Father Knows Best Read Online Free PDF

breakfast?”
    “Can’t. Gotta bounce. I’m meeting Miffany.”
    Miffany, his horrific girlfriend and—oh yeah—Jennifer Hellspawn Hamilton’s good friend. More about her later.
    “Hey,” he said to Chloe, hiking his chin while he snagged a protein bar out of the cabinet.
    “Hello, Luke,” she said, oblivious to his heinousness.
    Right after he (thank God) left, the reminder of my plans with Dylan—which I really, really, really wanted to keep—slapped me in the face.
    Internal war. Dylan? Or a car?
    I pressed my mouth into a thin white line.
    “What’s wrong?” my way-too-perceptive dad asked.
    “I’m totally psyched about the car thing. But…does it have to be today? Because—” I flicked a glance toward Chloe.
    See?
    Do you see the problem here?
    How could I bring up my boyfriend in front of his mother?
    The whole thing was fart-in-church awkward.
    My dad cocked his head to one side. “Because why?”
    I raked my bottom lip in between my teeth for a moment and flashed another sidelong glance at Chloe. “It’s just, I’m supposed to spend the day with…Dylan.”
    “Is that all?” Dad said, looking relieved and unconcerned. “Bring him along. I’m sure he’d love to car shop with you, give you his opinion when you don’t want it, linger too long over the engine components while you’re focused on the paint color and stereo capabilities. We men are like that.”
    “So true,” Chloe said in a dry tone.
    My heart soared. “Really? Okay.”
    Dad’s eyes widened as though he just had a tremendous brainstorm. “Wait—Chloe, do you have plans?”
    Just as quickly as it had soared, my heart took a nosedive, straight into the rocky ground—like a twin-engine lawn dart.
    “Not a one,” MBM said, with a clueless-to-my-trauma smile.
    Dad chucked my chin and winked. “Excellent. What do you say we make it a foursome then, m’ija ? Roadtrip to Denver? We can have lunch there, too.”
    “Sounds like a blast, doesn’t it, Lila?” Chloe asked, just a bit too enthusiastic. She leaned in, all conspiratorially. “We can keep the boys’ noses out of the engine if we team up.”
    I didn’t answer.
    “Gosh,” Chloe continued, this faraway expression in her eyes. “I remember buying my first car. An old, ugly 1966 Dodge Dart.” She laughed. “Oh, how I loved that hideous beater. Right up until the engine imploded while I was on the way to take midterms in college. Boy, what a hassle.”
    I should’ve asked about her car.
    I should’ve asked polite questions about where she went to college.
    I should’ve done a lot of things, but I didn’t.
    Instead, I pasted a brittle gash of a smile on my face. “Great. I mean, sorry about the, um, Dart”—who’d ever heard of such a car?—“but great about today. Well. Uh. I’ll just, um, go call Dylan, and—”
    “I can call him,” Chloe said, reaching for her mom-purse.
    “No, really. Let me,” I said, trying not to beg.
    Clearly, she caught the thread of near hysteria in my tone, because she studied me for a moment, then set her purse down on the floor again. “Okay.”
    “I need to take a shower, too. Thanks for breakfast, Dad.” I snagged my coffee mug from the countertop and fled without another word.
    Dude. I mean, duuuuude.
    A freakin’ foursome? What were we, golfing buddies now?
    For the love of God, the phraseology alone could kill me.
    I thought waking up with Dylan’s mom in our house, all implications sickeningly included, would be the worst thing ever, but now we were practically, like, double-dating! Not really, but it felt oogey enough to be true. Bleh! As much as I looked forward to finally having a car of my own, this happy-freakin’-family situation was reeling way out of control. And fast.
    The shower could wait.
    Dylan could wait.
    I had to talk to my friends.

Chapter Three
     
    I signed on to my computer and launched a group IM to Meryl and Caressa, drumming my fingers on the desktop as I waited for them to