Tragic and brooding and beautiful, she said.
Britt
I believe she said beautiful, anyway. It might have been gorgeous.
Britt
Maybe it was gorgeous.
Zander
I’ll take gorgeous, because that’s the honest truth.
Britt
It really is.
Zander
I’ll also accept orphan and brooding.
Britt
But you take exception to tragic?
Zander
I do. It sounds needy. How about you let Nikki know that I’m a giant celebrity now?
Britt
Sure. Right after I finish doing every other possible thing I could do in the universe.
Zander
At the very least Nikki should upgrade me to wealthy Dickens orphan.
Britt
I like wealthy DickenSIAN orphan better.
Britt
I’m going with Dickensian. I like saying it. Dickensian.
Britt
Zander Ford, wealthy Dickensian orphan.
Chapter
four
The day after Frank’s funeral, Britt sat on her mountain bike, hands braced, one foot on the pebbled ground. Her breath came hard as she eyed Zander with both irritation and respect.
She wasn’t interested in leisurely outings on mountain bikes or snowboards or rock-climbing mountains. In fact, she loved adventure sports preciselybecauseshe could make them into a competition.
Zander claimed he hadn’t been on a bike since leaving for his Grand Tour. If not, whatever he’d been doing to exercise his muscles and cardiovascular system had been working. He was just as hard to beat as he’d ever been.
