Austensibly Ordinary Read Online Free PDF

planning a little masquerade.”
    Courtney shot me a quizzical look, waiting for the details.
    â€œI’m going to Syd’s Hitchcock soiree, but not as myself.”
    Courtney’s gaze bounced up from the dress she was holding and her shoulders slumped in exasperated confusion. “I’m not getting any of this.”
    I grinned, relishing this moment, thrilled to be sharing my pseudo secret. “Think alter ego. I’m still working out the details.”
    â€œWait, what?” Swiveling toward me, she lost her balance and fell sideways against a rack of clothing. We tussled for a moment to get her back upright. As it was, her hair got caught on some metallic military detailing on a black blazer.
    â€œBasically I’m going as a modern-day femme fatale.”
    Courtney blinked exactly four times before she came up with “Huh.”
    My confidence faltered, just a little bit, in the face of my best friend’s dubious stare.
    â€œWhat? You don’t think I can bring it?” I lifted an eyebrow and waited, an insecure wimp behind all the bravado.
    Three beats of silence and she was singing like a canary.
    â€œThe idea of you as a femme fatale just doesn’t click in my mind. You’re so not that girl, Cate. You’re a wholesome schoolteacher! You believe in happily-ever-afters, not . . . sexual conquests. You accessorize with your heart on your sleeve and an artless smile, not so much a mink stole and a revolver.” Her smile, when she finally aimed it in my direction, was rueful. “Just sayin’ . . .”
    â€œYou do realize that one night as a Hitchcock blonde won’t tarnish my reputation. In the morning I’ll still be a card-carrying ‘good girt.’”
    â€œHmm. I suppose that’s true.” Courtney bit her lip, still considering.
    â€œThink Eve Kendall in North by Northwest,” I said, anxious that she get the sort of personality I was going for here. I wanted someone to assure me that as ideas went, this one was a zinger.
    Courtney narrowed her eyes, I assume remembering the curvy, no-nonsense spy girl who was savvy enough to keep her head when alternately faced with murderous foreign spies and a flirty Cary Grant in her train compartment.
    Courtney’s words, when they came, quickly squelched my optimism. “It’s just that you’re so darn cute. When I look at you, it’s not glamour I’m seeing—or even moxie. I see Hayley Mills in The Parent Trap. Ever since we met I’ve been waiting for you to break into a musical number.”
    â€œWell, you can bet I’m not going to ask you to help me get rid of the body I have stashed in the trunk of my car,” I said, twisting the watch on my wrist in vague irritation. “I’m going for glamour and mystery, not bitch with issues, and I think I can pull it off. It’s kind of like a dare.”
    â€œWho dared you?”
    â€œI did.” I shuttered my eyes closed, trying to imagine this conversation from her point of view. No doubt I sounded like a whack-job.
    â€œGotcha.”
    â€œI just need a little somethin’ somethin’. My life is way too tame right now.”
    â€œMaybe you should talk to Ethan,” she said pointedly, turning back to the rack.
    â€œI don’t imagine he’d be at all encouraging,” I said.
    â€œOh, I think you’d be surprised,” she said, a smug little smile playing around her lips. “Just remember, I had a little somethin’ somethin’ too, and it turned into a whole lotta hell.”
    â€œI remember, sweetie.” It was hard to forget—the silver-tongued, adorably dimpled little shit who had turned Courtney’s world upside down had left a lasting reminder that still occasionally surfaced on YouTube.
    Deciding it was best to drop the subject for now, I left Courtney to the dressing room and got busy with my afternoon project, relieved to have already