Page 3 of Secret Love

Liar.

“I’m so glad!” My mother turns and spots someone through the crowd. “Excuse me, Dani, I need to go run something by Ted over there.” Her gaze points at me, brows teeming with a silent urge. “Fox, how about you ask Dani about your new school?”

I bite down hard. I’d much rather hitch the next ride back up to Seattle instead.

“Sure,” I say.

She gives my shoulder a quick, yet firm, squeeze before wandering off to chat up Ted.

I look at Dani and she silently shifts on her feet. She sticks the lid back on the box and we sink into an awkward silence as the party hums around us.

So, this is Dani Roberts, huh? Hollywood’s next best thing. According to her father, anyway…

I don’t see what all the fuss is about myself.

I look at the box in her hands. “You hate it,” I say.

Dani flinches. “What?”

“The scarf,” I say. “You hate it. It’s obvious.”

“No, I don’t.”

I scoff. “Come on. We both know that thing is going in the back of your closet and will never see the light of day ever again. Might as well just toss it in the damn trash can right now.”

She shakes her head once. “That’s not true.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Prove it.”

Dani opens the box again and scoops the scarf out. With a trained hand, she flings it around her neck, letting the ends hang down on either side of her. The white and red colors clash horribly with her purple dress, but the fashion faux pas clearly doesn’t affect her very much.

She drops the empty box in my hands and walks off into the crowd.

Okay. Maybe I was a little quick to judge her.

Dani would wear that thing for the rest of the night.

She’d wear it to next year’s party, too. And the year after that.

She’d wear it every year until the day I died.

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