The Chic Shall Inherit the Earth (27 page)

And then the band segued into a slow, romantic ballad. I smiled at Brett and said, “Guess you’d better find your lady for this one, huh? I want to live to see the sun come up.”

He laughed and we joined Carly, who whirled out onto the floor in his arms. So romantic, those two. Just like Shani and Danyel, locked together on the edge of the crowd, Shani’s eyes blissfully closed as she danced with her cheek on Danyel’s shoulder.

Well, at least I’d had a few dances. Never let it be said that the most popular girl in school was a complete wallfl—

“Would you like to dance, Lissa?” His voice made my stomach jump.

“It’s a slow one.”
Stupid! What made you say that?

“I’m willing to take the risk if you are.”

Okay, that sounded normal. I rose and let Kaz lead me out onto the floor, where I stepped into a waltz hold the way I’d done in five hundred dance classes with him as my partner.

“Whoa. You want the band to start throwing drumsticks at us? Relax.” He changed the hold, sliding his arm around my waist and holding my right hand in his left, close to his heart.

Ohmigosh, he smelled good. As soon as I got back to the privacy of my own room in Santa Barbara, I was seriously buying a whole bottle of whatever he was wearing and dousing a pillow with it.

“Are you and Gillian having a good time?” I’d say anything at this point. Anything to distract myself from the fact that I could feel the warmth of his body right through his tux and my dress. Or maybe that was me, heating up ten degrees at a time just from being this close to the boy I wanted.

“As good a time as a person can have when each one wants to be with someone else.”

“Huh?” Had someone spiked my ice water? Because that was the last thing I’d expected to hear.

“Gillian’s a lot of fun and I really like her,” he went on, his voice low and soft by my ear. “But I said ‘Look at the pretties’ when we came in, and she just looked at me funny.”

“She wouldn’t know that line was from the ‘Shindig’ episode because she doesn’t watch
Firefly
,” I reminded him. “If you’d said something about the fiber content in her dress being consistent with something found at a crime scene, then you’d have gotten her attention.”

“You’d have understood.”

“There’s a lot I haven’t understood lately,” I said. “I’ve been completely stupid about some things.”

“You? The Regents’ Whatever winner? I’d say you’d have to have some smarts going on.”

“Not when it comes to you.” Bone-scraping honesty time. “I screwed up, Kaz, and I’m really sorry.”

“Yeah?”

“You told me what you wanted and I ran away like a little girl. I know it’s too late, but I wanted you to know that I’ve grown up over the last couple of weeks.”

“Yeah?”

I waited for a moment, in case he wanted to add something to that. “Is that all you can say? Yeah?”

“I’m trying to have me a dance, here, Lissa. A nice slow dance.”

“That you should be having with your girlfriend.”

“Mm. I’m working on that.”

Which meant I spent the rest of the night trying to figure out all the ways he could possibly mean what I hoped he meant.

T
HE BOYS KIDNAPPED US
at a quarter past midnight.

With Brett and Carly, Shani and Danyel in Brett’s rumbling vintage Camaro, and Kaz, Jeremy, Gillian, and me in Danyel’s truck, we took the highway over the hills past the San Andreas Fault zone, heading for the beach.

My parents knew I was with Kaz and that we were going somewhere for an afterparty. I don’t know what Gillian’s parents thought of the plan. They probably thought Gillian was safely tucked up in her bed when instead, she was crushed up against the passenger door, laughing at Jeremy, who was smooshed into the jumpseat behind us.

Gillian against the door, you say? In that case, who was sitting next to Kaz?

That would be me, shoes kicked off, trying to keep my sky-blue skirts from wrapping around the gear shift. While Kaz and Jeremy sang along to the raucous Switchfoot song in the CD changer, I leaned a subtle elbow into Gillian’s side.

“Mind telling me what’s going on here?”

“You haven’t figured it out?”

“I don’t know what to think anymore. Are you going out with him or not?”

“Not, of course, you goof. It was all a clever ploy to make you jealous.”

“Very clever. It totally worked. You’re lucky to be alive and not in little pieces in the rain tunnel.”

She laughed and joined in the singing while the taillights of the Camaro crested the last hill and headed toward the silver sheet of the ocean below. As the truck went up and over the crest behind it, I felt like flying up into the sky and bursting into fireworks. Maybe I’d be mad at them later for messing with my mind, but right now I was too happy. It was nearly one o’clock in the morning of the first day of life after high school, which meant it was a time for forgiveness and new beginnings.

And a beach fire and moonlight.

And nearly all of my favorite people in the world.

We parked in an empty lot perched on an overlook. Danyel and Kaz had come prepared with blankets and sticks of wood to build a fire, and Brett pulled a picnic basket out of the trunk. Wow.

“I think this was planned,” I murmured to Carly.

“I think it’s sweet of them. Not to mention Mrs. L. She put together the food.”

We settled onto the blankets as the boys got the fire going. I know, I know. I’m perfectly capable of building a beach fire. But somehow it was all part of the beauty of the night—the wash of the waves, the moon riding high in the sky, and the guys we cared about being all manly and taking care of us as we spread the skirts of our pretty dresses on the blankets.

Danyel had brought his guitar, of course. I’ll never hear “Seven Spanish Angels” again without hearing Shani’s sweet harmony blending with his voice, the waves beating slow time in the background, and seeing the firelight sparkling in Gillian’s and Carly’s eyes.

Jeremy sat next to Gillian, but there was no awkwardness between them. I mean, she’d gone to Cotillion as Kaz’s date, and you’d sort of think that would bother him, wouldn’t you? But Jeremy is made of strong stuff. Gillian had drawn the line, not without pain for both of them, and her friendship was so important to him that he was willing to live on the other side of it, extending a hand for support.

So the fact that they were easy with each other made me feel easy, too. Not that I was completely relaxed. How could I be, with Kaz lounging next to me close enough to touch? I leaned back on my hands, singing when I remembered the words, and humming when I didn’t, aware every second of his hand two inches from mine.

Was he leaving the next step up to me? Or should I go along with the gallant theme of the evening and let him make the first move?

I felt like one of those cliff divers in Acapulco. Imagine taking your first real dive, standing there on the rocks and looking down what seems to be miles to the surface of the ocean. Sure, you’d know that generations of divers had done it before you, but this is
you
, with practice behind you but no real experience. You’d be the one to either plunge in, or be the one to find a submerged rock that would end your hopes for good.

So you make a choice. You can retrace your steps back up the path and give up cliff diving forever. Or you can close your eyes, take a big breath, and launch yourself in a perfect swan dive, out into the black.

I moved my fingers and touched Kaz’s hand.

The cliff diver finds himself falling, falling, and then being embraced by the deep water.
It’s you. It’s me. It’s us.

Kaz’s hand opened with no hesitation at all, his fingers sliding along mine in a clasp that was warm and sure and erased the last of the insecurity and doubt lurking in the dark corners of my heart.

On the other side of the fire, Carly looked from our linked hands to my face. Her eyes sparkled as she caught Shani’s and Gillian’s attention. Danyel and Brett were singing now, which meant they were conveniently distracted as Carly transmitted the good news with a lift of her eyebrow and a smile.

On my other side, Gillian bumped my shoulder with hers in a gesture that plainly said,
My work here is done. I’m so happy
.

Kaz fought a smile. He’s no dummy. He can read a glance as well as I can, especially when it’s about him. “Are you cold?” he asked me. “We have another blanket in the truck.”

I opened my mouth to say no, when Gillian bumped my shoulder again.

Oh. Oh, my. Get with the program, Lissa
.

“A blanket would be good,” I said. “I’ll come with you.”

Feeling as obvious as a thief caught on a security tape, I picked up my skirts in one hand and walked with Kaz back across the beach toward the short slope of the cliff. Without a word, he took my other hand… and in that warm clasp, I understood a bunch of things.

I’m glad we’re here.

No more misunderstanding.

It’s you. It’s me.

It’s us.

He helped me up the rocky slope to the parking lot. The truck sat under a windblown pine that cast a deep shadow on the driver’s side. I leaned on the door.

“I don’t really need a blanket.”

“I know. But it was a good excuse to get you over here alone.” My stomach jumped and goosebumps prickled along my arms. “Hey, you really are cold.”

“I’m not.” My voice dropped. “I’m—I’m kind of nervous.”

He let out a long breath. “I’m glad it’s not just me.”

The rueful bend in his mouth and his funny little confession startled a laugh out of me. “We’re not supposed to be scared of each other.”

“It’s not like that. But…” He moved closer. So close I could feel the heat from his body once more, warming me better than any blanket. “I’ve been imagining this for so long, and now it’s here—I mean, you’re here and I’m here and…”

I put a finger on his lips. “Hey. It’s us.”

He leaned his forehead on mine and looked into my eyes. “I’m glad it’s us.”

“It always has been, you know. No matter who I was going out with, or who you were going out with, it’s been you the whole time.”

“Even when you didn’t know it?”

“Especially then.”

“You’re not making sense.”

“I don’t feel very sensible. I feel…”

“What?”

“Happy. Like God has been waiting all this time for me to open a present. And the present was you.”

“Is the future me, too?”

Trust Kaz to turn a word on its head, even at a moment like this. “I hope so. I think so.”

“Lissa?”

“Yes?”

“Are you going to stop talking and let me kiss you?”

My heart felt like it would burst with joy.

It’s him. It’s me. It’s the God we love together. It’s the power of friendship and the gifts it brings us every day.

“Are you going to kiss me and make me stop talking?”

I could feel the smile on his lips as he bent down and, for the first time, did exactly that.

Shelley Adina wrote her first teen novel when she was thirteen. It was rejected by the literary publisher to whom she sent it, but he did say she knew how to tell a story. That was enough to keep her going through the rest of her adolescence, a career, a move to another country, a B.A. in Literature, an M.A. in Writing Popular Fiction, and countless manuscript pages.

Shelley is a world traveler and pop culture junkie with an incurable addiction to designer handbags. She knows the value of a relationship with a gracious God and loving Christian friends and loves writing about fun and faith—with a side of glamour. Between books, Shelley loves traveling, listening to and making music, and watching all kinds of movies.

IF YOU ENJOYED

The Chic Shall Inherit the Earth

CHECK OUT THE BOOK THAT STARTED IT ALL
:

Tall, blonde Lissa Mansfield is used to being one of the “in crowd”—but being accepted by the popular girls at posh Spencer Academy boarding school in San Francisco is a lot harder than she thought. And then there’s her New York–loudmouth roommate, Gillian Chang, who’s not happy just to be a Christian herself—she’s determined to out Lissa, too. If Lissa can just keep her faith under wraps long enough to hook Callum McCloud, the hottest guy in school, she’ll be golden.

But when Callum pressures her to go all the way with him, Lissa has to decide how far is too far. How can she see that line when he’s so gorgeous and popular and God seems so far away? Between that and shopping for a knockout dress and booking the hottest celeb for the Benefactors Day Ball… who knew finding a place at Spencer Academy would be so complicated?

AVAILABLE AT BOOKSTORES NOW
!

BE SURE TO PICK UP BOOK TWO IN THE ALL ABOUT US SERIES:

New Yorker Gillian Chang starts her second term at posh Spencer Academy boarding school in San Francisco prepared to focus on her studies, her faith, and her friends—Lissa Mansfield and Carly Aragon. She plays half a dozen musical instruments and can recite the periodic table of the elements backward. She’s totally prepared for everything—except love!