The Au Pairs (The Au Pairs 1)

"Is love," Jacqui announced. "I know when men love. He is sick with passion. He can't get enough of you. He's so in love," she said dramatically.

"No, he isn't," Mara said. "He has a girlfriend."

"That Camille girl? She's history," Eliza said. "He told me the other day, he just wasn't feeling it. He broke it off that week the kids were away."

"So what? It's not like he would ever be interested in someone like me," Mara said quietly. She knew how guys like Ryan felt about her--she knew it the first time she saw him--guys like that were so out of her league.

"What on EARTH are you talking about?" Eliza yelled, so loudly that the truckers having breakfast at the counter turned around. "You are a bombshell! Have you looked in the mirror lately?" Eliza asked, pulling Mara to look at her reflection in the glass.

Jacqui nodded vigorously. "In Sao Paulo we call girls like you, how do you say... hot."

"You guys are really sweet, but you're just blowing smoke up

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my butt," Mara said as she turned. There was Eliza, the spitting image of Cameron Diaz, who, even totally hung over, still radiated that InStyle cover girl glow. There was Jacqui, the sultry, Latin sex- pot. Then there was her. The plain one. But for once Mara took a good look at the reflection. The haircut Pierre had given her brought out the angles of her cheekbones, and the new blue shirt Eliza had helped her pick out made her eyes look bluer than they ever did. While running after the kids half the summer, she had even lost a few pounds. Were they right? Had she transformed into a hottie overnight?

"See," Eliza said smugly. "Told you."

"Now, you go get that boy," Jacqui said. She was so happy to be just where she was at that moment. As she looked around at Mara, who was brushing her bangs away from her face with a wistful smile, and Eliza, who was motioning for a round of milk shakes (Hey, what else goes well with a lumberjack special?), Jacqui realized that after everything that had happened this summer, they really were friends.

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eliza, mara, and jacqui find the best part of the hamptons

The sun was rising when they drove back up Route 27 toward East Hampton. Roadside farm stands were opening up for business, and Eliza convinced them that they couldn't pass up this chance to buy the freshest fruit and vegetables for the house.

"Anna always goes to the one in Amagansett, but it's always so picked over. This one is so much better." Eliza sniffed as they walked around, looking at all the stalls.

The corn was piled high in the palest emerald green stalks, and inside, they were ivory white or as yellow as daffodils. Grapefruits the size of basketballs, oranges that glowed with an almost fluorescent light. Carrots as long and thick as your arm. Radicchio, endive, arugu

la, and every other fancy lettuce for less than a dollar a bunch.

Eliza showed them the bakery table, set up with loaves of gluten- and wheat-free pumpernickel, sourdough, and challah bread.

They spotted Cindy Crawford behind a baseball cap, sniffing persimmons.

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"Hey, look, there's a homemade peach-and-blueberry pie," Mara said, walking over to the delicious smell. "Let's get one for the kids."

"Madison will love it," Eliza agreed.

"Peaches! Zoe's favorite." Jacqui nodded.

"William would like throwing it against the wall." Mara laughed.

They bought Cody a Sponge-Bob-shaped balloon and filled up the trunk with baskets of citrus, loaves of freshly baked bread, fat red-orange tomatoes on the vine, cauliflower and broccoli blossoms, and enough grapes to make their own barrel of wine.

Eliza dropped them back off at the house.

"Where are you going?" Mara asked.

"Jeremy always gets up early to go running in Montauk. I'm going to try to find him."

"Good," Mara said, squeezing Eliza's arm. "I'm going to go find Ryan."

"Go get him, sista." Eliza smiled.