Angels in Pink: Holly's Story (Lurlene McDaniel (Mass Market)) by Lurlene McDaniel

just stinks!”
    “I grabbed it out of Hunter’s hands and told him we wanted to bring it, and that he wasn’t to say a word about it to you,” Kathleen said.
    “He didn’t.” A lump clogged Holly’s throat. “I—I’m sorry for the way I’ve been acting the past couple of weeks. Forgive me?”
    “All forgotten,” Raina said, and Kathleen nodded enthusiastically. “I’ve asked your mother if I can pick you up on the first day of school, and she said okay.”
    “Really?” Holly brightened.
    Mercifully, neither of her friends asked about Shy Boy, which relieved Holly because she couldn’t talk about it yet. She ripped open a cookie box. “Help yourselves and tell me everything that’s happened since the hostile takeover of my brain by my pride, making me forget just what fabulous friends I have.”
    After they left, Holly ventured downstairs, sulking past her parents in the living room, where her father sat at his desk paying bills and her mother worked on the sofa doing needlepoint. The doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” Holly said.
    Without comment, her father followed behind her, which made her furious. Did he think she’d bolt down the street once the front door was unlatched?
    She opened the door and faced a teen boy with sharp features. He was tall and impossibly skinny, with a full head of wild, curly black hair that hung in shaggy ringlets above bright green eyes.
    “Can I help you?” Mike asked from behind Holly.
    The boy’s gaze, locked on Holly, shifted up to her father. “Hello, sir. My name is Chad Kyriakidis. I think you know me by my e-mail name, Shy Boy.”

eight

    HOLLY FROZE.
This was Shy Boy?
He wasn’t at all what she’d expected.
    “Hello, Chad,” Mike Harrison said. “Is there something I can do for you?”
    Holly was speechless and also embarrassed. This wasn’t at all how she’d envisioned—a hundred times over—meeting him.
    “I—um—I would like to talk to you, sir. I’d like to apologize for getting Holly in trouble. I’d like to explain myself.”
    Holly could feel her father’s displeasure but was heartened when he said, “Yes. Holly’s mother and I would like to hear what’s been going on.”
    For the first time, Holly realized that they had not trusted her explanation of an innocent e-mail flirtation. Her face felt hot with color. She stepped aside, and Chad followed her and her father into the living room, where Chad was introduced to her mother. Evelyn nodded politely, but Holly could see by her parents’ expressions that Chad had a whole lot of persuading to do if he was ever going to win over the Doubtful Duo.
    Chad sat on the edge of an overstuffed chair across from the sofa where her parents settled. She felt like excess baggage but eventually took the chair at her father’s desk. Chad licked his lips, stared down at his hands clasped on his knees. He looked up. “I’m really sorry about making trouble for Holly. I never meant to do that.”
    No one said anything.
    Chad continued. “I had no idea of the trouble she was in until Hunter e-mailed me. He told me he was her brother before he lit into me.”
    Her parents looked over at Holly. “I asked him to,” Holly said boldly. “So don’t get mad at him.”
    “I know the way I’ve handled our friendship is crazy,” Chad said, turning attention back on himself. “But even though we’ve only ever e-mailed each other, I’ve really grown to like her. A lot.”
    Holly felt her cheeks grow warm again.
    “Why did you pick Holly?” Mike asked. “Do you go to the same high school?”
    “No. I—um—I’m homeschooled. I live over in Tarpon Springs.” That was a beautiful Greek fishing village about forty miles from Tampa, on the Gulf of Mexico. Holly had been there years before, visiting with her family. She remembered watching from a glass-bottom boat as divers harvested sponges. “I have seen her around the hospital when she helps on the kid floors.”
    Now Holly was baffled. She had