“And has a shopping addiction,” Wren adds.
Nat ignores them, moving to me and falling to her knees before me.
“Willa Stone, goddess of pop music, queen of tabloids, please, please, please let me help you pick out your new wardrobe. Summer stuff that you can wear around town. Casual things. Colors! Patterns!”
She’s lighting up with each addition, and I watch in fascination, giggling a bit.
“Put her out of her misery,” Hallie murmurs. “She won’t stop until she passes out.”
“Oh, uh, well, yeah,” I say with a laugh. “That would actually be so great—” I can’t finish my sentence because Nat is standing, pulling me up and into her, and hugging me tight.
“Oh my god, this is so exciting! Next week. I’m off on Wednesday?” she says, pulling back to look at me. “There are a few cute boutiques in town, and we can do some online shopping if you have a store you love.”
I shrug, and she finally releases me, stepping back,
“Honestly, I don’t. I haven’t gone shopping in a long time.”
Nat’s eyes close, and she takes in a deep breath.
“I think you broke her,” Wren whispers. “Okay, so shopping first, quick, and then next week on my next day off, we’ll do some real damage.” Nat ignores her, grabbing a strand of my hair. “Then we’ll head right to the salon to do your hair.”
“Do my hair?”
“I mean, I can do the norm, wash, blow out,orwe could touch up your roots,” she says, a bit hopeful. I don’t have to look at my hair to know that my darker blonde roots are showing, and I know that in a week or two, they’ll start to drive me crazy. I’m creeping up on my normally needed eight-week update.
The mere idea of a random small-town hair stylist doing my hair would probably put Jackie into a heart attack, but I trust Nat more than most stylists I’ve worked with and have seen her work enough to know she’s amazing at what she does.
I picture how I looked in the mirror earlier and remember thinking that my brown eyes clash with the bright shade of blonde my hair is now. With the blue contacts, it works. I look icy, unapproachable, too cool for everyone in the room, but here in Holly Ridge, I don’t want to be the fake, expensive version of myself. Touching the ends of my hair, I shrug.
“We can go a bit darker? Closer to what you think my natural color would be?” Silence fills the room for a moment before I look up at Nat and see her eyes are wide with excitement.
“Better cover your ears,” Hallie mutters.
“Oh. My. God,” Nat says, then starts jumping up and down. “Oh, my GOD! Yes! Yes, yes, yes. I didn’t want to pressure you because that’s rude?—”
“Oh, now you’re worried about manners,” Hallie murmurs with a smile, fully entertained.
“But this color washes you out so much. This is going to be so fun! Ah!” I blink a few times, her excited shrieks causing me to flinch.
“Yeah, definitely broke her,” Wren says with a smile, but Nat is already grabbing my things, snagging a pair of white tennis sneakers from my closet and some socks before tossing them into a bag.
“Come on. We havesomuch to do,” she says, then heads out the door, leaving the rest of us no other option but to follow.
TWENTY-FOUR
LEO
Willa
Ready when you are
The text comes through hours later, at 2:45, and relief moves through me. I don’t regret asking Hallie to come with the girls to help Willa get ready for our date, since I know that she hasn’t had much of that in her life. When she smiled at me when she realized why they were there, I realized that I had made the right choice, even if I secretly wanted to keep her to myself for just a bit longer.
That being said, I’m more than happy that it’s time to get her and get on our way. Without a pause, I step outside and into my car, then make the drive down my driveway and up Willa’s. The whole time I’m driving, I wonder just how long this will stick—us having separate places—before I can convince her to just move into my house with me.
The thought is fleeting, though, as I park out front and walk up to the front door and knock. To my surprise, butterflies are in my chest, something I’ve never felt before a night out witha woman. But this isn’t just any woman I’m taking out. This is Willa.
Wren opens the door with a kind smile on her lips. “Leo’s here!” she calls over her shoulder, then opens the door fully and gestures for me to step in. As the door closes behind me, I can vaguely hear a quiet argument behind the bedroom door.
