to wear.
Becca and Kaylee had been friends since kindergarten. It had always been the two of them until junior high when they’d met Jordan. Then it had been the three of them. Kaylee had always been the pretty friend, but when Jordan came along, Kaylee had to give up her crown. As for Becca, well, she was funny and smart. As if that mattered.
“How was your vacation?” Becca asked.
“Perfect. Amazing. Life changing.” Jordan spun in a circle, then grinned. “Do I look different? I feel different. More mature, you know?”
Becca studied her. Jordan wore skinny jeans and a cute, cropped sweater. Her hair was long, hanging down to the middle of her back. She had about a dozen bangles on her wrists, one ear cuff and a tiny diamond nose stud.
“You look great,” Becca offered.
Jordan grabbed her arm and pulled her close. “You can’t tell anyone. You have to swear.”
“I never tell. You know that. What? Tell me.” But as she asked, she got a sinking feeling she already knew.
Jordan released her, then sucked in a breath. “Nathan and I had sex. Not just fooling around. We did it. All the way.” She paused. “He actually put it in!”
Becca didn’t know what to say. Sure, she’d known this could happen eventually. Jordan and Nathan had been together for a while now and they had other friends who were hooking up, but still. Sex? Yet one more way Becca was being left behind.
She felt stupid and ugly and unwanted. Like aliens had come to school and abducted everyone but her because why would she be interesting to experiment on?
Jordan looked expectant. Becca tried to think of the right question. She and Jordan had talked about what it would be like to do that of course. More since Jordan and Nathan got serious, but to have done it...
“What was it like? Where did you do it? Do your parents know?”
Jordan exhaled slowly, then smiled. “It was nice. I liked it better when we were just, you know, fooling around, but it was good, too. I feel so different.” She looked at herself in the mirror. “I keep waiting for my mom to figure it out but that would mean she noticed I was alive.” Jordan rolled her eyes. “You know how she is.”
Jordan’s mother was a successful lawyer and her dad was a judge. They both adored and ignored their only daughter.
“Anyway, on Tuesday night Nathan sneaked into my room. We were fooling around, and then he got really serious.” Jordan’s eyes filled with tears. “He said he loved me and I said I loved him, and then it just happened.”
How did something like that just happen? “Did it hurt?”
“Yes, but not for long. He was so sweet. He stayed the night.” Jordan turned back to her. “I hope you find somebody, Becca. A good guy who wants to have sex with you.”
Because the only ones lining up were bad guys?
Jordan smiled at her. “I want you to know that I’m still going to be friends with you. That you matter to me. Even though we’re in different places in our lives now.” The smile gentled and became annoying like a mom’s. “You’ll catch up eventually.”
Jordan glanced at her phone. “Okay, we have a few minutes and I know you want all the details. Some are kind of personal, but still...”
Irritation flared. “I had a Spring Break, too, Jordan. It wouldn’t kill you to ask about it.”
“All you did was stay home.” Jordan sighed. “Don’t be jealous, Becca. I’m not going to be sorry that I have Nathan and you don’t have anybody. You’re my best friend and he’s my boyfriend. You’re going to have to find a way to get along.”
“Why do I have to get along with him? Why doesn’t he have to get along with me?” Becca shook her head. “And that’s not the point. Nathan and I are fine together. This isn’t even about that.”
“You’re not making any sense. Are you mad at me because everything is so great for me?”
“No. Of course not. I’m sorry.”
The words were automatic, then annoying. Becca couldn’t figure out what she was thinking or why she was apologizing. Why did Jordan get to be so selfish and Becca was the bad guy? What was going on with everyone?
She picked up her backpack. “We should go. It’s time for class.”
Jordan walked to the door, then glanced back at her. “I wish you could trust me not to leave you behind, Becca.”
Becca thought longingly of the instruction book Great-Aunt Cheryl had left her. Maybe there was a command that would make Jazz bite Jordan. Not hard. Just enough to have her friend realize she was being the biggest bitch on the planet.
HARPER COULDN’T SHAKE the feeling of being watched—probably because she was. Even though Thor and Jazz were lying down on huge beds that nearly filled her tiny office, their eyes were open and firmly fixed on her. As if waiting for something. She supposed some of her unease came from the fact that they were huge, muscular dogs trained to do God knew what. For all she knew, they were assessing her and if she showed weakness, they would simply kill her and hide the body, then pretend nothing had happened.
“I can’t believe I’m dog sitting,” she muttered, as she moved the picture around on her computer screen. She had a one-off job to provide online content for a new boutique by the boardwalk. The owner had called in a panic after realizing that just because her twelve-year-old could design a slick website, he wasn’t necessarily prepared to develop content. Harper was hoping the owner would be happy enough to keep her on to-do monthly updates.
She forced herself to concentrate, despite the sense of foreboding the two dogs engendered. She’d been expecting to have to deal with Jazz, but then Lucas had told her he was adding dog sitting to her duties. She would have refused only she not only needed the money—Jazz ate more than the average grizzly, and the food Great-Aunt Cheryl recommended cost as much as dinner for five at a decent restaurant—but she thought the two dogs might keep each other company, thereby freeing her from having to entertain Jazz.
She settled on a location for the pictures, cut and pasted the text, then studied the effect of the page. She’d added a section for featured clothes and had made the “style of the week” section bigger. Fifteen minutes of brainstorming over coffee had given her a list of suggestions she planned to share with the owner. One of them—a shop-your-closet feature—could give clients a reason to either come to the website or read the newsletter without feeling they were being sold to at every turn.
She got up to pour herself more coffee. Both Jazz and Thor raised their heads to watch her. She couldn’t tell if they were curious, still confused about their new location or assessing her viability. She paused to lightly pet each of them before going into the kitchen. Clicking nails told her she was not alone. So far the dogs had followed her from room to room, including trying to get into the bathroom with her. She’d insisted they wait in the hall, telling them that she wouldn’t watch them go and in return they couldn’t watch her.
Now
