Bram put a hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay. You’re safe.”
“Want me to get it?” Reid asked.
Bram stood. “No. I’ll get it.”
As he headed out of the dining room, I couldn’t take my eyes away from the archway he walked through.
“Charlotte, breathe slower,” Reid ordered, making me realize I was taking rapid, shallow breaths.
Vivian came around the table and stood behind me. “Can I touch your hair?”
I managed to give her a single nod.
She gently ran the tips of her nails along my scalp as she collected my hair section by section into her hand. “You have such beautiful hair. It’s the same texture as Bram’s.”
After she’d collected it all, I didn’t know what she was doing. It felt like she was just fiddling with it. But the longer she did, the more I noticed I was beginning to calm down.
“Have you always had long hair?” she asked.
I nodded again.
“Makayla went through a bob phase. Do you remember that, Reid?”
“She looked like a little boy,” he responded.
“She did not!” Vivian snapped. “She looked cute.”
“She also went through a goth phase,” he said.
“Yeah, that wasn’t a good look for her,” Vivian admitted. “That girl is all gold and sunlight. Not dark and moody.”
“Did she dye her hair black?” I asked.
Reid nodded. “Some girls can pull off that look, but she was not one of them.”
“She didn’t care,” Vivian said. “When Makayla decides to do something, she’s one hundred percent in. You gotta admire that about her. My confident girl.”
“And what about Reid? Any unflattering phases for him?” I asked as I looked at him.
“Nope,” Reid answered, making Vivian laugh like she begged to differ, but she didn’t rat on her son.
Bram returned. “It was a salesman,” he said, sounding annoyed as he sat back down at the table.
“This late?” Vivian let go of my hair and gently patted my shoulders before returning to her seat.
Bram shrugged and dug back into his food. “I’m going to disconnect the doorbell.”
“It’s not the bell scaring her,” Reid said.
“Reid,” Vivian said warningly. “He knows that.”
I pushed around my food, feeling the urge to ease the tension in the room. “What were they selling?”
Everyone looked in my direction with various confused expressions.
“The salesman. What were they selling?” I clarified.
“Security alarms,” Bram answered. “They really don’t take no for an answer.”
