GETTING WHAT YOU WANT.

Kathy Love.

For my sister-the strongest and most courageous person I know. I love you, Cindy.

Acknowledgments.

Many people have helped me to achieve this dream. And yes, Iam going to thank them all. (Big grin. ).

First-my fantastic critique group, The Tarts. Thank you, Chris, Kate, Kathy, Janet and especially Laura, who pitched my book like it was her very own. Ladies, you arethe best!

Next-my dear friends, who always believed I would be a writer, even when I didn't. Thank you, Julie, Treena, David, Kristen, Micah and Jen. I love you guys!

And my wonderful and supportive family. Mom and Dad-I couldn't have done it without your help. You saved me! Teresa-thank you for the biochemistry help. (All mistakes are mine alone. ) Bill and Mary Ellen-thank you!

My great editor, Kate Duffy-thank you for believing in me. And finally-Todd and Emily. I love you!

Prologue.

"Hey, where's Cinderella?"

"You ain't gonna find no Cinderella there, Tommy. Nope, nothin' but the ugly Stepp Sisters."

Abigail Stepp looped a protective arm around her sister Ellie's slumped shoulders and narrowed an

angry glare at the group of three boys sitting on the stone wall marking the entrance to Millbrook High

School. "Look at their clothes. They look like raggedy old scarecrows. Except Ellie, there. She looks like a raggedy old elephant."

"No, a hippo!"

"Shut your mouths, Billy Norris and Tommy Leavitt!" Abby shouted, but quickened her steps, towing

Ellie with her.

"Yeah, you just shut your mouths," Marty, Abby's youngest sister, repeated.

The two boys laughed harder. Tommy Leavitt jumped off the wall and cut the girls off before they could

enter the school grounds.

Abby's heart drummed painfully in her chest, but she kept her apprehension hidden behind an irritated scowl. "How you planning to make me shut my mouth, Abby-normal?" he asked. His cruel grin revealed two overlapping front teeth. "Are you planning to sic the Amazon sister on me? Or the fat one?" Ellie made a nervous sound in her throat and kept her head down. Marty straightened to her full height, nearly six feet, which would have been tall for any girl but was ridiculously tall for a mere thirteen-year-old. "You're a real jerk, Tommy," Abby hissed. "Yeah, and you're ugly." Billy jumped down and joined Tommy. "You know, you girls should join the circus. You got the fat girl and the world's skinniest giant and," he looked at Abby, "you got the freak." Tommy doubled over with laughter; the sound was grating. Abby was amazed their taunts still had the ability to hurt. After all, it was nothing she hadn't heard before.Freak, geek, dork, ugly, poor . They were words she'd heard over and over again since grade school.

Maybe what made them hurt was the accuracy of some of the unkind labels. Her family was poor. She wasn't a beautiful blonde like Mandy Blanchard, Millbrook's head cheerleader, so maybe she was ugly. And she was the smartest girl in her class, which did make her a geek, at least to the cool crowd. She never revealed it to anyone, but she wanted to be a part of that crowd. Desperately.

Her gazed strayed up to the third boy still perched on the wall, watching them with pale blue eyes.

Chase Jordan. He was the main reason Abby wished she could fit in. Chase was a bad boy, a rebel, and over half the girls at Millbrook High were madly in love with him. It didn't seem to matter that he was in vocational classes and constantly in trouble. To the female gender, he was damned near perfect. Heck, Abby thought hewas perfect, and he'd never so much as spoken to her.

He reached into the pocket of his leather jacket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. Raising one of the white sticks to his lips, he lit the end with a flip-top lighter. A gray stream of smoke escaped his beautiful mouth. All the while, he studied her, his face devoid of any discernible emotion.

"You know, Abby-normal, it's probably a good thing you're such an egghead, cuz with that hideous face you ain't goin' nowhere."

Abby turned her attention back to the other boys. "You aren't going to go anywhere at all, Tommy."

Billy nudged Tommy in the ribs. "She got you there."

Chase hopped down from the wall, took one more drag off his cigarette and then flicked it onto the ground. "Let's go."

"See ya later, ugly Stepp sisters!" Tommy called as they strolled up the asphalt walkway to the school.

Abby hugged Ellie reassuringly with the arm she still had around her and gave an encouraging smile to Marty.

Just one more year. One more year, and I'll never have to set foot in this terrible little town again. With leaden feet, Abby entered the school.

Chapter 1.

"I just can't believe you're home!" Ellie exclaimed for the umpteenth time. Abby laughed. "Geez, you're acting like I haven't seen you in years." "I haven't see you inthis kitchen for years. And to be honest, I never thought I would." "Well, to be honest, I never thought you would either. Funny how things work out." Of course, there was nothing very funny about this situation at all.

The teakettle on the stove began to whistle, and Abby pushed up from the table to tend to it, waving for

Ellie to stay put.

No, she hadn't set foot in this old house since the day she left for Boston University. That was nearly fifteen years ago.

She turned the dial on the back of the stove, noting that it still stuck slightly. Automatically, she went to the cupboard to the right of the range and got down two mugs. Both were chipped and stained from age and use. She moved to the avocado-green canisters lined up on the counter, pulled off the lid of the middle one and took out two tea bags.

Pausing, she looked at Ellie with startled amazement. "Absolutely nothing has changed here."

"I've made some changes," Ellie said, a tad defensively, but then shrugged. "There are things that Grammy always had a certain way, and I saw no reason to change them."

Abby shook her head. "It's like stepping back in time. I'm not sure I like it."

Ellie smiled, accepting the cup and spoon Abby offered her. "Well, I like it." She started to lift a heaping spoonful of sugar toward her cup, then paused and shook most of the white granules back into the bowl. She stirred the small amount left into her tea. "I love this old place."

Abby smiled, but a wave of sadness washed over her. Ellie had stayed in Millbrook to care for their grandmother. After Grammy passed away, she claimed to stay because of her job at the library. Abby knew Ellie wasn't comfortable with change, but she always felt Ellie could be much happier somewhere else. Somewhere far away from the painful memories of their childhood.

Ellie started to reach for one of the cookies she had set out earlier, but stopped, instead taking a sip of her tea.

Abby knew it was the lingering effects of that childhood that caused her sister to skip the cookie. Ellie had always been a bit chubby, but she was by no means fat. In fact, she was very pretty like a sweet-faced cherub, but Ellie couldn't see that. She was forever trying to diet.

"How long are you planning to stay?" Ellie asked, pushing the plate of cookies toward her.

As short a time as possible, Abby thought, but she didn't say it. She knew Ellie would be hurt that her desire to leave Millbrook was stronger than her desire to be with her sister.

"I'll be here for at least four months, depending on how smoothly the grant project goes. Working with Dr. Keene is a great opportunity, and I expect our research to go well. He's quite renowned in my field of study."

"It must be a dream come true for you," Ellie said, a wistful quality to her voice.

Abby didn't respond immediately. Certainly this job opportunity was what she had been working for all her life, but was it a dream come true? Abby didn't really have dreams anymore. She'd long since given up dreams for goals and wishes for reality.

"It is a huge honor for Dr. Keene to choose me out of all the scientists working on this particular research."

"A lot of other scientists are clamoring to study the genes of mice?" Ellie wrinkled her nose.

"Yes, they are." Abby mocked her sister's disgusted look.

Ellie grinned, dimples deepening in her round cheeks. "You should be very proud of yourself. In fact, we

should go out and celebrate the occasions."

"Plural? What occasions?"

"Firstly, you getting this prestigious position, and secondly, you actually setting foot back in Millbrook to

accept it."

Abby shook her head. "I guess that does warrant a bit of a celebration. Where would you suggest?"

Ellie raised her eyebrows expectantly.

Abby frowned, unsure what Ellie was waiting her to say. Then it dawned on her. "You've got to be

kidding. The Afternoon Delight is still in business?"

Ellie laughed. "You forget this is Millbrook, Maine. Nothing changes but the weather. Speaking of which, let me grab a sweater before we go. I'll be right back." Abby shook her head with a rueful smile. She really couldn't believe she was sitting in her childhood home again. And she was about to go to the snack bar that she'd worked at all through high school. She had worked so hard to escape this place, and now the very thing she'd pursued to enable her getaway was the same thing that brought her back. She'd almost turned down the research position, but then she realized she was being ridiculous. She'd survived eighteen years here-she certainly could endure another few months. "Ready?" Ellie asked, reappearing with a sweater over her arm. Abby forced a bright smile. "Let's go."

The drive to the Afternoon Delight was so familiar, it was as if Abby had just ridden there yesterday. The residential streets were still lined with huge oaks. Main Street still hosted run-down shops, and the local kids still hung out in the parking lot of the Dairy Palace.

"So, how are things with Nelson?" Ellie asked as they passed the high school. Its red brick walls were still faded and worn.

"Fine," Abby said automatically.

"He must be upset you're going to be gone for so long."

Nelson upset? Not likely. Nelson was a focused man. His career was first and foremost. It might take him a couple months to even realize she wasn't around.

"He's very busy with his own research."

Ellie pulled into the parking lot of a white and green A-framed building perched on a hill overlooking the frothy waters of Fiddlehead Bay. Several people waited at the order windows lining the front of the structure.

Ellie put the car into park and twisted in her seat to face Abby. "It doesn't bother you that you two have been together for years, and I've only met him-what? Four times, if that."

"Well, like I said, he's a very busy man."

"Too busy to get to know the family of the woman he loves?"

Love-Abby suspected that emotion was too impractical for Nelson.

"Nelson and I agree that our careers are the most important thing right now. That's why we're together.