LITMIR.BIZ

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      He paused as if it was a number he could work with but then started shaking his head. “Lower.”

      “Oh, I give up. You’re being totally unreasonable.” Sofia turned and stormed toward the sprawling mansion.

      “Fine. If you’re going to start dating other boys then I’m going to start dating other girls—starting with Twyla Henderson.”

      Sofia stopped in her tracks and turned around. “What did you just say?”

      Pleased to see that he’d finally gotten her attention, Ram thrust his chin up and puffed his chest out. “You heard me. I’m going to date Twyla Henderson. She’s pretty enough and I know for a fact that she likes me.”

      “And you also know very well that I don’t like that big bully. All she does is talk bad about people and think that everyone should kiss her butt because her father knows a bunch of famous people.”

      “Whatever. She’s always nice to me.” Ram turned and started to stroll in the opposite direction, mimicking one of Sofia’s slick moves. He smiled when he heard her stomping up behind him.

      “Ramell Jordan, I forbid you to go out with that knock-kneed cow.”

      He turned around, laughing. “Knocked-kneed?”

      “You heard me.” She pushed up her chin. Her anger made red splotches on her smooth brown skin.

      “I don’t know.” He shook his head. “Hardly seems fair that you can date millions of people but I can’t see one girl that goes to our school.”

      “You can date anybody but her!”

      “Okay. How about Jill Marshall?”

      Sofia’s face twisted in disgust. “The girl that makes bubbles in her milk every day at lunch? Why would you want to go out with her?”

      “Connie Woods?”

      Sofia opened her mouth but then closed it. She liked Connie. Everybody did. When she hesitated, Ram took her silence as a stamp of approval.

      “Great! I’ll go over to her house right now. Maybe she’d like to go to the arcade or the roller rink.” He started to march off.

      “Ramell Jordan, you’ll do no such thing!”

      He had her now, but he quickly fixed his face so that he looked confused. “Why not?”

      “Because I forbid it,” she said, as if it made all the sense in the world.

      A smile ballooned across his face. “Admit it. You don’t like the idea of me dating other girls just like I don’t like the idea of you dating a gazillion boys.”

      Sofia pressed her lips together like she wasn’t about to admit to any such thing.

      Seeing that she was going to continue to be stubborn about the issue, Ram shrugged his shoulders and said, “Fine. I guess I’ll go see what Connie is doing.”

      He took one step forward and Sofia grabbed his wrist so fast that she dropped half of her fresh-picked daisies. “Don’t go!”

      Ramell cocked his head and waited for the words he wanted to hear.

      “All right. Fine.” She snatched her hand back and folded it across her chest with her other one. “I don’t want you to date other girls. There. Are you happy?”

      “Extremely.” He turned toward her. “So how about getting married?”

      “Sofia! Dinnertime! Time to come in!” Gloria, the Wellesleys’ housekeeper, hollered out through the French doors.

      Sofia’s face split into a smile. “See you tomorrow!” She turned and shot off toward the house.

      “Wait!” Ram called after her, but it was no use. She was already running as fast as her long legs could carry her.

      He crossed his arms dejectedly. “Women!”

      Sofia raced into the house, laughing because she had managed to get away from Ram once again without having to answer his proposal. Of course their game would resume tomorrow and she’d have to come up with a whole new set of stall-tactics. Heaven knows that she wasn’t opposed to marrying Ramell. The two times that he’d managed to sneak a kiss from her from underneath the oak tree in her backyard she actually thought it was rather nice. Sofia liked Ram. She especially liked how his dark brown eyes would shine like two new marbles when she’d let him. But they were only ten years old. What was a girl to do?

      “Go on and wash up,” Gloria said, pulling her from her reverie. “Your parents are busy with something in your father’s study, but when they’re done they’ll join you and your sister in the dining room.”

      Sofia nodded and then ran through the house and up the long spiral staircase to her bedroom. Once inside, she hurried over to the pink vase on top of her chest of drawers and added the four remaining wild daisies she clutched in her hand with the other ones Ram had given her this week. It was starting to look like one of the huge bouquets her father usually sent her mother.

      “Mrs. Sofia Jordan,” she practiced saying the name a few times in the mirror. “Mrs. Ramell and Sofia Jordan.” It had a nice ring to it, she decided. After standing there and admiring her wildflowers for a minute, she sighed and then turned toward her adjoining bathroom to go wash her hands for dinner. On her way back down the hallway, she stopped by her sister’s bedroom to peek inside.

      A year ago, when her parents first brought Rachel home, Sofia was absolutely not in favor of the whole kid-sister idea. But the moment her mother had put Rachel into her arms for her to hold for the first time, things changed. Sofia didn’t expect the new baby to be so cute and adorable. It was love at first sight. She knew from that moment on that she would be like a second mom to her sister. And so far, that’s exactly what she turned out to be.

      Seeing that Rachel was still fast asleep, Sofia carefully tiptoed backwards and continued to head back downstairs. However, she hadn’t even reached the middle stair before a tide of angry voices rose from her father’s study. If she had been told once, she had been told a million times not to go into her father’s study when the door was closed. But given the amount of yelling that was going on, her curiosity took over and the next thing she knew she was creeping into the room.

      As she poked her head in, the first thing she noticed was her father’s handsome face distorted and inflamed with anger.

       “You think that I don’t know what the hell is going on in my own house?”

      “John, John. Calm down,” Uncle Jacob, her father’s twin, tried to pull him away from Emmett Jordan.

      “No, Jacob. Wait until you hear about this…this lowlife son-of-”

      “JOHN,” Sofia’s mother yelled.

      “This backstabber,” he yelled, “has been sneaking around here with my own wife!” His narrowed gaze shifted to his wife. “Isn’t that right, Vivian?”

      “No, John!”

      “Don’t lie to me!” He charged toward her, but once again Uncle Jacob jumped in and blocked his path.

      Vivian gasped and stepped back.

       “I know what’s going on! I’ve seen you two with my own eyes!”

      Her mother dropped her head into her hands and sobbed.

      Her father’s rampage continued. “Fine! You want her…you can have her. But it’ll be a cold day in hell before I let you take my children and my company away from me!”

      “John, please,” Sofia’s mother wailed.

      Uncle Jacob kept his hold around his brother. “Everybody just needs to calm down.”

      “Calm down?” John

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