Heartbreaker Hanson Read online

  Heartbreaker Hanson

  By Melanie Marks

  Copyright 2016 Melanie Marks

  Cover Image © VitoriusT | Shutterstock.com

  All Rights Reserved.

  Table of Contents

  Heartbreaker Hanson

  The Kiss

  Peek at: Kissing Kade

  List of Melanie Marks books

  Newest books by Melanie Marks:

  Smokin’ Hot (Accidental) Kiss

  Love Liam

  Kissing Kade

  Ex-Boyfriend

  The Player

  My Brother’s Best Friend

  Dearest (Hot) Enemy

  The New Boy

  My Stepbrother’s kiss

  My Forbidden Heartthrob

  (There are a LOT more books than just those)

  For updates and full list check Melanie’s website: byMelanieMarks.com

  (Check often as she’s always writing new books)

  Melanie Marks’ newest book:

  Smokin’ Hot (Accidental) Kiss

  Summary:

  Okay, I’m just going to start by saying I did NOT mean to make-out with my total enemy’s (smokin’ hot) boyfriend. I swear! I mean, I know it sounds like the perfect revenge, since my total enemy became my total enemy by making out with my boyfriend (who, you know, became my ex boyfriend after that). Still, even so—I did NOT make out with my enemy’s (hot) boyfriend on purpose. Really!! TRULY!!! Not gonna lie, though—Mmmm. Oh man! That kiss … I can’t get it out of my head. Or dreams. Smokin’ hot Sutter Sinclair, that boy can kiss!

  (The book is available now)

  Melanie Marks’ very newest books: Kissing Kade

  And: The New Boy

  BOOKS by Melanie Marks

  His Kiss

  Slumber Party Wars

  Smokin’ Hot (Accidental) Kiss

  Kissing Kade

  Love Liam

  Ex-Boyfriend

  The Player

  Dearest (Hot) Enemy

  My Brother’s Best Friend

  The New Boy

  My Forbidden Heartthrob

  My Stepbrother’s Kiss

  Beck Bait

  Getting Lucky For Christmas

  The Dating Deal

  His Kiss

  Her Kiss

  Griffin

  High School Boys

  (High School Boys contains book #2 of His Kiss; plus Matt & Nicole in High School—their first kiss)

  Fall For Me

  Fall Forever (it’s book #2 of Fall For Me)

  Finn’s Fall (book #3 of Fall For Me)

  Louder Than Words

  The Stranger Inside

  Newest book: My Brother’s Best Friend

  (Actually, there are a LOT more books than just those)

  For updates and full list check Melanie’s website: byMelanieMarks.com

  (Check often as she’s always writing new books)

  Melanie Marks’ newest book:

  The Player (plus: Ally Has Amnesia)

  (It’s a standalone novel with a bonus story: “Ally Has Amnesia”)

  Summary:

  His name is Dane McGraw, but he’s known as “The Player.” He was called that even before I became his very first girlfriend—back in MIDDLE school. But that was years ago. He’s forgotten all about me … right? Well, that’s what I thought when I started spreading my lies about us—on the Internet. He moved away and he’s all famous now, so I thought he would never know that I made him my new fake boyfriend. And said he adores me and brings me flowers.… Until he shows up at my door—with flowers (!!) …Um?

  The explanation:

  When my boyfriend dumped me for my total archenemy (Nina), to save face I posted on my blog that I didn’t care because I had a date to our school dance with The Player. I only did that because I knew my archenemy (Nina) wanted him, and my ex-boyfriend (Back-stabber) was jealous of him. Two birds—one stone. However, for some reason no one believed my crazy lies about The Player. Probably because, you know, they were crazy lies—about The Player. But whoa! Here he is, at my door for the dance—The Player. With that same ol’ player grin that has always played with my adoring heart. Yikes! I need a player’s manual … and an ambulance. ‘Cause I’m swooning for the boy that broke my heart. AGAIN!! (Help!)

  ***

  Update: Melanie Marks’ very newest book is: Kissing Kade

  And: The New Boy

  Heartbreaker Hanson

  CHAPTER 1

  ***RIDER***

  I spent the summer being a pool boy—and ogled by rich ladies. Wasn’t bad. In fact, it was nice. The pay was good, and all I had to do was keep up the maintenance on rich people’s pools.

  And yeah—I was ogled. A lot.

  I’m not complaining.

  How can I? Now that we’re back in school, I find myself ogling someone. Brooke Watts, of all people. This is new. Brooke is a “nice” girl. I don’t really go for those. Usually. Though Brooke and I, we had a thing. But it was back in kindergarten, so she probably doesn’t remember.

  But I’m remembering now. And it’s making me wonder how come I didn’t think about that in so long—think about back when beautiful bashful Brooke was mine.

  I nudge my friend Jake. He blinks, taking his eyes off Brooke. He seems as reluctant to do so as me.

  “What’s different about Brooke this year?” I ask him.

  He glances back at her as she’s chatting with her friends across the crowded school hallway.

  “I don’t know,” he says squinting his eyes, like to make them be more judicious (and less enraptured) (for a moment). He muses, “I think she lost a lot of weight.”

  I shake my head slightly. “That’s not it.”

  I don’t remember her being bigger. Plus, I usually don’t like it when girls lose weight, ‘cause their beautiful curves seem to be the first thing to go. Brooke still has all hers. (Thank goodness.)

  Still, as she starts to walk by us, I put my arm out, stopping her, ‘cause I can’t resist. I back her against the wall, ‘cause I can’t resist that either (and also it seems to be the only way to get her to stay).

  “Hi Brooke,” I flash her the slow smile that made me rich this summer—made all the rich ladies’ eyes spark, and helped me rake in huge tips. (I guess I have a nice smile.) (My bank account says so, anyway.) (Okay, and so do lots of girls.) (Just sayin.’)

  I look Brooke up and down, enjoying it maybe more than I should. Well, definitely more than I’d planned, since I’d just planned to do it for effect … but it’s affecting me. Big time.

  “Did you lose weight?” I ask her conversationally, still trying to figure it out—what’s changed about her. Made me take a second look at her, when I vowed back in kindergarten never to do that again—give her a second look.

  “No. I gained like five pounds,” she informs me through gritted teeth.

  I eye her closer. “That’s what I thought.”

  She growls, like I said something mean. (Did I?—I’m not even sure what I said, actually.) My brain is not really attached to my mouth—or any part of me—at the moment.

  She informs me crisply (through gritted teeth, I might add), “What I lost was my braces, glasses, and a ponytail.”

  She’s also lost her temper.

  And social skills—apparently.

  Her face flushes the tiniest bit. It’s kind of adorable. It makes my lips part slightly and my heart pound crazily. Hey, she was my kindergarten girlfriend. First love—it’s hard to shake, even when you try your hardest. Apparently.

  “Sorry,” she mumbles, her face a little blotchy. Like she’s kind of embarrassed that she snapped at me.

  I nod slightly at her apology. Hey I’m easy. She still has those beautiful curves.
And now that I’m gazing into them: Beautiful eyes. They’re smokin’ hot … but they still look a little mad.

  “Sorry,” she mumbles again. Then she adds (sort of growls, actually), “But you haven’t even talked to me in eleven years, so I’m a little annoyed at your ogling.”

  I grin slightly, “To be fair, I wasn’t around for five of those years.”

  I’d moved away for a while—from third to eighth grade. But it’s true. We haven’t spoken since kindergarten. I hadn’t even been sure she remembered me, but she’d been my first girlfriend and first kiss and we took naps together during naptime all that year, even though our teacher had moved our mats to the opposite sides of the classroom from each other. I’d sneak over to her mat every time our teacher wasn’t looking.

  I grin about that now. Me having been unable to resist my little girlfriend.

  “But I’m talking to you now,” I point out, “—and I’d like to make up for lost time.” I look into her beautiful eyes, being completely sincere, though I can tell she doubts my every word. I edge closer to her, “I want to talk to you a lot.”

  “Well, I don’t want to talk to you,” she informs me. “You broke my heart and went on to break tons of girls’ hearts. So keep your eyes and lines to yourself.”

  After spatting out her passionate (though, okay, somewhat bitter) words she stomps away from me.

  Whoa. I sure got her spun up. Unfortunately not the way I intended though.

  I blink after her, mystified.

  Highly amused, Jake playfully nudges me with a smirk. “Can’t win them all, man.”

  I’m still watching her go and pretty much ignoring Jake’s words, yet I hear him say as he scratches his chin, “Though I don’t remember you ever getting shot down before, dude.”

  That’s because I haven’t. Ever.

  We get interrupted by a blond goddess.

  “Hi Rider,” she calls to me, loud from across the hallway.

  I nod at her, but my eyes immediately go back to my kindergarten girlfriend. Man, I’d loved her—Beautiful Brooke.

  Jake nudges me again, this time with admiration since the blond is hot. And a cheerleader. Jake has a thing for hot cheerleaders.

  “Sabrina won’t shoot you down,” he says.

  “Right, but I’ve got my eye on another girl at the moment.”

  “Yeah, I see that,” Jake laughs, waving his hand in front of my face, trying to break my spell that angry beautiful Brooke has put me under.

  But it’s not happening.

  ‘Cause I remember those eyes of hers now. They had always been on me. We’d wake from our kindergarten naps and her eyes would immediately go to mine. They’d always look so full of love.

  I want them to look at me that way again.

  CHAPTER 2

  ***BROOKE***

  BROOKE

  My first week back to school after summer vacation caused a commotion in my confused heart. Especially due to the fact that a boy from my band class, Ethan Philips, all of a sudden had some type of infatuation with me. The weird thing about it is, I sort of had a crush on him last year, but he hadn’t really ever paid any attention to me. Obviously the summer had done something weird to him. All the sudden he popped up everywhere at school that I was, and walked me to all my classes, and stared at me all during band like I was the most gorgeous creature he ever laid eyes on.

  Okay, admittedly, I was getting that from a lot of guys this year—so I couldn’t really narrow the phenomenon down to just Ethan.

  I mean, even gorgeous Rider Hanson had eyed me like I was candy. Rider Hanson!! The gorgeous boy hadn’t even looked at me since kindergarten. But he sure looked at me this week—couldn’t take his eyes off me, in fact….

  Or at least that’s the way he made it appear.

  But Rider is a player. The school’s worst heartbreaker, as far as I’m concerned.

  I mean, he broke my heart—way back in kindergarten. (!!) He had loved me fiercely all year, then dropped me like a hot-potato with absolutely no warning. None. And then he immediately went on to love some other girl. That incident—him (Rider)—what he did to my mushy little girl heart—and having it happen so early in my social career—he put me down a vulnerable path for the rest of my school days and beyond. Whacked me over the head way too early in life with the cold, hard truth: A guy can make you feel like the world’s most special being on the planet … and then he can just stop.

  He left me knowing right from that very first year of school—my heart is extremely fragile and vulnerable. And someone you love dearly can break your heart, and not even have a good reason why. In fact, not have a reason at all—except that he loved someone else suddenly … and then someone else … and someone else.

  It was a painful lesson.

  What I mostly learned from the experience though is: Rider Hanson is a heartbreaker.

  So, his suddenly staring at me longing-like this week didn’t count. (Well, I tried not to let it count.)

  But Ethan from band class was different. He was “normal.” Not the school’s heartbreaker. He was someone that—last year—I had thought I could put trust in, and give my heart to. But no. Last year he had no interest in me. None whatsoever.

  But this year—well, totally different story. He was forever finding excuses to call me, and hinting about us getting together, but he never came right out and asked me for a date. I was relieved about that because I wasn’t really sure how I felt about him anymore. I kind of liked all of his attention, but it also made me feel weird. I mean he hadn’t even acknowledged my existence last year. I wondered what great feat I had unknowingly accomplished that suddenly made him so attentive.

  Okay, to be fair, a lot of boys were suddenly attentive. But I hadn’t really been paying attention to them, so it was more okay that they never paid any to me.

  Well, one boy did—but he was off limits. So, he didn’t count either. (Well, he counted more than Rider. But everyone counted more than Rider.) (Well, I wished.)

  The other boy—the off-limits one—he used to be my twin brother’s best friend. But now he’s my friend’s boyfriend. So, you see why he doesn’t count right? But at least his attention started last year—before every guy on earth suddenly seemed to give me a second look. He (Drew is his name, by the way) gave me that second look last year, though I’d had a crush on him forever. (A secret crush.) (One I had on him way, way before my friend Laurie noticed him and deemed him worthy of her attention and, soon after, the title “boyfriend.”) I’d had my deep, dying, secret crush on Drew since I was a little kid. In fact, I got my crush on Drew the exact moment I finally gave up on my painful unrequited (anymore) love of Rider—in the third grade. Yes, it took from kindergarten to the third grade to get over Rider. And then it was just because he moved away.

  I had loved that boy (Rider) fiercely, and he had loved me the same way. (Really!)

  Yet then he had gone on to break my heart and then a string of other girls’ hearts. Total. Heartbreaker.

  But sweet Drew wasn’t the same as Rider. At all. Drew had always seen me as a sister, since my brother, Nick, had been like a brother to Drew. So, I just came along with the package. I was Drew’s sister. It was enough for me. I adored it actually. Being considered as part of Drew’s family. Well, maybe I was considered that more by his actual family. I used to baby-sit his little brothers and sister a lot. They adored me—even if Drew’s affection hadn’t been quite that strong … or, okay, strong at all.

  But that changed!!

  Majorly.

  Okay, okay I know I’ve thrown a lot of guys at you, but how do you think I felt?— suddenly having guys throwing themselves at me? I wasn’t used to it. At all.

  But I’ll give you a re-cap of the guys going on in my mind that first week of school (though two of them I was trying not to think about—and the third one I wasn’t quite sure was worth thinking about).

  But here’s the list. There was: Heartbreaker Rider, Band-Boy Ethan, and Off-Limits Dre
w.

  I’m going to go on to tell you about Off-Limits Drew first because—well, I just am.

  Here goes…

  CHAPTER 3

  Okay, I’ll just start by saying Off-Limits Drew kissed me. (!!!) It was at the end of last school year, and okay, it was a spontaneous mistake on his part. But for ME, it was like something out of a dream.

  However, all last year had been like that for me. Sort of. Because last year something had changed between Drew and me. A special friendship had grown that wasn’t there before, and I cherished it with all my heart. In all the years I’d known Drew I don’t really think he even thought of me as a friend, not really. I was just Nick’s twin sister. But last year we ended up in a lot of the same classes, and we started studying together. At first we would just get together before a big test, but as time went on we got together quite often and we’d end up talking until the wee hours of the night. But he had a girlfriend (my friend, Laurie), so we were strictly just friends.

  Drew’s kissing me had been a spontaneous mistake, definitely … but it was one he most assuredly would not have made before last year, when he finally noticed me.

  … Okay, the kiss. (Ohhh the kiss!!!) Well, I don’t know if it could technically even be considered a kiss—not technically. But our lips had definitely touched, so—even though I pulled away from him—still, it was a kiss. To me.

  How it went was this—it was the end of the school year and Drew and I were coming home from a math team meet. We sat together on the bus, and at first we were having all sorts of fun just chatting together and joking around, but well, it was a three-hour bus ride, and it was late at night, so eventually (even though I was sitting next to the boy of my dreams) still, I drifted off to sleep.

  … but then I woke—kissing Drew.

  I lurched away from him, shocked.

  Silently, he stared into my eyes, tracing his lips. He seemed shocked too. Shocked at what he had done with his lips.