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

Emma and Carrie cracked up. "You'll be there, Samantha Bridges or else," Emma warned between giggles.
"Oh yeah? Who's gonna make me?" Sam asked mock-belligerently.
"I am," Emma responded. "I'm picking you up at eight." And she and Carrie started laughing again.
"Don't pick me up," Sam said, "I'm going to jog over. It'll wake me up."
"Are you sure?" Emma began.
"I'm sure, I'm sure!" Sam said.
"Okay, see you tomorrow," Emma said, heading for the Hewitt's car. Maybe I'll be too busy with COPE work to go to my mother's party, she thought. But she realized even as she considered this possibility that it was only wishful thinking. She really had to go.
At least I'll be with Kurt, she thought. She closed her eyes and imagined how it felt when he kissed her. A delicious feeling ran through her. Even thinking about him made her blood pressure rise!
Hmm, Emma mused as she unlocked the car door, wouldn't it serve my mother right if I chose the night of her engagement party to lose my virginity?
That's ridiculous, a second voice in her
head chided. That's a truly stupid reason to do it.
"Maybe it is and maybe it isn't," Emma said out loud as she started the car. "Maybe it isn't at all."
"Hi, hi, hi!" Katie yelled as she ran over to Carrie and Sam, who sat on a bench on the boardwalk the next morning. "I get to help collect money!"
"Good for you," Carrie said, grinning back at the little girl.
"I see you're on duty," Sam said as Emma reached them.
"Jane and Jeff slept in," Emma said, "so I brought Katie along."
"Well, she's so cute, people will probably give you more money," Carrie commented.
Sam raised her sunglasses and eyed Emma's clothes. "What is that, your gracious-lady-collecting-for-charity outfit?"
Emma blushed. Both Carrie and Sam were wearing jeans and T-shirts. She could
see now that the off-white linen pants and silk blouse she'd worn were all wrong. The truth of the matter was that her only experience with raising money for charity came from overhearing her mother on the phone soliciting checks from her rich friends for the ballet, or the opera, or something equally tony.
"Hey, it's too early in the morning to rag on Emma," Carrie chided Sam. "Besides," she added to Emma, "you look great."
"I guess I thought I'd look more . . . legit or something if I dressed up," Emma sighed, crowding in on their bench.
Katie cuddled up to Emma. "I think you look like a princess," she said seriously.
Carrie stood up. "We'd better get started. I have to be back in two hours to drive lan to a dentist appointment. After that I have to drive him back homeЧhe has band practice."
"God, I hope they dont make you stay and listen," Sam said, wincing.
Thirteen-year-old lan Templeton, one of the two kids Carrie was taking care of, had a band called Lord Whitehead and the Zit-men. They played something lan called in-
dustrial music, banging on hollowed-out washing machines, microwaves, etc. to prerecorded rock music. Carrie had told Emma how bad they were. But she knew it was tough for lan, because his father was the famous rock star Graham Perry, and naturally everyone compared lan to his father.
"So, how should we go about this?" Emma asked nervously as they strode down the boardwalk, Katie clutching her hand tightly. She felt uncomfortable asking strangers for money, even if it was for a truly worthy cause.
"We show them our official COPE badges," Sam said, flashing the laminated card she'd been given the night before, "then we give them the rap, then we take the bucks."
"I don't know if it will be that easy," Carrie cautioned.
"Hey, how about if we start on High Street?" Sam suggested. "I saw this gorgeous guy on the front porch with his shirt off. . . ."
"Actually, I think we should split up," Carrie said. "We don't have a lot of time to collect, and if each of us goes alone, we'll be
able to hit up three times the number of people."
"Such a practical girl," Sam said, pulling her red curls up into a ponytail. "So how about if / start on High Street, then?"
"I'll head up the hill past the dunes," Emma decided.
"Well, that leaves me with the streets behind the country club," Carrie said. "If we cover all of that, we'll have done our entire
area."
"It won't be as much fun alone," Sam sighed.
"So console yourself with the shirtless guy," Carrie said with a chuckle.
"What's console mean?" Katie asked.
"To make someone feel better," Emma explained.
Katie looked over at Sam. "Do you feel bad, Sam?"
"I won't once I go meet that guy," Sam told her with a wink.
"Do you have a lot of boyfriends?" Katie asked Sam.
"Yep," Sam answered, putting her sunglasses back on.
"I want to have a lot of boyfriends, too," Katie decided.
"Good for you, you fox-of-the-future," Sam told the little girl. "Okay, I'm off. Call me later and tell me how it went, okay?"
Sam waved good-bye. Carrie took off, too, leaving Emma and Katie heading up the hill toward the dunes.
"Hello, I'm Emma Cresswell from COPE," Emma practiced as she and Katie walked along. "Hi there! I am Emma Cresswell!" she tried again in a perkier voice.
"You sound funny," Katie said, wrinkling her nose.