Free Lie to Me (A Touched Trilogy) by Angela Fristoe Page A

should just make her follow me all the way
to the car.
    “What about Tonya?”
    “What about her? She and Trevor already bailed.”
    “But, I saw...”
    “Do you realize how often you’ve been saying that? ‘But, I
saw!’ Maybe you need to talk to Nanna about your vision.”
    Part of me felt bad for calling out Chloe on her misguided
visions again, but I squished that feeling fast. I started down the street,
rubbing my hands along my arms. It was darker than I thought it’d be. Only a
few of the streetlamps worked, the rest were turned off to save the town money.
Tall bushes lined the sidewalk and I edged my way to the far side of the
pavement, just in case. Dad always said it’s better to look stupid than to be
caught actually being stupid.
    “Boo!” A huge blob jumped out from the bush.
    I jerked back, a scream ripped through my throat, echoing
down the street. My body turned instinctively to run in the opposite direction.
It took only a moment to recognize the hysterical laughs coming from the blob.
Nathan. I swung my arm out, hitting him, and enjoyed seeing him struggle to
cover the side of his head.
    “You ass! I can’t believe you did that!” Another smack. “You
scared the crap out of me.” Smack.
    “Okay, I’m sorry,” he said between his continued chuckles
and attempts to evade my hand.
    “No, you’re not.”
    “You’re right, I’m not sorry. The look on your face was
priceless.” His smile was so cute I just deflated. He looked behind me,
searching for someone. “Did you talk to Owen and Tonya?”
    “Owen’s gonna catch a ride from someone else.”
    “What about Tonya?”
    Anger gnawed at my insides thinking of how rude Trevor had
been, so I decided to keep it simple. “She and Trevor left while I was talking
to Owen.”
    A gentle breeze swept down the street and a shiver ran
through me.
    “Here,” Nathan said, tugging his hoodie off. He tossed it to
me, momentarily blinding me as it flopped over my head before I could yank it
off.
    I considered tossing it back. No way did I want him to think
I was one of those sissy girls. On the other hand, he gave me the shirt off his
back. I pulled it over my head, instantly glad I’d taken his offer. The fleece
was still warm from his body and it smelled just like him, which was completely
unfair, because it totally destroyed my anger.
    “Thanks,” I said. His smile grew. Damn, I was blushing.
“Where’re Lily and Dylan?”
    “They went ahead. I thought you might get scared walking in
the dark - you know, with all the boogiemen around.”
    “Boogiemen, huh? Well, I always knew there was something
weird about you.” I took a step forward, closing the distance between us.
    “Oh, there’s definitely something weird about me.” He came
to me this time, until only an inch or two separated us.
    “And what’s that?” I whispered.
    “That it’s taken me a year to get up the nerve to kiss you a
second time.” His hands wove through my hair and I leaned forward, glad I stood
nearly eye-to-eye with him.
    “That’s not entirely true, since I kissed you the first
time.”
    “Do you really want to fight about this?”
    “No.” I didn’t move. He’d said he wanted to do the chasing
this time, so here was his chance.
    I gazed up at him, loving the shadows flickering across his
eyes. Why wasn’t he kissing me? Was he going to? Was he chickening out? Maybe I
should do it. I would do it. I inhaled and let my eyes start to drift closed.
    Then he kissed me.
    There were fireworks. Really. They exploded through the
night sky, illuminating the street in blues and greens, followed by reds and
oranges. My eyes finished closing, because as beautiful as the sparkling lights
were, nothing was going to stop me from totally enjoying the feel of Nathan’s
lips on mine.
    It was better than I remembered, or maybe he was better, or
maybe a year of waiting had simply faded the memory. His lips were soft and
warm and he tasted of chocolate. My heart raced