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I enty-two, not twelve And it was ht and no one needed to tellher gaze in theI never would have had the courage to do before the last feeeks with Clayton

But I’ve had eight ht me some kind of new confidence I’d never had before

“Jennifer,” I said, right in her frowny face “It’s ement It’s my party It’s my body And none of it concerns you”

Jennifer sniffed so hard she nearly turned herself inside out

Behind ht into the upstairs dressing roo’s Land Ranch to literally sew irl who didn’t lose the ten pounds

“We’re nearly done,” Trudy said around the s and twitches on my dress and she stood back and smiled at me “Eres bonita”

I believed my old friend when she said I was pretty, because for one of the few times in ht was going to be a

“Gracias”

Trudy helpedsurrounded by mirrors A thousand reflections of myself stared back at me It wasn’t pleasant

“Do you knohere my sister is?”

“Where do you think your sister is?” Trudy asked with a laugh, sticking the pins she’d had in her mouth into the pincushion she wore on her wrist

I sighed The stables Probably in her dress, too

“What have I said about speaking in Spanish, Veronica?” Jennifer asked

“More than half the people who live on this ranch speak Spanish,” I said, shaking out the skirt ofit But if you don’t want to hear it, you should move”

Jennifer stepped up toout of the bushes And her face…uh-oh…I’d pissed her off

I tried not to smile

“I have spent the last sixteen years thinking this day would never coet you out of this house But it’s here and I’” She spat her venom all over the place And once upon a time her words would have hurt, asms were like aret out of my house”

“Bea’s not an alcoholic,” I said, but Jennifer was already leaving “She’s just fun!” I shouted at her back