Cole rolled his eyes. “What ladies are you talking about?”
“Oh, they want the Drewster. Trust me.”
I giggled. Drewster. Where did he come up with this stuff?
“Only when they think you are me,” Cole said.
“Completely false. Everyone knows I’m the fun one.” Drew winked at me. “Right, Carlie?”
“Um, I don’t know.” I looked away, not wanting to answer any questions about the differences.
Drew was right about the ladies’ adoration. Every girl in town wanted one if not all three of the Paisley boys. Boys envied them. Girls wanted them.
“Beth, you’re not looking so hot,” Luke said. “Should I take you home?”
“No, I’m all right,” Beth said, sounding weak. “But if I feel worse, will you guys take Carlie home? I don’t want to ruin the night for all of us.”
“Totally,” Luke said.
“Will Dad be mad?” I asked Beth. Our father hadn’t wanted us to ride with the Paisleys in Luke’s run-down car, afraid we’d have engine trouble and get stuck on the side of the road.
“If I do go home because I don’t feel well, he can’t be mad,” Beth said. “He’ll know you wanted to stay.”
Luke pointed to a picnic table where a family was getting up to toss their empty cartons. “You guys, grab the table. I’ll order and bring it to you.”
“Cool,” Drew said. “Don’t forget drinks. I’m dying of thirst.”
“Got it,” Luke said.
Beth handed Luke a five-dollar bill. “For Carlie’s dinner.”
“What’s going on? Are you really sick?” I whispered to Beth as we headed toward the empty table.
“Yeah, I’m okay. It’s probably the heat and being on my feet all day.” Beth was working at our local gift store and had just finished a shift before we headed out earlier. “I’m going to go to the bathroom. I’ll be back in a second.”
“All right.” I studied her for a second. She looked pale. Not wanting to act like Mom, I had to stop myself from feeling her forehead. She pressed my hand with her own. Clammy and cold despite the warm evening.
I watched her as she walked across the aisle toward one of the fairground’s restrooms. She wore shorts and a tank top that showed off her curves and longs legs, but she seemed to be walking weird, as though her body hurt. What was going on with her?
“Seriously, Carlie, what happened to your glasses?” Cole asked. “I’ve never seen you without them unless we’re down at the river. And then you say you can’t see a thing. Remember when you fell in that one time?”
“Yeah, I remember.” I flushed, embarrassed at the memory of the time I’d tripped over an exposed tree root and fallen into the water with my clothes on.
“I got contacts.” My parents had finally relented after I’d begged them for two straight years. Mom was worried about eye infections. She was always worried about stuff that never happened. Bacteria were one of her major concerns. The kitchen counters, the toilet bowl, three-day-old chicken—all had potential to kill us or, at the very least, make us sick.
“You look different without them,” Cole said.
“Yeah,” Drew said. “You’re kind of a babe now.”
“I am?” I squeaked out, then blushed again.
“You’ve always been a babe,” Cole said. “With or without glasses.”
“Thanks, Cole, but I hated my glasses.” I don’t know if either of the boys had noticed, but I’d finally gotten breasts. They were small, but at least I wasn’t as scrawny as I’d been just six months ago. I knew it would take a lot more than an A-size cup to turn Cole’s head. A girl could dream, though.
I was a world-class dreamer. If dreaming were a profession, I’d be rich at only age sixteen. All my fantasies starred Cole Paisley as the hero and myself as the heroine. I’d emerge from my ugly duckling shell beautiful like my sister and mother. Mom blamed my daydreaming on all of the romance novels Beth and I read, but Dad said that someday I’d be a great writer. He claimed the best writers started as daydreamers.
Were my daydreams coming true? The soft way Cole was looking made me feel all fuzzy and warm inside.
“I liked your glasses,” Cole said. “But you’re Carlie either way.”
For a second, I buzzed with pleasure. Until it occurred to me that if I was simply Carlie to him, with or without my transformation, he would never see me as anything but Beth’s little sister.
“Hot damn, I see Rhonda over there,” Drew said. “I can’t get enough of all that red hair. I’m going over to say hello.”
“After we eat, you want to go on the Ferris wheel with me?” Cole asked.
“For sure.”
One side of his mouth lifted in a half smile. “Do you like Drew? I mean, like—like him.”
“Wh…what?”
“You’re always laughing when he’s around.” He glanced over at Drew, who was currently making an entire table of girls giggle.
“He’s funny. But I don’t like him that way.”
“Luke told me that Beth said you might like me.” The tips of his ears turned pink. “Is that true?”
I was going to throttle Beth. How could she have betrayed me? “I guess so.”
He grinned. “Really?” Cole swatted away a bee that landed on the table. “Because I like you too. I thought you only thought of me as a friend.”
It was like the sky opened and the angels started singing just for me. “You like me back?”
“I’ve always liked you. Since forever,” he said.
My heart beat so hard and fast I felt sure it would leap out of my chest and plop onto the table. Was this one of my fantasies or was it really happening?
“But you could have any girl,”
