Read Ryan Hunter for Free Online Page A

into the bucket seat and stroked over the curve of the wheel, I inhaled the scent of new leather and smirked. “Miss me, love?”
    The answer came when I pushed the start button and softly tipped on the gas pedal. The Audi gave a roar that would have made her big brothers go pale with envy. Damn, I loved the sound. The wide roll-up door opened at a push of a button on the small remote that was attached to my key ring. Sunlight streamed into the garage and blinded me. I grabbed my sunglasses that lay in the center console, shook them open with one hand, and put them on.
    The music boomed from the speakers on a level meant for going deaf as I left the garage and our drive to head down the road. In no time, the ride was over, because the soccer field was right next to our school, only two miles away from my house. On this Saturday morning, the parking lot was quite busy, which meant that more students had come to the tryouts than expected.
    From the floorboard on the passenger side, I grabbed my backpack and threw it over one shoulder. Locking the car, I headed for the grounds.
    There I spotted Torres, Frederickson, Sebastian Randall, and Alex. I had asked them to come help me sort through the girls today, kick ball with them, and judge their skills. Frederickson was our goalie, so he’d do what he always did. The rest of the crowd on the lawn was female. Since Tony wasn’t here yet, I didn’t even bother to look for Liza, because she wouldn’t come without him. I headed straight to the bench where about a million handbags and backpacks were parked, and one girl. While all the others did some stretching or chatting elsewhere, this one actually read a book.
    She wasn’t in any of my classes, nor had I been out with her, but I knew she had told me her name yesterday at Charlie’s. Damn, what was it again?
    I dumped my stuff next to her and said, “Hi.”
    She looked up from her book and took off her metal-rimmed glasses. “Hey.”
    “Good story?”
    “Fantastic.” Then she blushed an awful red and grimaced, probably because she just caught my subtle taunting. It was weird to go to soccer tryouts and then read a book. “I only have half a chapter left, and I just couldn’t stop.”
    I laughed. She was sweet, this one. “Go finish your chapter. I still need a few minutes to get everything ready, anyway.”
    She seemed totally happy at my words, put her glasses back on and her nose back into the book, which made me shake my head but smile as I fished for the list of names in my backpack. Running my forefinger from top to bottom, I looked for the name that I had jotted down below Elisabeth MacKenzie, because I was pretty sure that this girl had sat right next to her in the café. Yep, there it was. Miller . That was her.
    Sitting down beside her, I traded my shoes for my cleats. An airy thud next to my ear said she had finished her book. “How are you going on about this?”
    Making a knot with the loops of tied laces, I tilted my head and looked up at her. “What you mean?”
    “Well, there are way over fifty girls wanting on your team. How do you select between us?”
    I moved to my other shoe and started lacing it. “Dunno. Let you kick some goals and stuff. Watch you play.”
    “Tough job with so many girls,” she replied and put her book in one of the million backpacks. “Do you have a rating system?”
    No, I hadn’t. Because I thought there would be fifteen to choose between, maybe twenty. I didn’t reckon on half the high school. I quirked my brows at her, chewing on my bottom lip.
    “That means no, right?”
    “No. Right.”
    She laughed at that. “Maybe you should give points for certain tasks and just take those with the highest score?”
    That sounded like a brilliant idea. “You’re a smart one.” I stood and gave her one of those smiles that I usually saved for asking-a-girl-out moments. It was okay, because those moments had become rare, anyway. The only sheet I had with me, though, was full