Free Revenge of the Geek by Piper Banks Page B

cute,”one of the guys said, causing my cheeks to grow even hotter.
    “She’s taken,”Dex told him. He smiled wryly at me. “Can I catch you later? It’s kind of impossible to talk right now.”
    “Sure,”I said. “Go have dinner.”
    “See you later,”Dex said.
    “See you later,”I said.
    “See you later,”some of the guys said.
    Dex hung up, and his picture disappeared from my computer screen. I smiled to myself, even though I was feeling a small tug of sadness. I was glad Dex seemed happier, glad he was making friends. And I hadn’t really expected him to give up on Brown Academy and transfer back to Orange Cove. Quitting wasn’t Dex’s style. But, even so, it was hard not to wonder where he and I would end up, once we both accepted that his life was now up there, so far away from Orange Cove.
     

    Thankfully, Avery didn’t stay for dinner. When I arrived in the kitchen, Peyton and Hannah were seated at the table, while my dad stood at the counter, carving a deli rotisserie chicken.
    “Hi, honey,”Dad said.
    “Hi,”I said, taking my seat.
    “How was your day, Miranda?”Peyton asked.
    I was still having a hard time adjusting to this new Peyton. For most of the time I’d known her, she’d treated me with, at best, cold indifference and, at worst, outright hostility. But her lack of enthusiasm for my presence in the beach house had started to cause a strain in her marriage to my dad. So over the summer, he and Peyton began seeing a marriage counselor. It seemed to be doing them a lot of good—they weren’t fighting nearly as much as they used to—and Peyton had been making a real effort to be nicer to me. We’d probably never be close, but as long as we were stuck living together, it was nice to have the hostilities ratcheted down.
    “It was fine, thanks,”I said politely.
    “I was just telling Mom and Richard about my new Web site,”Hannah said. She shook her hair back and secured it into a ponytail with an elastic.
    “Is it up and running?”I asked.
    “It will be soon. Finn said he’d have it ready by the end of the week,”Hannah said.
    “How did you talk him into doing it for you?”I asked.
    “I just asked nicely,”Hannah said.
    “Hmph,”I said.
    “What?”she asked.
    “Finn doesn’t really know what it means to be nice,”I warned her. “You’d better double-check your Web site carefully once he’s done with it. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’d listed himself as the only eligible male for girls to date.”
    “I thought Finn was still dating Phoebe McCleod,”Hannah said.
    “He is. But even so, I wouldn’t put it past him,”I said.
    Dad brought the carved chicken to the table.
    “Dinner is served,”he said, settling the plate down with a flourish.
    Along with the chicken, there was pasta tossed with Parmesan cheese and broiled asparagus. I was starving, and loaded up my plate. Hannah rolled her eyes and took about half as much food as I had, while Peyton speared a single asparagus stalk and piece of chicken the size of a half-dollar onto her plate. Peyton almost never ate. This bizarre ability to survive without ever eating was one of the reasons I’d long suspected her of being supernaturally evil.
    “Peyton and I have an idea we want to run past you two,”Dad said, helping himself to a chicken leg.
    “What’s that?”Hannah asked.
    “We’ve never been on a family vacation, all four of us together. So we thought that maybe we could take a trip this fall. Maybe drive down to the Keys for a weekend,”Dad continued.
    “Okay. Fine with me,”Hannah said, shrugging.
    I was less sure. Even though Peyton had been much nicer to me lately—or, at least, much less hostile—the idea of going on vacation with her didn’t exactly thrill me. And I never really thought of Peyton as my family. But my dad looked anxiously over at me, and I didn’t want to disappoint him. I knew how important it was to him that we get along.
    “Sure. Sounds fun,”I said.
    And even