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I snorted laughter. I couldn’t help it. “Did you tell him to buzz off?”
“Oh my God, I hate you.” More crunching.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized, swallowing my laughter, but I couldn’t help myself. “I was just kidding… honey.”
“Sara!’
“Okay, okay…” I relented, trying to make her feel better. “Don’t they say if a guy teases you, that means they like you?”
Aimee scoffed. “Yeah, in grade school! We’re not in grade school anymore!”
“I suppose that embarrassing moment was Cheeto-worthy,” I admitted. “Just don’t throw them up, okay? Promise me?”
She just kept on crunching. “Do I get to meet this Dale guy?”
“I’m giving him a ride to the academy on Monday. You can meet him then.”
“Argh!” She gave a strangled cry. “I’ve got a stupid group therapy session Monday morning. Hey, invite him to the lunch table! Then we can all meet him.”
I groaned. “Oh, yeah, like I want Carrie and Wendy ripping him to shreds?”
“Come on, you wimp. Just do it.”
“Fine. Listen, can I let you go? My paint is drying. Besides, you’re just droning on and on…”
“Oh shut up!” she snapped. “Can I see it before you send it?”
“Yeah—if you let me finish it!”
“Okay, okay,” she grumbled. “I’ll see you and your man at lunch on Monday!”
“He’s not my—” I started to protest, but she’d already hung up.
Here I’d been thinking about Dale Diamond and didn’t even know it. How was that possible? I picked up my brush and palette, just standing there, staring at my painting. I’d been ready to paint, but now I couldn’t stop thinking about Dale and his wry smile, the way his dark hair fell over one eye, that little dent in his chin and matching dimple in his cheek.
He wasn’t just a sexy, Tyler Vincent look alike, but a musician like him too! Aimee, a firm believer in fate, tarot cards, and all things psychic, clearly thought it was an obvious sign from the universe, but I knew better. More likely, it was just a diversion, something to distract me from the direction I really wanted to go.
And Tyler Vincent was my true north.
Then the phone rang and my breath caught in my throat and my heart leapt to my chest, my body instantly betraying me, but not only that, my very first thought was, “Dale!”
I dove across my bed to reach for it, hoping I’d caught it soon enough.
“Hello?” My stepfather’s voice echoed mine.
I thought it couldn’t get worse until Dale said, “Hi, Sara? I mean, is Sara home?”
“I got it,” I said.
“Okay.” But my stepfather still didn’t hang up the phone.
“Hi, Sara, how’s it going?” Dale asked.
“Okay.” I waited for my stepfather to hang up. I hated when he did this.
“So... I told you I’d call.”
“Uh-huh.” I hated being so short with him, but didn’t want to give anything away to the stepbeast.
