Home for the Holidays by Heather Vogel Frederick

Author:Heather Vogel Frederick [Frederick, Heather Vogel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2011-09-01T13:30:26+00:00

“That’s my girl.”

I’m silent on the ride to Nestlenook, mostly because everybody else has plenty to say. My dad is talking to Uncle Hans, my mother is fishing Jonas’s life story out of him, and Emma and Felicia are debat-ing the relative merits of Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë, tossing around terms like “leitmotif” and “gender relations” as they discuss which book is better, Pride and Prejudice or Jane Eyre. Nobody seems interested in anything I might have to say, so I just sit and stare out the van window. It’s a pretty ride, at least, and I’ve always like watching for the covered bridge in Jackson. I poke Emma with one of my crutches as we pass it.

“Awesome!” she says, whipping out her camera and snapping a picture. Then she dives right back into her conversation with Felicia.

Stung, I pull my jacket closer around me and hunch down in my seat. Forget BFBB, it looks like the latest rule is NFBBF—new friends before best friends. Fine. Emma can have her shiny new toy.

My gaze wanders over to Jonas instead, who’s telling my mother Home for the Holidays

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all about UNH. He has dark hair and gray eyes, like his brother, but his smile is broader and his nose a little narrower. His hands are different too—less blunt, with long, slender fingers. He’s definitely cute.

Not that it matters. I’m taken. And I slip my cell phone out of my pocket and look at pictures of me and Darcy just to prove it.

A few minutes later we pull into the parking lot by Nestlenook’s frozen lake. Emma’s eyes widen as she gazes out the window. Before I can stop myself, I lean over and murmur, “Deep Valley, right? Didn’t I tell you?” She nods.

Felicia looks at us sharply. “Deep Valley? Wait a minute, isn’t that from those dumb Betsy-Tacy books?”

“They’re not dumb!” I tell her. “They’re really good. We’ve been reading them for our book club.”

“Are you kidding me?” She gives me a look of deep disdain. “I read those back in elementary school.”

Emma laughs uneasily. “Well, these days our club is mostly just an excuse to get together with friends, you know, Felicia? We let our moms pick the books to keep them happy.”

I gape at her. Traitor! After she’s spent the past four months gushing about how much she loves Maud Hart Lovelace, too! Is she so worried about impressing Felicia that she won’t even stick up for our book club?

Before things escalate further, Jonas reaches over and opens the van door, then climbs out. “Can I give you a hand, Jess?”

“I’m fine,” I snap, then promptly trip over my crutches in my haste to get away from Emma and Felicia.

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Heather Vogel Frederick

“Whoa, careful there,” he says, catching me and setting me down gently onto the snow-covered parking lot.

“Um, thanks,” I tell him. I take a deep breath, trying to calm my racing pulse. There’s nothing like falling into the arms of some guy you barely know to make your face turn red.

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