Stealing Bradford

OTHER BOOKS BY MELODY CARLSON:

Carter House Girls series

Mixed Bags (Book One)

Girls of 622 Harbor View series

Project: Girl Power (Book One)

Project: Mystery Bus (Book Two)

Project: Rescue Chelsea (Book Three)

Project: Take Charge (Book Four)

Project: Raising Faith (Book Five)

Project: Run Away (Book Six)

Books for Teens

The Secret Life of Samantha McGregor Series

Diary of a Teenage Girl Series

TrueColors Series

Notes from a Spinning Planet Series

Degrees Series

Piercing Proverbs

By Design Series

Women’s Fiction

These Boots Weren’t Made for Walking

On This Day

An Irish Christmas

The Christmas Bus

Crystal Lies

Finding Alice

Three Days

Grace Chapel Inn Series including

Hidden History

Ready to Wed

Back Home Again

ZONDERVAN

Stealing Bradford

Copyright © 2008 by Melody Carlson

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

ePub Edition June 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-85658-0

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Carlson, Melody.

Stealing bradford / by Melody Carlson.

     p. cm.—(Carter House girls; bk. 2)

Summary: DJ’s efforts to make sense of Christianity, prayer, and the Bible only seem to make it harder for her to deal with the inability of the girls in her grandmother’s boardinghouse to get along, especially after Taylor begins flirting with Rhiannon’s boyfriend.

ISBN 978-0-310-71489-7 (softcover)

[1. Christian life—Fiction 2. Interpersonal relations—Fiction.

3. Boardinghouses—Fiction. 4. Grandmothers—Fiction 5. High schools—Fiction

6. Schools—Fiction 7. Conduct of life—Fiction 8. Connecticut—Fiction] I. Title.

PZ7.C216637Ste 2008

[Fic]—dc22

2008001421

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Interior design by Christine Orejuela-Winkelman

1

“I’M SORRY, BUT MY CAR’S just not big enough for all the girls,” announced Eliza as they were finishing breakfast. She pushed a glossy strand of blonde hair away from her face and then took a slow sip of coffee. As usual, Eliza was stylishly dressed, her hair and makeup absolutely perfect, and she looked ready to make her big debut at Crescent Cove High today.

“And I’ve already reserved my ride with Eliza,” said Taylor a bit too smugly. She too was perfection—at least on the surface. But DJ was well aware that looks can be deceiving.

Eliza smiled at DJ now. “And I told Kriti she could ride with me too…which only leaves room for one more.” Eliza and DJ hadn’t really spoken since last night when they’d made their splashy entrance into Harry’s beach-house party together. A few hours and a lifetime later, DJ had left the party and driven all the girls (except Taylor and Eliza who weren’t ready to go) back to the Carter House in her grandmother’s car. They barely made it home before curfew, and DJ felt certain that the party-hardy girls, Taylor and Eliza, got back quite a bit later than that. Although, as far as DJ knew, Mrs. Carter hadn’t said a word.

Naturally, this double standard aggravated DJ. Not that it was unexpected since her grandmother clearly favored those two, but it did seem a bad omen for the year ahead. Still, DJ was determined not to complain. Because today was not only the first day of school, it was also the first day following DJ’s amazing life-changing episode on the beach last night. And she didn’t want to blow it by getting mad.

“School’s not that far away,” pointed out Rhiannon. “I don’t mind walking. That’s how I used to get there.”