Read an Excerpt

Other Boy, The AER

Chapter One

With the beat of a Gwen Stefani song pounding in her ears, Madeline Sinclaire clipped up her long blond hair and slid into the hot tub on her parents' deck. Steam rose up from the bubbling water, momentarily obscuring her friends' faces. She inhaled deeply and eased downward. Suddenly, something grabbed her feet under the water.

"Brian!" Maddy screamed.

Her boyfriend's sleek, wet head surfaced next to her, and everyone burst into laughter.

"What? Did I scare you?" Brian Kilburn asked, flashing his sexy little smile that curled just the edges of his mouth. After dating him for almost a year, Maddy still thought he was the cutest boy she'd ever seen. Brian's sleepy blue eyes could always melt her annoyance.

"Yes, you did, jerk!" Maddy said playfully. She punched him on his well-toned arm.

"Don't hurt him too badly," Morgan Gainsley called from the other side of the hot tub. "He's the only one left who knows how to tap a keg...Dave already passed out." She pointed to a dark shape lying in a heap on a lounge chair, barely visible through the San Francisco night.

"How is that possible?" Maddy giggled at her best friend. "The party just got started!"

"She's not going to hurt me," Brian growled. "Not before I . . ." He trailed off as he stood up in the water, grabbed Maddy, and tilted her back in his arms.

"Eeek!" She giggled, hoping she wasn't flashing the rest of the hot tub. Her D&G string bikini top didn't allow for a lot of gymnastics.

Brian went for her neck like a vampire. He started to run his mouth lower, but Maddy struggled upright and shoved him away.

"Okay,hornball. Save it for later," she said with a laugh.

Reluctantly, Brian released her and sat down again. Maddy settled back contentedly in the hot water, Brian's arm around her tanned shoulders. Light spilled over the deck from the open French doors behind her. The glow reached the manicured gardens at the edge of the two-acre lawn. Most of Richmond Country Day's upperclassmen, plastic cups of Miller High Life in hand, were packed into Maddy's living room, where the leather furniture had been pushed against the walls to make a dance floor.

On the deck, couples were cuddling on lounge chairs with beer bottles strewn on the ground next to them. Rob Davis had started a game of drunken tackle football on the lawn. "Touchdown!" a huge, hairy guy screamed as he grabbed the ball and landed headfirst in the shrubbery at the side of the yard.

Maddy smiled. Her first official house party of the summer was only an hour old, and she could already tell it was going be a great night. In fact, it was going to be a great summer...maybe the best ever.

Maddy's other best friend, Kirsten Owens, slid up next to her. "So when did your parents leave?" Kirsten asked, resting her elbows on the edge of the tub behind her, looking sleek and athletic in her navy blue Speedo. Maddy laughed. Even though Kirsten's idea of a relaxing Saturday was running a ten-mile race, Maddy still found it funny that she insisted on wearing a one-piece suit to a party full of bikinis and boys.

"This afternoon...finally," Maddy replied. "They should be arriving in Napa any minute now."

"I cannot believe you have the house to yourself for two whole months!" Morgan squealed, splashing across the tub to join the other two girls.

"I know, right?" Maddy agreed. "You know, at first, they actually tried to tell me that I had to help them fix up that little midlife crisis...I mean, vineyard. But they couldn't resist my powers of persuasion..."

"And that A in AP English, you nerd," Brian teased.

She gave Brian a push. "Go get me another beer," she ordered playfully, admiring the muscles of his back as he climbed out of the hot tub and shook the water out of his dark hair. A tan line showed where the waist of his baggy navy trunks had dropped down a little. She heaved a sigh of delight as she thought of her and Brian...and her big, empty house...together, all summer.

"Girls, we're going to have so much fun!" she declared, stretching out her long legs and watching her toes bob in the bubbling water as her two best friends flanked her on either side. "First of all, we finally got to throw the party we've been planning since finals. And for the rest of the summer, we'll have shopping in Noe Valley, the beach every afternoon..."

"Parties at your place every weekend!" Morgan finished for her, sending a splash of steaming water toward each of the girls. "You have the best party house in San Francisco, Maddy."

"No question," Kirsten said, looking across the artfully lit pool to the view of the bay. Behind them the sprawling six-bedroom Spanish-style house pulsed with Rihanna's latest album.

Maddy smiled her agreement. Everyone was getting what they wanted: Mom and Dad were living their dream up in Napa, and she was experiencing sweet independence down here in the city.

"I should probably go mingle, guys," she told everyone. "I am the hostess, after all."

Brian splashed back into the tub next to her just in time to catch her last words. "Don't go too far," he said, winking at her meaningfully. Maddy laughed at him and pulled herself onto the deck, knowing he was enjoying watching the water run off her slim, tanned figure.

"If you tap that new keg, I might have a special treat for you later," she said flirtatiously.

He grinned back. "Wait, I want my party favor right now!" He grabbed for her, but she dodged his grasp and draped a silk sarong around her hips, slipping a gauzy linen shirt on top.

As Maddy made her way to the foyer, she saw Brian's best friend push through the oak front door. "Mad-e-line!" Chad yelled, crushing her with a bear hug. The hall filled up with huge, brawny boys lugging an extra case of beer. Two skinny blondes appeared behind them, each waving a bottle of vodka. Maddy shook her head...for two of the richest girls at school, Taylor and Sunny certainly managed to look remarkably cheap.

Other Boy, The AER. Copyright © by Hailey Abbott. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.