LITMIR.BIZ

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okay, sweetheart.” Hayley waved her apology off while I tried not to scowl at them both. Sweetheart? Really? Just how close were Hayley and her new soon-to-be daughter?

      “Eloise, this is India. India, Eloise,” Theo said.

      Light hazel eyes connected with mine and I tensed. The warmth in them had disappeared.

      “Welcome.” She gave me a tight smile.

      I gave her a terse nod, which only made her smile tighter.

      “I’m going to help Hayley get settled in. Why don’t you introduce India to your friends and then show her to her room. Okay?”

      “Sure thing, Daddy,” she chirped.

      Hayley squeezed my hand and gave me a bolstering look as though she cared whether or not she was leaving me to my doom. I turned away from her to stare warily at Eloise.

      She stared back, not saying a word until we heard the click of French doors behind us.

      Eloise crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re here.”

      Yes, definitely not the warmest welcome in the world. “So it would seem.”

      She frowned at my clothes. “You’ll need to go shopping.”

      I didn’t give her or her friend who giggled from a lounge chair beyond us a reaction to her insinuation that my clothes were too cheap for her world.

      Pulling on my armor, I did the only thing I could and pretended like I wasn’t intimidated. “Who’re your friends?” I said, walking toward them.

      The giggler was a petite girl with flawless golden skin and rich dark brown hair. She was perched on a lounge chair. Sitting on the edge of the pool with their pant legs rolled up were a sun-bronzed blond-haired boy and a stunning blonde girl with perfect porcelain skin and features—they looked like an Abercrombie & Fitch ad. In the pool on a blow-up lounge was a guy with black hair and a curious smirk. Finally my eyes swung to the boy leaning against the pool house wall. He was tall with naturally tan skin, dark hair and dark eyes, one of those boys that were too good-looking to be real, and he was staring at me with cold indifference.

      I stared right back with my best I’m so bored I could die expression before turning my attention to the giggler.

      To my surprise she gave me a little smile. “I’m Charlotte.”

      “More importantly, I’m Gabe,” the boy in the pool called out. He paddled toward our end of the pool and held a hand out while he grinned up at me. He wore his close-cropped black hair in waves and water glistened on his warm brown skin. Freckles a shade darker sprinkled his cheeks and the bridge of his nose, giving his handsome face a hint of adorable. His smiling dark eyes roamed my face.

      I bent down and tentatively shook his wet hand. “India.”

      “Awesome name.” He reclined back in his lounge chair, drinking me in. His perusal was much different from Eloise’s and I relaxed a little. Maybe I still had a little power. After all, I didn’t magically stop being pretty in Massachusetts.

      “I’m Joshua.” The boy with his feet in the pool held out his hand.

      The girl next to him hit him in the gut with her elbow and glared at him.

      “Ow.” He scowled. “What?”

      She shook her head in disgust. “Idiot.”

      I ignored her and took his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

      “You, too.”

      It was his turn to nudge the girl. She sighed heavily and looked up at me, giving me the same kind of once-over Eloise had. “Bryce,” she muttered.

      I glanced over my shoulder at the boy by the pool house. At my scrutiny he straightened up and walked toward me. He stopped at a lounge chair and sat down on it with a casual elegance you could only be born with. “Finn Rochester,” he said curtly, his voice deep, rich, around those two sharp words.

      He was the only one to introduce himself using his last name and I immediately knew I was supposed to register its importance.

      I decided then and there I liked him the least—this beautiful, pretentious boy.

      “My boyfriend.” Eloise strode toward him and put her hand on his shoulder.

      The gesture seemed forced and I had to wonder how Rochester felt about Eloise’s less than subtle claim of ownership.

      “And just so you know, Joshua is my boyfriend,” Bryce piped up.

      Laughter in my voice at their desperation to claim their boys, I said, “Good to know. I’ll be sure to shelve my inner man-eater around them.”

      Gabe chuckled. “No need to shelve it around me.”

      “You two—” I flicked my hand between him and Charlotte “—aren’t...?”

      “Oh God, no,” Charlotte said.

      “Hey!” Gabe splashed some water at her and she squealed like a five-year-old.

      “So, California?” Joshua said.

      I nodded. “Arroyo Grande.”

      “Ugh, the west coast,” Bryce sneered.

      I immediately thought of Siobhan and her aversion to all things not west coast. Had I stumbled upon her mirror twin in Massachusetts?

      “Maybe ‘ugh’ but I would kill for nice weather all year round.” Charlotte sighed in longing.

      “You’d bore of it,” Bryce said. “Four seasons are better than two.”

      I didn’t bother telling her that California had four seasons; they just didn’t contrast with one another as much as they did here. I was guessing that information wouldn’t make a bit of difference to change her mind about the west coast.

      “So...how strange are you finding all this?” Joshua said. “Theo and your mom getting together... It’s pretty sudden, right?”

      I felt Eloise’s eyes on me and understood that she was interested despite herself so I directed my answer to her. “I think our parents are dicks.”

      The guys burst out into laughter. Well, Joshua and Gabe did. Finn eyed me like I was some weird science experiment.

      Eloise narrowed her eyes. “My father is not a dick and I don’t appreciate that kind of language.”

      I crossed my arms over my chest. “Your father is richer than Jay Z and yet no one thinks it’s a good idea for him to fly out to Cali so I can get to know the guy I’m supposed to call stepfather. Instead I’ve got to leave my life behind and move in with some strange man I’ve never met. That doesn’t sound at all dickish on the part of our parents?”

      “My father wanted to fly west to meet you,” Eloise told me with calm disinterest. “Your mother is the one who didn’t want him to.”

      I winced and felt an ache slash across my chest. Of course Theo wanted to meet me, and my mother talked him out of it. She probably thought I’d ruin everything for her by telling him the truth or, you know...just by being me.

      Pretending I didn’t care, I shrugged. “So do you guys all go to the same school?”

      “We—” Eloise circled her finger to include the group “—are Tobias Rochester High School. Finn’s great-grandfather was the founder.”

      Suddenly things were becoming clearer.

      I looked at Finn but he was staring stonily at the ground.

      So these were the cool kids. My “in.” How did I even begin winning them over when Eloise’s chilly demeanor wasn’t exactly inviting?

      My eyes slid past Eloise to Finn, who was looking at me again. Or should I say through me again.

      Unnerved,

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