Reckless by Cecily von Ziegesar Read Free Book Online

other.
    “Hasn’t everyone learned their lesson yet about obsessing over hot young teachers?” He rolled his eyes.
    “Mr. Wilde is
married
. And has, like, two little girls,” Callie pointed out. “Besides, he’s
old.
He’s, like, thirty-five or something.”
    Easy found himself laughing, something that felt good after his strained conversation with his dad. It was nice to see Callie in a good mood—one that did not include her nagging him about how she’d seen him flirting with someone else or giving him a hard time about playing Xbox with the guys instead of calling her and listening to her prattle on about her newest Barneys purchase. But now she seemed … more mellow. Maybe they could be friends after all? It really kind of sucked to be close to someone for so long and then suddenly not be
anything
anymore. It felt good to just be talking to her again. “Thirty-five is not old.” Easy wiped his hand across his face. “Try forty-eight. That’s when men are old. And cranky.”
    “Huh?” A confused look came across Callie’s face. “Did you just talk to your dad or something?”
    “Yeah. Charming as always.” A rebellious curl fell in front of Easy’s eyes, and he swiped at it. “He’ll be in town this weekend for the trustees’ meetings. And he … uh … invited you to dinner with us on Friday,” Easy found himself adding.
    “He did?” She sounded surprised but pleased. “I can’t believe he remembered my name!”
    “Apparently you made quite an impression on him. Must be the southern girl thing.” Callie could be totally charming when she wanted to be. When Easy’s parents met her at Family Weekend last spring, they were completely smitten with her warm Georgia accent, confident demeanor, long strawberry blond hair, and ability to make sparkling conversation and come up with things to say even at awkward moments. He knew that she was used to having to make small talk at her governor mom’s horribly stuffy political dinners and society events and that she kind of got a kick out of it. As his parents fawned all over her, they were probably picturing a big, fancy-pants wedding at the Governor’s Mansion. Please.
    “Do you …” Callie started to ask, then stopped and bit her cotton candy pink lower lip. “I mean, if it makes your life easier, I’m happy to come.” Her hazel eyes, for once, seemed completely absent of an agenda. “If you want.”
    She was being really … nice. An image flashed through Easy’s mind of what dinner with his father, alone, would be like—fielding relentless questions on every single class he was taking, asking about grades, wanting to know about his preparations for the SATs, his plans for college, his career, the Future. Then he pictured Callie there, charming the pants off stuffy old Dad, asking him about the law firm, telling funny anecdotes about her mother’s political campaign, maybe even making J.L. Walsh laugh and act like a human being.
    It wasn’t much of a choice.
    “Well, uh, if you don’t mind … that would be … um … great.”
    Callie smiled. “Sweet. It’ll be nice to see old J.L. again.” She glanced at the silver-and-diamond wristwatch hung loosely around her slim wrist. She nodded toward Farnsworth Hall, looming behind them like a ghost. “We should get in there. He’s going to pass out the test soon.”
    Easy groaned and stood up. The test. He grabbed his grubby army green canvas bag and slung it over his shoulder. “Great.”
    “And hey, don’t worry, I won’t tell Jenny.” She slid both hands through her shoulder-length hair and Easy forced him-self to look away from her elegant, pretty neck, suddenly over-whelmed with guilt.
    Jenny.
Shit. The whole time he’d been talking to Callie, Jenny hadn’t once crossed his mind. Was that totally weird that he was bringing his ex-girlfriend to dinner with his dad instead of his current girlfriend? Yeah, that sounded pretty fucked up.
    But then he tried to picture sweet