Above all, she couldn’t give him time to look in her eyes and see that she was hiding something from him. In these last days she’d come to remember the good and bad of being with someone who knew her so well. With her past boyfriends, all she’d had to do was look good and that was enough. If she was upset about something, they never even noticed. But Eli wasn’t like that. He knew that under her woman’s body was the girl he’d known since they were kids. After she’d dropped Abby off at her house—and Chelsea had taken care not to be seen—her mother called her. Since Chelsea was going to be late to her meeting with Pilar, she didn’t want to pick up, but she knew her mother wouldn’t send the dress if she didn’t explain. “Hi, Mom,” Chelsea said in her most cheerful, nothing-is-wrong voice. “I’m sure you want to know about the dress. Well, you see, this kid I met through friends doesn’t have anything to wear to her school prom, so I thought—”
