All-American Princess - Maggie Dallen Page 0,2

When I looked directly down I saw someone move into my line of sight. A guy.

He tilted his head up as if he could feel my stare, and I was forced to amend my observation. He wasn’t just some guy. He was a hot guy.

Young, with short dark hair, sharp features, and a body that looked to be tall and lean. He was so my type. Handsome but rough around the edges—like one of the rocker guys I used to bring around on the weekends when I stayed at my mom’s place.

I loved to freak her out by making her think I was going to be the next Lindsay Lohan. And then there was the fact that her live-in boyfriend Kevin pretty much crapped himself whenever one of those guys walked into his pristine white, art-deco living room.

Really, it was a win-win.

I couldn’t tell if this guy saw me or if he was just squinting up at a reflection in the window. If he saw me he didn’t smile or nod or give any other sign that he’d just spotted a new girl in town.

Obviously, he was blinded by the light.

I mean, not to toot my own horn but, you know, toot toot. It was safe to say that I was the hottest piece this town had ever seen. Blonde hair, blue eyes, with a lean build and just the right amount of curves, I’d gotten the best of my supermodel mother with the brains of my cutthroat father. Thankfully, I hadn’t gotten stuck with his looks.

Now, Tess on the other hand…

“Daddy, be sure to take your medicine. Maria said you’ve been forgetting,” my sister called out as she walked into the living room with her arms full of shopping bags so her face was partially hidden.

“I will, ladybug,” Daddy called out.

Maria was my father’s housekeeper and the only person he listened to about stuff like remembering to make a doctor’s appointment or taking his heart medication. She pretty much took over Tess’s role of being Daddy’s caretaker when my sister wasn’t around to coddle him.

To clarify, Tess and I were half-sisters. She was older and had the bad luck of getting stuck with my dad’s mousy brown hair and astigmatism. He’d had his corrected with Lasik but not Tess. She wore her glasses proudly, and the same went for her flat brown hair and her lack of a body. The girl lived to flaunt her sub-par genes.

That was probably why she was so determined to transfer to a college in the Northeast. There she could spend half the year hiding her pasty-white skin under those oversized wool cardigans she loved so much.

In true Tess fashion, she stumbled over nothing in the sparsely furnished apartment. I darted over to her and took one of the bags before she could spill our groceries for the week.

One week. Maybe two. That was all I’d need to get this job done. Then I could go back to my normal life and leave this sad miserable excuse of a town far behind.

Tess sniffed, shoved her glasses up her nose, and shot me a suspicious glare in lieu of a thank you.

I sighed and walked away toward the kitchen. It was impossible to do anything nice for Tess. The girl was paranoid most of the time and a wet blanket all of the time.

Like right now, for example.

“Daddy, please tell Lila that she needs to be nice to the townspeople if she stands any chance with Brandon.”

I shot her a withering look. One less-than-pleasant remark about inbreeding and apparently I’d made an enemy for life. “He was the taxi driver,” I muttered. “It’s not like he lives here.”

“Montana is one big small town, Princess.” My father’s tone had turned teacherly, which was a step up from frigid but still not as good as the way he spoke when he was buttering me up.

“She’s going to get us driven out of town before she even has a chance to talk to him,” Tess added. She ignored my glare as she unloaded the groceries.

“You’re just annoyed because Daddy trusts me to bring Brandon back and not you.” I said it under my breath so Daddy wouldn’t hear as I snagged a box of pasta and put it away in the pantry.

She rolled her eyes as she glanced over at me. “Oh please. Like I’d want that. You’re the one who wants to be an actress, Lila, not me.”

“That’s only because you don’t have the looks,” I shot