“Finally!” Cassie squealed as her big sister stepped out of the car with their mom. She ran out the front door, still emitting a high pitched noise of excitement and ran to give Diana a hug.

With less than a week to go before the Fourth of July, Cassie had been worried that her mom and sister wouldn’t actually come. Even the night before, Di had ignored her beseeching texts demanding to know their arrival time.

“Are you that bored you’re excited to see your dull lawyer big sister?”

“You have no idea,” said Cassie, pulling out of the hug with a huge sigh. “Dad makes me watch baseball while we eat dinner.”

Di widened her eyes and pulled down her open mouth in mock horror.

“Not baseball! What a barbarian. I bet it was all frozen dinners, too?”

“Di, it’s been terrible.” Cassie linked arms with her sister and walked her into the house. They left her bags in the car, knowing that someone would be along soon to take them in. Along with their mom, some of their staff had arrived to start the preparations for the party. Cassie had enjoyed the break from the constant commotion of a house full of people and staff, but it would be nice to finally eat properly and not have to remind her father to buy food.

As they passed by the head maid, however, Cassie stopped to ask that they not clean her room anymore. The gray-haired woman nodded without comment.

Di, however, had a lot to say about that.

“What’s this? You’ve finally learned to clean up after yourself?” Di raised an eyebrow.

Cassie flushed.

“Well there’s no maid at Columbia, is there?”

“True. Wait, does that mean you’ve finally decided?”

“I guess so…” Cassie trailed off as they walked into the living room. The sun was pouring in through the wide wall of windows, but the house had never seemed this bright until today. Having her whole family together made all the difference in how the house felt.

“Does that mean there’s still time to convince you that the west coast and Cali boys are the way to go?” Di wiggled her eyebrows and Cassie giggled.

“That does sound tempting. Anything would be better than Montana boys.” Cassie ignored the image of Logan laughing while she swept floors yesterday, as a little voice inside her whispered ‘not all Montana boys.’

“Uh oh. What did Spencer do now?”

Cassie hesitated, a lump forming in her throat as she considered how to reply. Her dad hadn’t questioned her about where she was going when she’d driven Logan to work the past few days, still assuming she was with Spencer. Everyone still assumed this, since Cassie still hadn’t mentioned the breakup to anyone. What would she tell them in a few days when he most definitely did not make an appearance at their party? What if he showed up with Marissa instead?

She told herself this was what she’d wanted. This was her life to live. Her parents didn’t decide who she dated, any more than they decided where she went to school…even if they kind of already had.

“We broke up,” Cassie said firmly, swallowing the lump in her throat once and for all. Di dropped onto the couch, open-mouthed.

“Wow! Looks like California it is, then!”

A buzz from her phone drew Cassie’s attention. She smiled when she saw the name.

“Uh oh, maybe not.” Di leaned forward and snagged the phone. “Whoever could be making you so smiley if not the charming Mr. Huntington?”

Cassie made a squawk of annoyance and grabbed for her phone.

Di held it high above her head as looked at the name with her brows furrowed.

“Logan Hanes?” She raised an eyebrow at Cassie.

“Does everyone know him?” Cassie let out a frustrated sigh. “Is he like, secretly famous or something?”

Di shook her head, handing Cassie back her phone.

“It’s nothing, just the Hanes name seems familiar. Does he have an older brother I may have dated?”

Cassie laughed.

“No, but way to rub it in my face that you were more popular than me.”

Di shrugged.

“I can’t help it if I’m the pretty one.” She fanned herself with a hand, leaning back in a model’s posture to let her long blond hair tumble out artfully behind her. They were practically clones of each other and both plenty beautiful. Cassie knew it, but five years made a big difference. She could still remember sitting on her sister’s bed as a gawky ten-year-old watching Di get ready for dates. A different guy every Friday, it seemed like. Now she claimed she was too busy between law school and internships for a boyfriend. If their mom didn’t get her fill of harping on Cassie about colleges tonight at dinner, she’d turn on Di to start offering suggestions on finding an eligible bachelor to bring home for dinner.

“But seriously, Cass,” Di sat up and crossed one leg over the other, leaning on the armrest to stare at her. “Is this something serious?”

“Oh, my gosh, no!” Cassie screeched, looking around to make sure no one was in the room. “It’s just a thing for Columbia. He’s going there in the fall and it’s a new student match thing. We’re just talking about New York and classes and stuff.”

Di pursed her lips and stared at Cassie.

“Fine,” she said, brushing her hair over her shoulder. It was most definitely not ‘fine’ but Cassie appreciated her sister being willing to move on to other topics. “So what’s the deal with Spencer?”

Relieved to finally have someone to talk to about everything, Cassie launched into a long explanation of all the pressure Spencer had been putting on her and what a jerk he’d been at the restaurant, but left out the fact that Logan had been the waiter. That really wasn’t the important part, but how Spencer had treated her after. When she got to the revelation about something happening between the Harts and the Huntingtons, Di frowned.

“Do you know what it’s about?” Cassie asked, eying her sister carefully. Di was usually pretty good at hiding her emotions, being the future lawyer and all. But she looked distinctly troubled.

“What did dad say when you asked him?” Di asked, her eyes not quite meeting Cassie’s.

“Just that it was a business thing. He said Mr. Huntington introduced him to some business contacts.”

“Hmm,” was all Di said.

Cassie waited to see if there was more. When her sister remained silent, she decided to just let it drop. Spencer was out of the picture, she still hadn’t talked to Marissa since that night, and she was thinking about Logan more than she really wanted to. Her promise to her dad about helping Logan had not involved daydreaming about his dimpled smile and the way his eyes had lit up when he got into her car that morning. She had enough to worry about without adding whatever drama her dad and Spencer’s dad had going on.

“Tell me about what’s going on in California,” Cassie said, though she’d already been out to visit her over spring break. Her sister’s life seemed so glamorous, and her friends all very sophisticated. She studied like crazy but at night they’d been out to restaurants and gone sightseeing all weekend.

“Are you really considering it?”

“Considering what?” Their mom’s voice rang out from the other side of the room. She’d just walked in from the backyard, where people were measuring for the tents and the landscapers were getting things into shape. The two sisters turned to look at their mother, a third perfect blonde clone without even so much as a wrinkle on her surgically-enhanced forehead. In her pastel pink skirt suit, their mom was like a life-size version of ‘Charity Planner Barbie.’ Meanwhile, Di was in a pair of cutoffs and an oversized Stanford tank top. Cassie’s look was a mirror image of her sister’s, though she knew Di had a closet full of skirt suits just like their mom. Cassie got a brief flash of herself in a similar suit, parading through the streets of Los Angeles…and then it shifted to Manhattan. And she wasn’t walking alone.

“She’s considering joining me in California,” said Di, not trying to hide the giddiness in her voice. “Stanford, here she comes!”

Their mom raised an eyebrow and walked over to sit on the chair facing them on the couch.

“I thought we’d agreed on Columbia?”

“I don’t…” Cassie looked back and forth between her mom and her sister, both with wide eyes as they waited for her answer. She put her hands under her legs, and took a deep breath. “Do I really need to decide right this second?”

The two women leaned back in their seats and sighed.

“You should have decided months ago,” said her mom. “At this rate we’ll need to find you an apartment since the dorms will be full, no matter where you choose. That will get expensive.”

Cassie’s forehead crinkled as she took in this odd comment. This was the first time she’d heard her mother worry about the cost of anything.

“Can we wait until after the party?” Cassie was hoping by then she’d be done with helping Logan and could spend some time thinking about what she wanted in the fall.

“Fine,” her mother said in the tone that meant it wasn’t fine but she was done talking about it. “Speaking of the party, the Huntingtons haven’t RSVP’d yet. Has Spencer said anything to you?”

Cassie looked to her sister, who was studying her nails. Di wouldn’t tell her secret, but now that it was out in the world, it seemed pointless to keep it quiet any longer.

“I wouldn’t know, I haven’t talked to him in days,” Cassie said. She took a deep breath. What’s the worst that could happen? “We broke up.”

Apparently, the worst turned out to be a two-hour fight.