Read Online The Secrets of Peaches by Jodi Lynn Anderson - Free Book Online

managed to bend everyone to her will easily, wearing a genteel smile all the while.
    Leeda scanned the bleachers. Judge Miller Abbott and his son sat nearby with a group of guys from school behind them. Dina Marie scooted to the end of their row to sit next to the guys. Every time Dina laughed her flirty laugh, Leeda could see Murphy wince and roll her eyes. The boys shot glances over at them repeatedly. Boys always stared at Leeda, but they stared at Murphy harder because Leeda looked fine like china, but Murphy looked like the world’s most decadent banana split. Boys were scared of both of them. Scared of Leeda because she looked too cool to touch and scared of Murphy because they were afraid she might bite them.
    Rex was sitting in the bleachers way up behind them next to some guys from work.
    â€œWhy isn’t Rex sitting with us?” Leeda asked.
    Murphy looked over her shoulder. “I don’t know. I toldhim I’d catch up with him after the game.” She didn’t look Leeda in the eye as she said it.
    â€œOh, Murphy, you’re so cold,” Leeda told her.
    Murphy looked at her like she was an idiot. “Why?”
    â€œBecause you want him to miss you.” Murphy always surprised Leeda with how cruel she could be.
    â€œWell, Thanksgiving is less than a month away, and I just think maybe he needs a little reminder….” Murphy balled upher fists and then released them. “So he can remember why he has to come with me.”
    Leeda looked back at Rex. The way he kept glancing over at them made Leeda’s chest ache a little. “Murphy, take it easy on him.”
    Murphy twirled her hair like she hadn’t heard her. Leeda looked back again, pinchy. He had never looked like that for Leeda. She ran her hands up and down her goose-bumpy arms.
    â€œSo Bird’s moping, huh?” Murphy asked.
    Leeda nodded. Earlier that evening, while she zipped Leeda into her strapless dress, Birdie asked for the ten-thousandth time if it was really okay if she didn’t go to the football game. She’d headed home instead, dragging her red Crocs along the hall carpet as she shuffled out of the house.
    â€œHere, darlin’.” Lucretia pulled off her heavy cashmere coat and wrapped it around Leeda. “You have such thin little arms,” she said, taking Leeda’s wrist and waggling it, then tucking it back under the coat. “Small people get cold faster. I’m the same way.” Lucretia wrapped her arms across her black cashmere turtleneck and shivered. Leeda gave her a mystified glance. Normally Lucretia wouldn’t throw a life preserver to a drowning man.
    Bridgewater scored a touchdown. Everyone cheered and the band launched into an off-key rendition of “We Will Rock You.”
    Judge Abbott leaned forward over Murphy’s shoulder. He had hair going white at the temples, an ample stomach, big glasses, and a square jaw. “How’s your mom, Murphy?”
    â€œFine.” Murphy cracked her gum.
    â€œWhere you headed after graduation?”
    Murphy rested her chin on her hand, looking bored. “Anywhere but here.”
    Judge Abbott laughed. “Well, don’t sugarcoat it,” he said, patting her on the back. He was one of the few authority figures in town—maybe the only one—who actually liked Murphy. He always seemed amused by her and a little protective. “What about you, Leeda?”
    Lucretia answered for her, twisting the top onto her thermos. “Leeda applied early decision to Columbia last week. Her aunt invited her to spend the summer in San Francisco. She has a lot of decisions to make.”
    Leeda knew she was expected to add something but didn’t. She’d sent her application in without much fanfare, but spending the summer in San Francisco was not an option. Now that she’d spent a summer on the orchard, it was out of the question that she’d miss a summer there. She just