Free Tempted by Cecily von Ziegesar Page A

case. She insisted that Callie didn’t need to pack a thing—the spa would take care of everything. Feeling a little like the actual Cinderella, taken care of by her fairy governor mother, Callie rushed right out to the waiting town car, grateful it hadn’t turned into a pumpkin at midnight.
    Outside the car, the dark landscape rushed by, tall pine trees silhouetted by the Halloween moon riding high in the night sky. She put her hand on the cold window. Through the tinted glass partition, the back of the driver’s head was visible. The driver was a woman in her fifties with a jumble of graying curls piled high on her head. Callie could hear the faint strains of country music through the partition, reminding her of every boy she’d ever known back in Georgia, and she wondered if the driver had driven here all the way from Atlanta. No one up here listened to country. Ever.
    The tinted glass partition rolled down and the driver turned her head slightly, country music flooding the car. “Are you okay back there, sweetheart?”
    “Yes, I’m fine.” Callie massaged her temples with her fingers and swallowed heavily, her mouth dry from all the sugary spiked punch. “Thank you.”
    The woman clucked gently. “There are bottles of water in the cooler. And let me know if you need to stop to use the ladies’—it’s a long drive.” As soon as the partition slid back up, Callie dove for the hidden cooler. She cracked open an icy bottle of water and took an enormous swig.
    A sudden regret filled Callie that she hadn’t had the chance to show Easy she wasn’t such a bad person after all. But she couldn’t explain everything in front of the Barbies and the Powerpuff Girls and the Blue Man Group. She wanted to watch Easy’s face as he absorbed the information, and then she wanted him to sweep her up in his arms … like the princess she was? She couldn’t stop Easy’s hurtful words from bleeding into every thought, and she concentrated on staring hard out the front window, watching the headlights from oncoming cars become fewer and fewer as the town car navigated the roads like a sailboat out to sea.
    When she opened her eyes next, the car had turned off the freeway, the tires crunching on the unpaved drive as they inched slowly through a stand of birch trees sunken in fluffy white snow. The moonlight reflected off the drifts, blinding Callie so that her tired eyes could hardly make out the spa grounds. Everything was gleaming and covered in white, as if she had stepped into some kind of magical winter wonderland. She had the strange—yet pleasant—sensation of waking up in Iceland or somewhere equally far from Waverly, Easy, and everything she knew. She’d never been more thankful for her mother’s interference in her life.
    The car came to a stop at what looked like a small ski lodge with the words WHISPERING PINES etched into a wooden sign outside. Callie hopped out of the car, the cold night air shaking her awake. Her legs wobbled under her and she leaned on the open car door for support. She hoped the kitchen would still be open. All she’d had to eat today was a tuna and celery sandwich for lunch, and a handful of candy corn at the Halloween party. She imagined the spa kitchen could whip up all kinds of delicacies, and she suddenly craved an egg white omelet with mushrooms and pepper-jack cheese. Maybe an English muffin, too, with butter and jam.
    A young woman wrapped tight in an orange parka descended the wooden steps of the quaint-looking ski lodge, snow hanging over its eaves. “Glad you made it,” she said in a low, soothing voice, blinking the sleep away from her eyes. “I’m Amanda.” She stuck out her hand and Callie shook it.
    “Callie Vernon,” she said before stuffing her hands quickly back into her pockets. She was suddenly grateful for her long raincoat, realizing how absurd it must be to arrive at a spa in the middle of the night wearing a baby blue Cinderella gown and flip-flops. And she