Leave Tomorrow Behind (Stella Crown Series) Read Online Free Page A

Leave Tomorrow Behind (Stella Crown Series)
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she’d poke his eye out. Across that ample—or should I say outrageously ginormous—chest was a banner proclaiming her to be a contestant in the Lovely Miss Pageant.
“My name’s Summer,” she said, batting eyelashes as big as garden spiders. Along with the batting came the pout of the puffy lips. They couldn’t possibly be natural. “I’m going to be competing in the Lovely Miss Pennsylvania pageant Wednesday afternoon. I hope you’ll come.”
Claire, the only one apparently not frozen in shock—or horror—gave a tight smile. “Sorry, we’ll be too busy.”
“Aaaaah, I don’t know,” Randy said. “I might be able to find the time.”
Bobby nodded, smiling like an idiot.
“And how about you?” The teenage Botox factory turned those way-too-baby blues on Zach, and I felt him flinch.
“Uh…maybe.”
Claire’s eyes narrowed, and she looked back down at the table.
Summer gave me a passing glance, then fixed her gaze on the back of Nick’s head. She moved to the side, managing to avoid a boob collision with Nick or anything else, and swiveled to look at him. Her eyes widened, and her smile grew. Not an unusual reaction for any female confronted with Nick’s gorgeousness, but something about this particular girl made my stomach turn.
“How about you?” she purred.
If she so much as reached toward him I would break her arm.
Nick held very still, then leaned Randy’s way as he looked up at the girl, toward her face, although I’m not sure he could actually see past the mountains blocking the way. “Sorry. Beauty pageants aren’t really my thing.”
“Oh, it’s so much more than that. It’s about talent, and commitment to the world, and the environment…and also beauty.” There went those hideous eyelashes, fluttering away, like aliens flying back to the home world. I considered asking if she had something in her eye, but decided I’d rather not speak directly to her.
“Still,” Nick smiled casually, “I have other things on my schedule.”
“Are you sure?” She leaned in a little closer. I recalled the CPR class I’d had ages ago, hoping I still had the skills, in case she suffocated him with her chest.
“Yes, I’m very sure. My fiancée and I—” he gestured toward me “—will be busy.”
She wrenched her eyes from his godlike face and gaped at me. “Your fiancée?”
By some miracle I didn’t lunge across the table and strangle her. But then, I probably would have bounced off that silicone armor.
“Summer? There you are.” A woman, plucked and dyed and pressed and just as real as Summer scurried up, checking her watch. “We have a schedule, you know.”
Summer pouted, her lips protruding grotesquely, like she’d been hit in the mouth one too many times. “Mooom, I’m making new friends. Inviting them to the pageant.”
“You need to let me know where you are—”
“I invited him.” She pointed at Nick, and her mother’s face went slack. Well, it sort of did. It would have been more impressive, I was sure, if her face-lift hadn’t stretched her skin so tightly she would crack if the wind hit her wrong.
“Oh, my yes,” she oozed. “You certainly are very welcome to attend the event.”
“As I told your daughter,” Nick said, somehow keeping his composure, “I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”
“But you must come! What could keep you away from such a delightful display of young women?”
Nick’s eyes flashed. Not with anger, or even disgust, I didn’t think, but with humor. If he hadn’t been such a kind, generous person, he would have laughed in her face.
I had no such issues. I sounded like a donkey choking on a bone. Except donkeys don’t eat bones.
“Mom,” Summer whined. “She’s his fiancée.”
The woman stared at me. If she would have been capable, I’m sure she would have shown horror. Or at least distaste. But seeing how her face was basically molded plastic, all she presented was blandness.
Nick kept his own face pleasant. Summer’s
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