Shifting Shadows (Sparks Collide Trilogy) by Amanda Kelly Page A

It had been storming since I’d
woken up and the pounding rain against my window and roof echoed throughout the
room. I wasn’t overly tired but I was drained and without the sun for motivation,
I couldn’t manage to get myself out of bed until noon . When I had, I slunk out into the
kitchen to grab a bowl of cereal.
    Christina was there, sitting over a cup
of coffee in her pajamas, her blonde hair sticking out like she too had just
rolled out of bed. We looked at each other and laughed.
    “Long night?” she asked
    “Not really, I got home before midnight . What about you, Cinderella?”
    She smiled sheepishly, “I got in around
three. I had the greatest time with Xander last night. By the way, there’s more
coffee in the pot if you want.”
    “You’re amazing” I said as I
practically ran to the coffee maker with my favorite colorful mug in hand. “Now
tell me everything about the date.
    “Ok” She paused dramatically then dove
in. “He took me to dinner at a really nice place. Gosh, you should’ve seen it,
it was gorgeous. The waiters were snooty and awful but the wine was amazing and
the food, oh gosh the food. Even my salad was mouthwatering and I don’t even
like salad. Then we went dancing. He took me to a Salsa club. It was all steamy
and romantic and it had a live band. Xander wasn’t even good, the kid has two
left feet but he took me anyway. It was so much fun. He brought me back to the apartment
and he kissed me goodnight and I don’t know, it’s so weird but I don’t think I
could feel any better if he asked to stay longer. He didn’t even try to stay
.He kissed me and he left and I’ve been on cloud nine ever since. He’s just so
different from other guys. I think…I think I’m really falling for him.”
    My heart melted “Christina, that’s
amazing. I’m so happy for you and if the way he looks at you is any indication,
he’s already head over heals for you too.”
    She beamed, “I hope your right. I never
thought I’d be with such a nice guy but he’s funny and interesting and I don’t
know it just feels like everything’s fitting into place. I mean, my mom’s been
married more times than I want to think about. No one ever thought I could be
in a stable relationship but I am. I can’t believe it. Oh gosh, I’m totally
gushing. I’m going to stop now.”
    “I don’t mind. I need some happy news.”
“Uh-oh. What happened last night? What’s wrong?” “Well, my mom called yesterday
and it’s hard to explain but there’s some family stuff going on. Bottom line,
she wants me to come home and I just can’t. I won’t.” I sighed “Anyway that
whole conversation just threw me off and then I ran into Jay and he looked
worse off by a long shot. We headed over to Zoomly’s, the theme park place.
Have you heard of it?”
    “Oh yeah it’s a childhood staple around
here.” “Right well we went there and everyone came and it was perfect.” The
image of Jay’s purple eyes staring at me, up on the Cliff Diver from what felt
like the top of the world, popped up in my brain. This kept happening and I
tried to shrug it off again before I got off track. “Then it ended entirely too
soon. So we went to this guy Daniel’s apartment for a house party and things
just got out of hand.”
    “I heard Daniel was having a party but
that kid is completely certifiable, can’t imagine what his apartment must be
like.”
    I blanched “You know him?”
    “Yeah, he’s been in this town for as
long as I can remember. He’s involved in some pretty shade stuff.”
    My stomach dropped. “What do you mean?”
“His family is the creepy religious fanatic kind and not for any kind of
religion a sane person would want to be involved in. You see, stepfather
number…three, I think it was, was in the religion and he tried to get my mom
and I involved. It was all hate and fear based and the occasional racist
comments were tossed around here and there. Not to mention all the devil stuff,
it