Perfected (Entangled Teen) by Kate Jarvik Birch Page A

T-shirt, but his hair was still damp from the shower.
    “I was hoping you’d be out here,” he said, stopping to stand at the foot of my chair. From behind his back he pulled a bouquet of flowers. “I got you something.” He handed over the thick bunch, so full and heavy that they bowed their heavy heads in my lap, dropping fuchsia petals onto my skirt.
    “Thank you,” I said, looking up at him. “You picked these?”
    “No.” He laughed. “But the florist didn’t look like they’d miss them. Besides, they’re prettier in your hands than in one of those vase things.”
    He shuffled back and forth on his feet. “Do you mind if I sit?”
    I nodded and scooted my legs to the side to make room for him on the cushion by my feet.
    He glanced at me. The sun wasn’t high in the sky, but even this early in the morning the light caught his eyes as he talked, turning them the loveliest shade of warm amber.
    Across the yard, the door to the kitchen opened and his father stepped out. He was already dressed in khakis and a pressed shirt instead of his normal blue robe. In one hand he held a steaming mug and in the other a stack of papers. He glanced up and his mouth tightened into a thin line when he saw us. He set the cup and papers down on the patio table, then joined us.
    Penn got to his feet.
    The congressman glanced between the two of us and then down to the flowers in my lap. “Good morning, Penn. Good morning, Ella.”
    He took another step closer to me and Penn scooted back onto the grass. “Out helping with the floral arrangements, are we?” the congressman asked, putting a hand on my shoulder.
    Penn didn’t answer his father. Instead, he turned to me. “I gotta go. See you, Ella.” He turned toward the house, shoving his hands in his pockets as he began to walk away.
    “I hope you’ve been working on that essay for the internship instead of wasting your time with flowers,” his father called after him and gave my arm another squeeze. “I’m just dying to show you off tonight, love,” he said. “You’ll be the belle of the ball.” He stroked the hair back from my forehead.
    “It looks like the party will be exquisite,” I said.
    “Yes.” He nodded, glancing around the yard with a satisfied smile. “Make sure you get a nap in this afternoon. I don’t want you getting distracted with all this party planning nonsense.”
    He took the flowers that were already beginning to droop in my lap. “I need you to be rested and perfect for this evening,” he said, then walked away.
    The congressman’s wife, who had been flitting throughout the yard making sure everything was ending up in the correct place, watched her husband gather up his papers and walk back inside the house.
    She broke free from the group of men she was speaking to and came over. Over the past few weeks she hadn’t gone out of her way to speak to me, although on the occasions we were together she was always polite, even if she was brief.
    “Good morning, Ella. Quite a show they’re putting on, isn’t it?” She didn’t wait for a response from me before she went on. “If you think this is something, wait until tonight. Things are really going to look spectacular with the band and the lights. It will be truly magical.”
    She stopped talking and stared at me for a long moment, making sure I was paying attention.
    “This is a very important event,” she said. “I’ve been planning it for months and if I’m lucky we’ll raise enough money for the Ghana Orphan’s Fund to build the community center we’ve been saving up for. And, of course, we have the added bonus of getting plenty of John’s constituents out at the same time. It’s never too early to start campaigning for a reelection.”
    “That sounds wonderful,” I told her, trying to keep my response as brief as possible. I doubted she cared what I thought about her event.
    She pulled a chair over and sat next to me. “A lot of John’s colleagues already know we got