"Bennett, Cherie - Sunset Island 009 - Sunset Scandal" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bennett Cherie)

Emma said good-bye. She took Katie's hand and they started down the walk back to the street. Now, how did Darcy know that Molly needed her? Emma wondered. She hadn't heard Molly call out. She hadnt heard anything at all.
"I like her," Katie said. "She's a good witch."
"I told you, honey, there's no such thing as witches," Emma said.
But even as she said it, she wasn't entirely sure it was the truth.
"That place sounds mondo bizarre," Sam said, pulling suntan lotion out of her beach-bag.
It was the next afternoon, and Emma, Carrie, and Sam had met at the club as planned. Their various charges were all off in the pool, and the girls were alone. Emma had just finished telling them about her experience at the Masons' house.
"A skull for a doorknocker?" Carrie asked. "A human hand in the fruit bowl?"
Emma laughed. "I have to admit, I was scared myself for a while. But Darcy is perfectly normal. Anyway, you'll seeЧif she was able to talk Molly into coming, they should be here any minute."
"Can you imagine how awful it would be to be stuck in a wheelchair?" Carrie asked.
"I'd rather be dead," Sam announced, spreading suntan lotion on her legs.
"You don't mean that," Emma said, sitting up to straighten the towel she was lying on.
"I do mean it," Sam said. "I'm a dancer. I couldn't stand it."
"Well, as my mom always says," Carrie began, "you can't necessarily control the hand you're dealt, but you can control how you play it."
"Carrie's Little Instruction Book, lesson three hundred and sixty-one," Sam intoned.
Carrie gave Sam a level look. "All I have to say is, you're lucky nothing really terrible has happened to you in your life."
"Hey, how's it going?" a deep male voice said.
Emma smiled up at Kurt, who was looking tanned, fit, and gorgeous in blue-and-white surfer jams. "My favorite lifeguard," she greeted him.
"Your favorite lifeguard has to stay an extra hour today, to give Alexandra Pope a private swimming lesson," Kurt said, sitting on the edge of Emma's lounge chair. Alex-
andra Pope was the thirteen-year-old girl whom Lorell allegedly was watching for the summer. In actuality, Alexandra's wealthy parents were friends of Lorell's even wealthier parents, and Lorell didnt have to do any work at all.
"Why can't she take lessons with the other kids?" Sam asked Kurt.
"She's gotten even chubbier this summer, and she's real self-conscious about being around the other kids," Kurt explained.
"That's a shame," Emma said. "It must be so hard on her."
"Yeah, kids can be really cruel," Sam said. "I used to get called stork, bird legsЧall the usual geeky tall-girl names."
"No one calls you names anymore," Carrie pointed out.
"Yesterday's geek can be today's hot mama, and I am living proof," Sam opined, adjusting her chair.
"So listen," Kurt told Emma, "my car is out of the shop. After Alexandra's lesson I'll run home and change, then pick you up about nine for Howie's party, okay?"
"Okay," Emma agreed. She turned to Carrie and Sam. "Are you two going?"
"I have to stay with Chloe and lan tonight," Carrie said with a sigh.
"I'll be there with Pres," Sam said.
"Great. So we'll meet up at the party," Emma said.
Kurt leaned over and kissed Emma on the neck. "Wear something short," he whispered in her ear.
"Wear something tight," she whispered back, amazed at her own audacity.
Kurt laughed and headed back to the pool.
"Emma Cresswell, I heard that," Sam said with a laugh. "All I have to say is, you have come so far!"
Emma smiled. Sam was right. The summer before, she never would have had the nerve to banter with Kurt like that. Emma watched Kurt walk over to some little kids at the junior pool. Yum, she thought mischievously, and he's all mine. She thought about what a fabulous time they were going to have that night. Then she remembered that she'd have to tell Kurt about her mother's engagement party. Thinking about the party soured her mood, and she sat for a while stewing about her mother and the creep she was planning to marry.
"Hi there!" Darcy said, striding over to Emma's lounge chair and interrupting her train of thought. "Sorry I'm late. I was trying to talk Molly into coming, but as you can see, I didn't succeed."
"Well, I'm glad you came anyway," Emma said, shielding her eyes from the sun so she could look up at Darcy. "This is Carrie Alden, and the redhead in the world's teeniest bikini over there is Sam Bridges," she said. "And this is Darcy Laken. Darcy, I've told Carrie and Sam all about you."
"Nice to meet you," Carrie said. "Pull up a chair."
"I really did work on Molly," Darcy continued, dragging another lounge chair close to the girls.
"Hey, she can't stay cooped up in that haunted house forever," Sam said.
"She can if she wants to," Darcy said, shrugging.
"She's crazy, if you ask me," Sam said bluntly.
"Hey, it's her legs that got messed up, not her mind," Darcy told Sam.
"I guess she thinks people will stare at her," Carrie said softly.
"Correction," Darcy said. "She knows people will stare at her. The few times we've gone out in public, people look at her like she's subhuman. A lot of people treat her as though she were retarded."
"Well, the kind of people who are stupid enough to do that are the kind of people she doesn't need," Sam said vehemently.
"Easy for you to say," Darcy said mildly. "You're not the one who has to go through it."
"No, I guess not," Sam said. She shot Emma a significant look that obviously meant your new friend is obnoxious. Emma ignored her.
"It's really gorgeous out," Darcy said, standing up to unzip her white cotton shorts. She pulled off her turquoise T-shirt and stuffed it into her beachbag with the shorts.
"Cute bathing suit," Emma said, eyeing Darcy's simple one-piece red suit with high-cut legs and black piping. Emma noticed that Darey's build was muscular and athletic. And while she certainly didn't fit into the current petit mode of perfection featured in the pages of the fashion magazines,