Austensibly Ordinary Read Free

in, instantly disrupting my carefully arranged calm. I hurried to pull the phone from my pocket, my blood pounding crazily through my veins, as I urgently wondered if I’d been too late.
    I hadn’t. Syd was simply as psyched as I was.
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    So thrilled you rsvp’d! Finally! Going to be awesome! Expect a call. . . .
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    I smiled down at the screen, my pulse slowly returning to normal, and casually sipped my beer.
    Judging by the banked look in Ethan’s eyes, he could tell something was up. He no doubt assumed that it was my mother’s presence that kept me from blurting my secrets.
    â€œDo you two have any plans for the evening?” my mom quizzed, staring intently at Ethan.
    Mom had been gunning for Ethan ever since I’d brought him home for our first Scrabble game a year and a half ago. She assumed that eventually one of us would realize that this thing between us could be so much more than a little word game with beer. As a romance reader, she couldn’t help it—he was perfect hero material. Charismatic, clever . . . debatably sexy—it had, in fact, been debated, with Mom talking up his finer points and me la-la-la’ing my way through.
    Ethan and I caught each other’s eye, simultaneously shook our heads in one quick negative, and let our gazes swivel away again.
    â€œI’ve actually got a few errands to run before tomorrow. Not to mention a little work to catch up on.” He stood, eyed the pizza box splayed open on the table, and looked to me with a question in his eyes.
    â€œI got it,” I told him. “Seeing as I didn’t buy the pizza, I’ll pay the forfeit in cleanup. Sorry to rob you of another Scrabble trouncing.”
    â€œIt had its benefits,” he said, winking.
    I glanced at my mom, hoping she wasn’t picking up on any of this.
    â€œThank you for dinner, Ms. Kendall. See you at school, Cate.” And then he disappeared into the shadows at the edge of the house. Minutes later, all car sounds had faded and Mom and I were alone in the dark.
    â€œDoes he have a girlfriend?”
    â€œNo, and neither do I.”
    Mom’s laser stare bored into me. I may as well have been splayed out on the table like James Bond.
    â€œKidding, Mom. But Ethan is just a friend.”
    â€œHe could be a friend with benefits. . . .”
    I turned the laser back on her, wondering for a moment if she’d been eavesdropping earlier and merely glossed over it by paying the pizza guy.
    â€œWhere did you say you were today, Mom?” I countered.
    She clammed up immediately, which, while slightly suspicious, was just fine with me at this point.
    â€œDo you have time this week to come in after school and help me decorate the store? I’d like to get the Halloween stuff up by Thursday at the latest.”
    Mom owned a vintage clothing and jewelry store down on South Congress called Mirror, Mirror. It irked her that fall retail tended to be one big blur of holidays, so she determinedly decorated for just a few days surrounding every holiday. I was always conscripted to help with window displays and ladder-top duties. Halloween, as I was now well aware thanks to my invitation to a Hitchcock soiree, was only one week away.
    And I needed something to wear.
    I mentally rummaged through my closet, trying to think if I had anything at all with a Hitchcock blonde vibe, and I couldn’t come up with any hits. I’d have to cross my fingers that there was something in the shop I could borrow—something that wouldn’t raise questions I didn’t particularly want to answer. I hadn’t decided quite how to play this. Spies and superheroes didn’t go around outing themselves, confiding their secret identities and handing out invitations to their secret lairs. Except maybe to a sidekick.
    I hadn’t really considered a sidekick. Ideally there’d be one trusty soul who had my back and could save me from the laser table. But