Free The Chic Shall Inherit the Earth by Shelley Adina Page B

afterward?”
    With a smile, she shook her head. “No. I’ll just hole up in our room and cry. By the time you get back Sunday night, it’ll all be over.”
    Carly’s cousin Enrique buzzed her on her phone about then, so in a flurry of paying the bill and grabbing our things, there was no time to talk any further. But on the way down the peninsula in the limo, Carly was so quiet that I could tell she was still thinking about it. When we got to their condo in San Jose, her dad met us at the door and gave us hugs of welcome.
    “Make yourself comfortable with us, Lissa,” Mr. Aragon said with his warm smile. “I am glad to see you again.”
    “Thanks for having me. Otherwise I’d be locked out in the corridor while all the other girls bury themselves in exam prep and… other stuff.”
    “And you have no exams to prep?”
    “Oh, I do. But my Austen paper is a lot more fun and less stressful than Poli.Sci. or Chemistry. More portable, too. I’ll be working on it here.”
    When it looked like all we planned to do that evening was settle down in our PJs to watch
Enchanted
, Carly’s little brother Antony gave up on getting any entertainment out of us and vanished to cozy up to his Xbox. But instead of her normal commentary on costume and character, Carly stayed nearly as quiet as she had on the ride down. Something was definitely up with her, too.
    When the movie ended, she shut it off. Everyone else must have gone to bed and forgotten to leave a light on. With the TV off, the room was lit only by the lights of the parking lot outside, across the grassy space between the condos.
    I heard her sigh in the dark. “What’s on your mind,
chica?
” I asked softly.
    Another sigh. “Nothing.”
    I chuckled. Her profile made a dark silhouette against the other end of the couch. “Nice try.”
    A second passed, and then she chuckled, too. “I guess, huh.” But she didn’t go on. Instead, the silence stretched out, punctuated by the wail of a siren in the distance.
    “If it were Shani sitting here, would you tell her? Or Mac?” People with boyfriends, who would understand?
    Another sigh, and then Carly gave in. “It’s my mom.”
    “Your
mom?
” And here I’d been thinking she had boy trouble, like Gillian. Only, because Carly and Brett really did love each other, it would have been twice as hard to talk about. Not that Gillian didn’t care about Jeremy. But Carly and Brett were on a whole different plane of caring. They were the closest I’d ever seen to the real thing. At Spencer, at least.
    “She rescheduled her wedding from Christmas to Memorial Day weekend,” Carly said.
    “Right. You told us that. You also said you might go.”
    “But
might
doesn’t mean I’ve decided. Lissa, this is killing me. I’ve beaten the subject to death in my head so much I don’t know what the right thing is anymore.”
    “Have you talked it over with your dad? His feelings are what you care about—what’s holding you back.”
    I felt more than saw her shake her head no.
    “Perhaps you should ask him,” said a masculine voice from behind us.
    Carly jumped about three inches, and collapsed back against the cushions with her hand over her heart. “Papa, you scared me half to death.”
    The light outlined his hand briefly as he reached over and touched her hair. “I am sorry. I thought you knew I was in my office. Won’t you turn on a lamp?” His trousers made a soft sound as he crossed the room and folded himself into the leather recliner by the window.
    “Sometimes it’s easier to talk in the dark,” I said.
    “This is true. Especially when the subject is difficult.
Mi’ja
, is it really your concern for my feelings that keeps you from your mother’s wedding?”
    She hesitated. “Partly.”
    “I cannot know what yours are, but let me tell you mine. I admit,” he said slowly, “that the news of her engagement came as a shock to me. I was not ready to move on, and I could not believe that she could do so