Boy Trouble by Pascal Francine

Author:Pascal, Francine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-01-25T16:00:00+00:00

Eight

"Jessica, would you get the basil and oregano?" Mrs. Wakefield asked, quickly scanning the recipe in front of her.

"Heads up, Mom!" Jessica grabbed the jars from the spice rack and pretended she was going to toss them across the kitchen.

"Don't you dare." When she smiled, Alice Wakefield looked almost as young as her sixteen-year-old daughters.

"You're no fun," Jessica teased, handing over the jars.

"Hey, cooking dinner is serious business," Mrs. Wakefield protested as she stirred the herbs into the tomato sauce simmering on the stove.

"Tell me about it," Jessica said, munching on a carrot she had snitched from the salad bowl.

"Somebody should," Elizabeth piped up from the dining table.

Jessica feigned astonishment. "Liz, are you trying to say that I don't help out with dinner or something?"

Ordinarily Mrs. Wakefield, an interior designer, worked until six o'clock, so Jessica and Elizabeth took turns making dinner. Jessica, however, was a genius at coming up with excuses, and half the time she got Elizabeth to cover for her.

"Who, moi? Insinuate something unkind about you, dear sister?" Elizabeth grinned. "Never."

"I'm here tonight, aren't I?" Jessica pointed out.

"And what a help you've been, too," Mrs. Wakefield kidded.

"I'm hurt, Mom," Jessica said, trying not to smile. "I put a lot of effort into getting those spices." She sighed dramatically as she sauntered out of the kitchen. "I guess my talents just aren't appreciated here—"

Then the phone rang, and Jessica stopped. Nine times out of ten it was for her—usually either Lila or Amy calling to gossip.

Elizabeth answered the call. She held the receiver out toward her twin. "Jess, it's for you. A guy," she added in a whisper.

Jessica stifled a yawn. "Maybe it's time we get an unlisted number," Jessica said, "to discourage the undesirables."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes as she handed the phone to her twin. "Hello, this is Jessica," she said in a bored voice.

"Jessica, I'm glad I caught you. This is Vincent Delano from the Blue Parrot Shop."

Vincent! Jessica almost dropped the phone. It was Tuesday, three days since the crafts fair, and she had practically given up on hearing from him. Usually, when Jessica gave a guy her phone number he called in a matter of hours.

"Vincent, hi," she said eagerly. Then Jessica noticed that Elizabeth was lingering within earshot. She hadn't told her twin about the episode at the fair, and she didn't plan on it. Elizabeth would definitely not approve of her letting Vincent believe she had painted the T-shirts and taken the credit away from DeeDee.

"Just a moment," Jessica murmured into the mouthpiece. Untwisting the tangled phone cord, she stretched it as far as it would go, out of the kitchen and into the dining room. "It's great to hear from you, Vincent," she purred when she was confident of her privacy. "What's up?"

"Well, I've been thinking about you a good deal since we met at the crafts fair on Saturday," he began, his voice deep.

A chill of excited satisfaction ran up Jessica's spine. It was exactly the way she had imagined it.

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