the inside of my cheek before whispering, “ ‘But I real y think it’s guts that matter most.’ ”
    “What?”
    “Just a song stuck in my head,” I mumbled, thinking of Spil Canvas’s “Al Over You.” And the truth.
    She sighed again.

    “You seem tired.”
    “Do I look tired?” she asked, fingers flying up to touch her face in wonder. She played with the silky blond curls that framed her face so perfectly, hiding the scar that nudged at her hairline, a reminder she’d nearly died in the accident.
    The accident