Page 24 of The Bronze Garza

I’m usually not this selfish or insensitive, but I need my father right now, and I just can’t find it in me to feel guilty about it. I’ll get over my neediness soon enough and she’ll have him back.

Eloise and Dad have been together for almost three years, engaged for half of it. She’s the yacht club and brunch type, with social climbers, snobs, and braggarts for friends.

I still don’t understand the match between her and Dad, considering how laid back and humble he is. Eloise is the complete opposite of Mom, who’s a soul wanderer, a borderline hippie.

Lysandra Callas, the love of Dad’s life and the reason Eloise is still just a fiancée. Mom had done the same thing to Dad—kept him as a fiancé for several years before she broke it off. She’d realized, after having me and playing house for a while, that formulaic domestic life wasn’t for her. Dad still carries a giant torch for her, and a small part of me believes they still sneak around with each other.

“I’ll come down, no worries,” Dad says, getting up from behind his desk.

“Okay, great!” She looks down at me. “Ly, I have prepared your favorite salad bowl. Although you really should try to eat more than just fruits and vegetables. I do not think I like you this thin.”

I draw up from the floor and into a sitting position, closing my book. “I don’t like myself this thin either, but you’ve seen what happens whenever I try to eat anything else.”

“I have told you to let mehelpyou.”

I’m not sure what she thinks she can do that the top three food psychologists I’ve worked with in the past couple of months couldn’t.

I haven’t been able to digest anything other than fruits, vegetables, nut, or beans. Anything else and it comes right back up and leaves me with either terrible nausea or a fever. We’ve hired nutritionists and food psychologists to “fix” whatever’s broken in me but to no avail. My digestive system is shot to hell, and it’s just something I’ve had to come to terms with.

A door slams downstairs, then, “Lyra!”

Holly.

“Oh, dear,” Eloise murmurs. “That one can eat a cow under the table, and I do not think I have enough food prepared.”

Dad and I laugh at that as we all head downstairs.

We find Holly in the dining area, stealing a slice of roast from the table.

“Good evening, Holly,” Eloise says tightly.

Holly jumps and hides the evidence in her mouth before whipping around. “Oh, hi, Miss Jones,” she squeaks around a mouthful of stolen roast.

I can’t help smiling. Short auburn curls, emerald eyes and a peppy personality, Holly and I have been best friends since we could crawl. We live in the same neighborhood and our dads have been buddies since college.

Outside of immediate family, Holly’s the only person who knows the truth about where I’ve been. And that’s because she was with me the night I was taken.

We’d been accepted into colleges on opposite sides of the country, so we’d made a pact that whenever we came home for breaks we would do something together where it was justusbefore we had to separate again. Our bonding time, to keep the friendship alive.

That night, we chose to go camping. And after a calamitous night of struggling to set up our tent, warding off bugs and learning to make fire, we’d laughed ourselves to sleep.

When I woke up, I was in Mexico.

Why I was taken and she was left behind remains a mystery. Holly is skinny and bright-eyed beautiful, in a Cover Girl close-up kind of way. While I, at the time, had been overweight with a hobo fashion sense. Her father might not be a billionaire like mine, but they’re still filthy rich.

So why me?

Whyonlyme?

Dad shakes his head at Holly. “Care to join us for dinner?”

Holly smiles sweetly and nods, beef stuck in her teeth. “I mean, it’s not as if I deliberately timed it and came over when I knew dinner would be ready or anything.”

Laughing, I loop my arm around hers and walk her to the chair next to mine. “Come on, long belly.”

Holly’s favorite thing in the world to do is eat. She’s never not chewing, sucking, or gulping something.

As everyone settles at the table, another slam of the front door echoes through the house, and a few seconds later my stepbrother comes into view.