Читать книгу No Stopping Her - Rebecca Elswick - Страница 8

CHAPTER 3

The Saturday her father came home with her car was a day Brittany would never forget. It had started out like any other Saturday. Around noon, she had wandered sleepy-eyed into the empty kitchen and found a note on the table that said, “Be back soon.” Since that wasn’t unusual, she didn’t think anything of it. It did cross her mind that her father could have gone to look at cars, and she thought it would be cool if he surprised her. But she knew he wanted them to pick out her car together—just the two of them. Even if he was going to look at VW’s, she couldn’t believe he would take her stepmother. But by then, things had changed. Lynn was calling the shots and ruining Brittany’s life.

What happened next felt like a nightmare—the kind where no matter how hard you try, you can’t wake up. She had replayed it over and over in her mind. It began with her sitting in the kitchen, eating a blueberry muffin and drinking a glass of milk. Next, she heard cars coming up the driveway and honking their horns. She had jumped up and run outside before the cars stopped. The first was a new black VW Bug. The sun bounced off it in waves of spiked white light that almost blinded Brittany. When her father stepped out of the Bug, she had thrown her arms around his neck and danced up and down. She said, “Oh, Daddy, it’s perfect! I love it!”

Before her father could say a word, Brittany had jumped into the driver’s seat. She inspected the car—her car, or so she thought. She had inhaled that magical new car smell and thought it was the greatest smell in the world. The Bug had everything she wanted: a sunroof, white leather seats, and satellite radio. There was even a small flower vase, and Brittany couldn’t wait to buy a tiny rose to put in it.

Brittany recalled looking up at her father and seeing Lynn standing next to him. She had expected to see big smiles on their faces. Instead, her father had his arms folded over his chest, a frown on his face. Her stepmother gave a tight-lipped smirk, as if she had just gotten the last word in an argument. Brittany had looked back down at the car and swept her hand over the steering wheel for what turned out to be the last time. She hopped out and ran over to hug her father again. As she sailed past her stepmother, Brittany could have sworn she heard Lynn snort. Still, she didn’t understand what was going on. It wasn’t until she tried to wrap her arms back around her father’s neck that it happened.