Page 1 of Natalie's Nighthawk

Chapter 1

Latespring,twelveyearsago

“Aww,craponaPicasso!”NatalieGhannonmutteredasshespottedthesleekvehicleapproachingthroughtheheatshimmeringfromtheasphalt.Anyonecouldhavecometoherrescue.Why,ohwhy,didithavetobeGrahamWhitaker,theboyshe’dhadacrushonsinceshewastwelveandheamaturethirteen.

As a senior in high school and one of the most popular guys in town, he was even more of a dream. A distant, unattainable dream that had her wishing he would notice her though she knew he never would.

He ran with the football team and dated cheerleaders. She spent her free time in the art room. He dressed to perfection in the latest styles when he wasn’t wearing his football jersey. She wore baggy hand-me-downs that looked like they came out of the ‘80s. Her favorite the overall shorts she currently wore, covered with paint stains. Most days, she didn’t care if she looked like a homeless person. But today?

She would kill Maddie for this.

Her sister, Madison, was supposed to be driving her home from the afterschool clubs they both participated in … separately, of course. Maddie would never be caught dead in the art room. She might accidentally brush up against something and mess up herperfectclothes. Or get paint on herperfectmanicure. Or muss theperfecthair on herperfecthead.

A year older and about to graduate high school, Maddie was Natalie’s complete opposite. She had perfect blonde hair styled to emulate whichever actress was currently popular, stunning blue eyes, and a perfect cheerleader’s body. She had heard the term “striking” to describe her sister more than once. Natalie, however, looked more like the town recluse. Maddie’s senior year was every girl’s dream, Homecoming Queen, perfect grade point average, classic good looks. The center of the school’s coveted social circle. Tons of friends, and hot guys always fawning all over themselves in the hopes of winning a date with her. Everybody loved Madison Ghannon. People couldn’t be bothered to remember Natalie’s name.

She knew she would never be a beauty like her sister. Her dark hair, pale skin, and the bothersome freckles on her nose were uninteresting. But right now, as she stood on the side of the road where herperfectsister had abandoned her, hair thrown up in a messy bun, stray strands stuck to the sweat on her neck, she longed to be more alluring. She wished the Earth would swallow her whole as she watched Graham’s Mustang pull closer, a cloud of dust trailing behind.

Graham maneuvered the car over to the shoulder and rolled down the window on the passenger’s side. Leaning over the center console, he looked at her over the top of his aviator sunglasses.

“Natalie?” Imagine that … he knew her name. She didn’t know why that stunned her so much since they’d been neighbors for all of her seventeen years. “What are you doing out here?”

Trying not to fidget as the cloud of road dust settled around her, Natalie answered, “Walking home.”

“Walking home?” He looked incredulously at the surrounding miles of soybean fields. “It must be, like, ten miles to home! And it’s a hundred degrees out.”

“Gee, I hadn’t noticed.” Wiping sweat off her forehead, she knew he didn’t deserve her sarcasm, but she couldn’t help herself. He reacted to her foul mood with a slight lifting of the corner of his mouth.God, those lips!

“Have you been walking all the way from school?”

“No. Just since my sister kicked me out of her car.” She pushed a sticky strand of hair behind her ear, fidgeting again.

Stop acting like such a moron!And stop looking at his lips!She tore her eyes away from his mouth and looked down … right at his crotch. He was wearing a pair of khaki cargo shorts which hugged him just right.

No,don’tlook there either.She dragged her eyes higher, where they landed on the outrageous pectoral muscles obvious beneath his black t-shirt.Seriously, what high school boy has muscles like that?Panicking and not knowing where to look?everywhere her eyes landed made her blush?she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

While she tried to control the chaos in her brain, he took his sunglasses off and asked, “Why’d she do that?”

Natalie tilted her head, curious why he cared.

She needed him to drive on. Even though she lived with one, she didn’t know how to communicate with the beautiful ones. She always felt awkward around them. As if every flaw in her appearance, every freckle was screaming out?Hey,look at me! Look how Idon’tfit in!

It was even harder to communicate with Graham because he was one of the leaders of the beautiful ones. Her crush on him made her extra self-conscious, and she could feel the heat rising up her neck. Staring into his ice-blue eyes, she wondered if he knew about her crush. Her eyes dropped to those perfect lips again.

Inwardly groaning at herself, she forced her eyes away from those lips before she answered, “She seemed to take offense to me ratting on her to our parents about her new boyfriend.” Their parents definitelywouldobject to Maddie’s twenty-three-year-old tattoo-covered motorcycle riding bad boy rebel without a clue as an acceptable boyfriend.

Graham gave a short bark of a laugh.Even that was sexy. “And did you? Rat on her that is.”

Natalie couldn’t stop the sly smile, “Not in the way she thinks.”

Seeing that sly smile, Graham was intrigued. He watched her delicate fingers fiddle with her hair again, shoving a piece that had blown in her face behind her ear. He was hot and tired after soccer practice but spotting his neighbor walking along a desolate road surrounded by farmland had made him curious. Not to mention his protective instincts were activated; he knew he could score some major hero points for stopping.

“How so?” he asked.

“Well, I didn’t tell my parents directly, per se.” That devious smile that he was starting to find extremely adorable lifted one corner of her mouth again.

Natalie wasn’t beautiful like her sister. Far from it, in fact, but she had a certain charm that was cute. A flush caused by the heat accentuated the soft smattering of freckles across her nose, and her smooth, almost black hair shone with streaks of fire when the sun caught it just right. She probably didn’t even know how fascinating those red highlights were in the sun.

“I didn’t tell my parents,” she continued. “But I told Chloe while her mom was within hearing range. And Chloe’s mom and my mom are friends.” Natalie shrugged, the sly smile still evident. “I guess word traveled through the mom grapevine.”

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