Tidings of Great Boys Read Free Page A

because you’re… apart. Can’t you do this one thing for me? It’s just a
     holiday. Just ten days at Strathcairn, which, trust me, is big enough that if you wanted to be apart, you could spend a week
     there and not see a soul. Mac says it has fourteen bedrooms.” She glanced at me as if for confirmation, and I nodded. “Please?
     At least say you’ll think about it. That’s all I’m asking. Yes. Okay. Talk to you later. Love you, too.”
    She disconnected and put the phone away with a sigh. Then she looked up. “She won’t come. I just know it.”
    “Mothers.” I tapped a stack of binder pages together and snapped them in where they belonged. “The most stubborn race on earth.”
    “The stupid part is, they used to be crazy about each other. Jolie and I used to get so embarrassed at the PDAs.” Lissa sat
     on the bed and picked up her textbook, then put it down again. “I don’t get how you go from that to separate houses.”
    “Or separate countries.” The words popped out of my mouth by themselves. “Like my parents. I know there’s never been anyone
     for my father but Mummy. And yet,” I waved my hands about two feet apart, “there they are, like this.”
    “You are so lucky, Gillian,” Carly said. “At least your parents are together.”
    Gillian raised her eyebrows, glanced at Shani, and said nothing. Which, for her, is unusual.
    “Well,” I said briskly, “let’s not obsess about what we can’t fix. Who’s for a walk down the hill and a gelato?”
    “Me,” Gillian said. “I’m starting to read things twice. I’m done.”
    The studious mood was officially broken.
    So what if it was December. La Dolce Vita was bright and warm and the gelato was to die for, imported straight from Italy.
     I let the tart flavor of raspberry slide down my throat and sipped a hot chai latte with it. “This beats biology and debate
     any day.”
    “We should study here,” Shani agreed, spooning up bright green pistachio. “I bet I wouldn’t get brain cramps if I ate a different
     flavor every hour or so.”
    “You’d get a bunch of poundage, is what you’d get.” Lissa gazed into her blueberry cheesecake gelato. “I’m sure there’s like,
     five thousand calories in here.”
    “And I’m enjoying every one.” Shani licked her spoon with satisfaction.
    The door of the shop opened and Brett Loyola and Tate DeLeon cruised in. Somehow I was not surprised.
    “Great idea.” Brett kissed Carly on the temple and we shuffled chairs to make room. “Thanks for the text.”
    He came back from the counter with a big pile of something with ribbons of caramel through it. Tate got black licorice and
     somehow managed to insert his big, unwelcome self between Shani and me.
    Traitor. I gave her a glare for moving her chair over, but she ignored me.
    “Hey,” he said. “What did you get?”
    “Raspberry.” Some people love licorice. The smell of it makes me ill. Or maybe it was the company. Earlier this term, Tate
     stalked Lissa for a month before she finally got through to him in words of one syllable that she wasn’t interested. Whereupon
     he transferred his attention to me, being the only unattached female in our group at the time.
    Not that there’s anything wrong with him, really, if you leave out the licorice. He’s got great shoulders because he’s on
     the rowing team, and there must be something upstairs or Brett wouldn’t hang round with him. But a boy who wants a girlfriend
     that bad just makes me want to take evasive action.
    And my coming in second to Lissa didn’t help his case, either.
    “I think I aced the math test today. How’d you do?”
    “I’m not taking math.”
    “Huh?” Again a gust of licorice as he stared at me. “How’d you manage that?”
    “I’m an exchange student, remember? I don’t have to take math under the American system. I wrapped it up last year in sixth
     form.” Blank look. “What you’d call eleventh grade.”
    “Oh. Lucky you.” His