Read Online Father Knows Best by Lynda Sandoval - Free Book Online

supposed to be in final prep mode for NYC, waiting for me on the—gak!—porch swing (not thinking about it. I might have to get one of those sage smudge sticks from Inner Power and cleanse the whole area before I could Zen out about the whole thing).
    I stepped out of the car, smiling curiously at my pals. “Hey! What are you guys doing here?”
    “Waiting for you,” Caressa said. “Nice ride!”
    “Thanks!” I twirled my hand like one of those busty, scantily clad girls on the game shows, displaying the Big Prize. “Come check it out. It’s awesome.”
    They both stood and started toward me.
    “But, seriously, Caressa, how’d you get out of the house? I thought today was parent day?”
    “Special dispensation,” she said, by way of explanation, which really didn’t explain jack.
    They both came down to inspect the car, but their enthusiasm seemed…tight. Their focus fractured. Their smiles and comments just a bit too bright and rehearsed, if you know what I mean. Instinct told me something else was on their minds. Meryl, especially, seemed super preoccupied. I watched them examine my car, but a sense of alarm had begun to seep into my brain. I crossed my arms protectively across my abdomen.
    Maybe I was a worst-case scenario thinker. Or maybe my raw emotions were too close to the surface after today, and I was reading too much into my two BFFs’ uncharacteristic behavior.
    Yeah, that was it.
    Had to be. Right?
    I made a concerted effort to relax, stretching my neck side-to-side and shaking out my hands. After clearing my throat, I asked, “Mer, how was the hike?” I tilted my head toward the front door. “You guys want to come inside for a bit after you’re done drooling on my dashboard?”
    “I can’t stay,” Meryl said. She’d been bent over peering into the passenger side at the airbags. She stood up slowly, and I studied her. Her naturally alabaster skin seemed even more pale against the red of her hair, making her freckles stand out, and her normally sparkly blue eyes looked…heavy. “Oh,” she said abruptly, in total afterthought mode. “The hike was hard, but great.”
    Okay, now I knew I wasn’t imagining things.
    Something was up.
    On a normal day, you could ask Meryl seventeen unrelated questions all in a row—without punctuation—and she remembered to answer every single one of them, appropriately and in order. It was one of her many special talents.
    “I can’t stay either,” Caressa said, with a small shrug. “My freedom pass has an expiration time stamp, what with the flight tomorrow and everything.”
    They closed my car doors, and then we all stood there sort of staring at each other from various sides of the car. Me, in front of it. Meryl, passenger side. Caressa, driver’s side. I swallowed, searching my brain for a plausible reason why (1) they’d sit here and actually wait for me, and yet (2) have nothing to say. Goose bumps washed over me.
    “So…you guys just dropped your plans to come by and wait for me so you could check out the new wheels?”
    Please say yes.
    “Yes,” Caressa said, just as Meryl said, “No.”
    They exchanged a weird, unreadable glance.
    Caressa moistened her lips with a quick, nervous flick of her tongue and cast me an apologetic look. “Actually, Meryl’s right on that one.”
    I could feel my body bracing itself from the inside, safety gates slamming down, windows boarding up, emotions heading into the deep freeze for safekeeping. Still, I tried to keep my tone light. “Right about what?”
    “About why we came over. Well, we did want to see the car,” Meryl offered. “But there’s something else, too.”
    Again with the freakin’ blood pounding loudly in my ears. I’d had about enough of that for one day. I needed Excedrin. And possibly a hearing aid. I stepped around the front bumper of the car to be closer to Mer, my hands in fists at my sides, and dropped all pretense of lightness. “What? Tell me what’s wrong, because I