Chapter 28

By the time they sat down to eat, Laney wouldn't say she and Ysabel Shannon were friends, but at least, they'd found some common ground - though even at the same school, the spheres of a bookworm scholarship student and a sorority queen were separated by more than the difference in their ages. Still, it was a start.

Over coffee after dinner, Zach and his dad watched as Laney demonstrated her electronic reader for his mother. Ysabel pretended to be appalled at the idea that anything could ever replace a good, leather-bound book, but Zach saw the interest sparking in her eyes.

"You're going to want to buy her one of those gadgets for her birthday." Walt took a roll of antacids from his pocket and chewed a couple.