Free The Secret Sin by Darlene Gardner Page A

another guy would try to take advantage of her. Once he realized she meant to walk home, he’d jumped into his car and caught up to her a short distance from the party. After she’d agreed to his offer of a ride, nothing about the evening went the way he thought it would.
    Before they’d driven a mile, he’d relayed the entire embarrassing story of why he was spending his senior year in Spain. “It’s all in the numbers,” he remembered saying. “Three varsity letters. Two Cs. Two Ds. And an F.”
    Annie had listened to his plan to forgo his senior year at Indigo Springs High for twelve months in a study-abroad program. She’d agreed with his parents about the need to prove he was serious about academics. She hadn’t laughed when he confessed the prospect of flying across the ocean made him nervous. She’d told him some secrets of her own, most notably about the mother who hadn’t cared enough to stay in her life.
    Even all these years later, he remembered how comfortable he’d felt with her and how naturally their conversation had flowed.
    When he suggested they get out of the car at a secluded spot and spread the blanket he kept in the trunk, his intention had been to gaze at the starry sky and keep up the amazing conversation.
    Then he’d kissed her, she’d kissed him back and neither one of them had called a stop to their lovemaking even though they didn’t have a condom.
    He’d left for Spain the next morning but had called her the moment he got there. She’d blown him off, mumbling something about a mistake even though it had been way too early to know she was pregnant.
    “Annie didn’t have a crush on me,” Ryan said.
    Sierra looked skeptical, but displayed the practicality that was one of her trademarks. “There’s a simple way to find out. Ask her.”
    She lifted her cast off the coffee table and rose slowly to her feet. “If I’m going to be ready when Chad gets here, I need to start now.”
    She hobbled off, leaving Ryan reassessing his version of what had happened that night. Could Annie really have had a crush on him? If she had, did that make what he’d done even less forgivable?
    Knowing he wouldn’t rest until he found out, he decided that he would ask her.

CHAPTER FIVE

    O N S ATURDAY NIGHT Annie carefully eyed the windmill with its rotating arms, getting the timing down, waiting for the moment to strike.
    She swung back her putter and sent the golf ball shooting toward what should have been an opening between the between the slots.
    The opening closed.
    The ball careened off one of the gaily painted arms and rolled back to where she stood on the turf at the start of the hole.
    “Wow,” Ryan said. “I thought I was bad at miniature golf, but you’ve got me beat.”
    Annie made a face at him. She wished she could blame the elbow she’d injured in the bike accident, but it was only a little sore. Her more bothersome injury was the scrape on her thigh, but only because she’d needed to wear a skirt so the material wouldn’t rub against her skin.
    “You really think you’re better than Annie?” Lindsey asked him. “How about when you almost beaned that little kid on the fourth hole?”
    Ryan waved a hand in dismissal. “Could have happened to anybody.”
    Annie had kept quiet long enough. “ We were on the third hole at the time,” she pointed out.
    They were now midway through the eighteen-hole miniature golf course, sharing the experience with a crowd largely consisting of tourists. The establishment had opened earlier that summer and had quickly become a popular nighttime gathering place.
    Annie hit the golf ball again with the same result. The third time was a charm with the ball finally sliding through the narrow tunnel that led to the hole.
    Lindsey was up next. She managed to send her ball through on the first try. Ryan never did accomplish it, finally opting to putt his ball around the apparatus.
    “That’s three strokes for me, six for Annie and six for Ryan,