I felt a twinge of unease. Was there something Dex wasn’t telling me? Or maybe I was just feeling guilty, because there was something—something important, something that could change the course of my entire life—that I hadn’t yet told him.
My mom—who insists that I call her by her first name, Sadie—writes steamy romance novels under the pen name Della De La Courte. She’d temporarily relocated to London the previous year while she researched and wrote her next book, leaving me behind in Orange Cove to live with my dad and evil stepmother. The book was taking longer to complete than Sadie had originally thought, so when she came home for a visit three weeks earlier, she’d announced that she was going to stay in London for another year. Then she dropped a second bombshell: She asked me if I’d like to come live with her.
I’d gone to visit Sadie in London over Christmas break, and had loved it there. Orange Cove was a small town, where nothing much ever happened. Even worse, everyone in my hometown knew me as Miranda Bloom, the Human Calculator. Geek Girl Extraordinaire.
In London, I was anonymous. I could be anyone or anything. And the idea of actually living in such a huge international city was thrilling. Moving to London would also mean I wouldn’t have to continue living with my evil stepmother, Peyton, for another school year.
But moving away would also mean leaving a lot of things behind. There was Dex, who, after months of confusion and misunderstandings, was officially my boyfriend. Just the idea of moving away, when we were finally a couple, made my stomach ache. And then there were my best friends, Finn and Charlie, and my new position as a writer for the Geek High magazine, The Ampersand.
I was so confused and conflicted about what I should do that I hadn’t told anyone about Sadie’s proposal that I move to London with her. I hadn’t meant to keep it a secret—I just wanted a chance to think it through first. But the longer I went without telling anyone, the harder it seemed to be to bring it up.
“What are you doing after work tomorrow? Do you want to meet up?” Dex asked.
“I can’t tomorrow. Charlie and I have plans,” I said. “How about Wednesday?”
“Sounds good,” Dex said. He leaned forward and rested his forehead against mine, so that his pale eyes loomed before mine. I could see the lighter golden flecks in his irises, and the scattering of freckles over his cheekbones. My breath caught in my chest, and all thoughts of moving to London and whatever it was Dex wasn’t telling me flew out of my mind.
“See you later,” he said, and then kissed me lightly.
“See you later,” I said.
Chapter Two
The lingering zing from Dex’s kiss continued to flutter in my stomach well after I’d let myself into the house and Dex had driven off. My brindle greyhound, Willow, greeted me at the front door, her long, lean body wriggling with happiness.
“Hi, girl,” I said, patting her sleek head.
Willow followed me into the kitchen and looked on hopefully while I rifled through the fridge for a snack. I found some leftover pizza from the night before—basil and tomato, my favorite—and took the whole box out onto the back deck to eat. The view from the deck overlooked the ocean, so while I ate my pizza, I watched the tide roll in on whitecapped waves. Willow settled herself down at my feet and dozed in the sun.
But the peace and quiet was short- lived. I could suddenly hear voices raised in argument coming from inside the house. Even the roar of the ocean didn’t stop me from hearing every word that was said. Or, more accurately, yelled.
“What were you thinking? You knew we had plans that night!”
“Obviously, I didn’t, or I wouldn’t have arranged the business trip for that weekend.”
The cold female voice belonged to my stepmother, Peyton, whom I had not so affectionately nicknamed the Demon. The low-pitched growl belonged to my dad. It sounded like they were in the kitchen. I hunched down in my chair, hoping they wouldn’t notice me. I’d learned from experience that when my dad and Peyton were fighting, it was best to stay out of their way.
“Is it really so hard to check with me before you make plans to be out of town?” Peyton asked.
“I didn’t have a choice in the matter. It was the only weekend the client could meet with me,” Dad replied. He was an architect, and frequently traveled to meet with clients or visit a building site. In fact, he and Peyton had met through his work, when she hired him to design the beach house. The Demon was the heiress to a mouthwash fortune.
“So your clients are more important to you than I am?” Peyton asked, her voice shrill with anger.