Down With the Shine (23 page)
Read Down With the Shine Online
Authors: Kate Karyus Quinn
Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #Fantasy & Magic, #Horror, #Love & Romance
It comes out a little too cool, almost like I’m trying to get rid of him. But apparently Smith isn’t bothered ’cause he leans in closer and rests his head beside mine on my pillow. “Would you believe I woke up this morning and could think of nothing I wanted to do more than hold your hand?”
He holds up our interconnected hands. Making me see how right it looks and feels to have his palm pressed against mine. Our eyes meet over the tips of our matched fingers.
“Some new kind of kink?” I ask, my voice low and raspy like it was when I first woke up from my coma. Funny, ’cause this feels like another kind of waking up.
“Maybe,” Smith replies.
This is the part where I should jerk my hand out of Smith’s and put a lot more space between us before blushing and babbling about how we’re just friends and it doesn’t mean anything and of course he doesn’t like me, or not like that, anyway.
But that feels like something another version of myself would do.
A lamer, play-it-safe Lennie, who can’t see that sometimes you gotta take risks.
A Lennie who’s afraid to admit she wants so much more.
A Lennie who thinks “be careful what you wish for” means never wishing for anything at all.
Yikes, right? Thank God I’m not that girl.
Grabbing hold of Smith’s shirt, I pull him closer, until it’s more than only our hands pressed together. “I’m gonna
make all your wishes come true,” I say, grinning at him. “And mine too.”
And then—without the aid of any shine—that’s exactly what I do.
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Courtesy Kate Karyus Quinn
KATE KARYUS QUINN
is an avid reader and a menthol ChapStick addict. She has lived in California and Tennessee but recently made the move back to her hometown of Buffalo, New York, with her husband and two children in tow. She promised them wonderful people, amazing food, and weather that would . . . build character. She is also the author of
Another Little Piece
and
(Don’t You) Forget About Me.
You can visit Kate online at
www.katekaryusquinn.com
.
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Photography © 2016 by Christine Blackburne/Merge Left Reps
Photography styled by Sarah Guido Laakso
Cover design by Michelle Taormina
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
DOWN WITH THE SHINE.
Copyright © 2016 by Kate Karyus Quinn. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015947488
ISBN 978-0-06-235604-8 (trade bdg.)
EPub Edition © April 2016 ISBN 9780062356062
16 17 18 19 20
CG/RRDH
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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