Free Hot Water by Erin Brockovich Page A

without any more mishaps. Which is what I hired you for.” He didn’t look too happy about that employment choice right now.
    “My point is, that reputation depends not on how good you are, but on how good you are perceived to be.” I tried to translate basic human nature into concepts he could understand—power, control, deception. “Treating these people with respect and common courtesy will go a long way to cementing a good impression of Colleton Landing.”
    His face twisted as he looked out across the mud and water. The tide must have been out because there were about ten yards of mud between us and the water. Something moved in the mud under the shadow of a tree close to ours. Another alligator.
    My nerves skittered with primeval flight or fight, but I forced myself to stand still. The gator didn’t care one way or the other. He merely oriented himself to keep us in sight, gave a shudder to splash more mud over his scales, and went back to his nap.
    Grandel made up his mind, smiling and clapping me on the shoulder as if mugging for the cameras. “Okay, we’ll do it your way. But in the future, you come to me first. Don’t go shouting things out in public like that.”
    “Of course.” All the better for him to grab the credit—but that’s what he was paying me for, so I held my tongue.

    After dinner, alone in the summerhouse with Elizabeth—now David knew what a volcano felt like. Or the inside of a nuclear reactor like the kind his mom was getting to visit. So unfair.
    His skin felt hot and stretched so tight he thought his feelings would burst right through it. His heart kept galloping away, and with it his ability to look at Elizabeth without his throat closing tight, threatening to choke him to death. He couldn’t speak. Not without his voice emerging high-pitched like a little girl’s and cracking.
    It was torture sitting in his chair pretending to work on inking Captain Awesome’s latest adventure—saving a nuclear plant from meltdown—while Elizabeth curled up on the couch, surrounded by legal documents, her teeth nibbling at her lower lip as she flicked her pen back and forth. God, she was so pretty. What could he say to make her notice him?
    “Interesting case?” he finally asked. Idiot. How lame was that. Of course it was interesting if it had her so absorbed.
    “Huh-huh,” she made a noise without looking up at him.
    “What’s it about?” His mom shared all her cases with him.
    She glanced up at that, her brown hair falling into her face at the sudden movement. He wished he were close enough to touch her hair, maybe tuck it behind her ears like the cool guys in the movies always did. They never had to say anything, the girls just knew, and next thing they’d be together, kissing and hugging.
    Not that he wanted to kiss Elizabeth. Well, maybe. No, probably not—from the movies and TV it looked complicated, like it would be so easy to mess it up if you didn’t know what you were doing.
    “Sorry,” she said, answering a question he couldn’t remember asking. “Confidential.”
    His face lit on fire so fast he was astonished his eyebrows weren’t singed off. “Oh. Of course. Sorry. I knew that.”
    Lame, lame, lame. He sounded like a stupid little kid. Elizabeth was so smart, so beautiful. Of course she’d never notice him.
    Then came the coup de grace . She smiled at him—not the good, “I like you” smile that he wanted to see, but more the “that’s okay, you’re just a child” smile that his mother sometimes gave him and he despised.
    She went back to her files and he melted into his chair, completely demolished.
    All he wanted to do was talk with her—but how?
    He couldn’t ask Ty. He’d seen Ty around women and he wasn’t exactly smooth. Especially not around David’s mom. Ty would usually just stand there watching, waiting for a chance to take action. Besides, Ty might tell his mom.
    Jeremy. Jeremy would know. Jeremy was one of those guys who could talk to