Puppy Love!. Sienna Mercer
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You’ll be howling for more
My Brother the Werewolf!
Cry Wolf!
Puppy Love!
Howl-oween – coming soon!
EGMONT We bring stories to life
With special thanks to Stephanie Burgis
My Brother the Werewolf: Puppy Love! first published in Great Britain 2013 by Egmont UK Limited The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN
Copyright © Working Partners Ltd 2013
Created by Working Partners Limited, London WC1X 9HH
ISBN 978 1 4052 6439 6
eISBN 978 1 7803 1215 6
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Please note: Any website addresses listed in this book are correct at the time of going to print. However, Egmont cannot take responsibility for any third party content or advertising. Please be aware that online content can be subject to change and websites can contain content that is unsuitable for children. We advise that all children are supervised when using the internet.
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EGMONT LUCKY COIN Our story began over a century ago, when seventeen-year-old Egmont Harald Petersen found a coin in the street. He was on his way to buy a flyswatter, a small hand-operated printing machine that he then set up in his tiny apartment. The coin brought him such good luck that today Egmont has offices in over 30 countries around the world. And that lucky coin is still kept at the company’s head offices in Denmark. |
For Patrick and Jamie, with love
Contents
Chapter One
Don’t panic, Justin Packer ordered himself. This is not a date!
Yes, he was sharing a booth at the Meat & Greet with Riley Carter. Yes, she was the girl he’d been crushing on for nearly a year. And no, there wasn’t anybody else sitting at the table with them. But that didn’t make this an official date . . .
Or, did it?
Friends have meals together all the time, he told himself. Eating is totally essential.
Someday soon, he would ask Riley out. But before he’d be ready to ask Riley on a real date, he had to treat it like a football game. He had to prepare – have a game plan. He had to learn how to keep his cool around her even when she was smiling at him the way she was now, with her intense, focused eyes seeming to shine through the long strands of blonde hair that were falling chaotically over her face. He’d have to figure out how to be . . . suave.
Yeah, he’d be totally suave when he eventually did ask her out on a real date. For now, they would stay friends. There was no pressure in friendship.
Relaxing, Justin reached for his hamburger – then froze with it part-way to his mouth as he saw Riley tucking the rebellious locks of hair behind her ears. She looked very pretty.
Wait a minute. Is she trying to look good? For me?
His stomach clenched. What if we actually are on a date, and I didn’t even realise? Is she judging my dating skills? I haven’t prepared for this – I don’t have a game plan! I can’t be judged when it’s not a date. And it’s not. It really, truly is –
‘Notadate!’ he blurted through his hamburger.
Then he cringed as he realised that he’d said it out loud.
‘Justin?’ Riley frowned at him across the table. ‘Are you choking?’
‘Me?’ Justin swallowed hard. ‘No! Everything’s cool. Totally cool. Totally, absolutely, definitely . . .’ As her eyebrows rose, he felt his cheeks heat up. He set down the hamburger. ‘I mean, it’s just . . . cool, isn’t it, that we can hang out like this . . . as friends?’
Riley’s hand fell away from her hair, her gaze dropping to the table. ‘Um, I guess. If that’s what you think.’
Justin knew that if this conversation was a football, he had carried it into a wall of defenders, and would now have to scramble to find another route. He needed something else to talk about.
‘Look at Daniel and Debi!’ he said, pointing across the diner. ‘They’re not on a date, are they? They’re just hanging out. Just like we are . . .’
Although . . . Justin’s eyes narrowed as he looked across at his twin, who was wearing his usual scruffy black clothing and sitting across a table from Riley’s friend Debi. With his brooding