“Well, don’t change it too much. Your natural color is nice.”
“Good God, you’re such amale,”Clementine griped at him. “Look at Lexi’s eyebrows and skin tone. She’s a brunette, probably medium-dark with some auburn tones because of the autumn coloring. That’s where she gets those ridiculously lush eyelashes.”
I hadlush eyelashes?Okay. I wasn’t going to argue.
He squinted at my part in the middle of my head. “You’re a brunette, normally?”
“Well, yeah,” I admitted. “I mean, I’ve been blond for years, though. I don’t think I’d recognize myself as a brunette. I’d probably walk right past a mirror and wonder who that old drudge was.”
“I had no idea you were naturally a brunette. What did you look like?”
I grabbed my phone and scrolled back in time, past my engagement photos with Jimmy, past his sisters’ weddings, past high school graduation, back to my old theater pictures and cast parties, and finally back to early high school, my sophomore year.
With each swipe of my finger and scroll of my pictures downward, my hair grew darker, then lost its highlights, until I was a drab brunette with hair the color of a dirty penny. “Yeah. Here.”
Nicolai took the phone from my fingers, examined it, and then stared at me. “You look completely different.”
“I was fifteen. So yeah, I hope I look different.”
“Not just the color. It changes the shape of your face.”
Clementine reached over my legs and snatched my phone from him. After a cursory glance, she said, “They’re both fine colors for her, though I think you should go with some caramel highlights, but Ines will make the final decision for you. Men can’t see makeup or hair dye. It’s like a congenital fashion disorder.”
She dumped the phone back in my lap, and I grabbed the slick glass before it slithered off my denim jeans to the floor.
The drive back to Billionaire Sanctuary was a quick jaunt with sudden spins around corners that shoved me against Clementine or Nicolai in turn.
Clementine made no mention of my faux pas of flopping onto her shoulder, but when centrifugal force pressed me against the side of Nicolai’s body, his heavy arm on the back of the seat curled around my shoulders to steady me.
Once, I could have sworn that his lips brushed my temple, but he was already facing away when I looked up.
After one particularly quick turn, he leaned forward and directed his question at both of us. “Did your shopping go well enough?”
Clementine turned her blank expression at him like a robot. “We found enough for the week. She will needallthose dresses for the entire week.Won’tshe,Nico?”
He faced front, looking over Ueli’s shoulder at the road ahead. “It’s complicated.”
“No, it’s fucking not. You willbothbe atallthe events, unlessLexiis indisposed. And don’t think I won’t check because I willdefinitelycheck,” Clementine told him. “I mean it. I want to see youboththere, or I will bepissed.”
“Clemmy, you know how things come up?—”
“Nope.Be there. Atevery single one.”She glanced over at him. “This week is youronlychance to cement Lexi as one of us, at least as your plus-one, among our rather discerning group. Leaving her out or missing events would convey a message youdon’twant to project.Don’t miss any.”
Nicolai leaned back in his seat, one small frown line creasing between his eyes.
When we arrived at the spa, Clementine stepped out of the back seat first. I was scooting and getting ready to follow her, but Nico reached over and grabbed my hand. “Have them dye your hair back to its natural color. If you want. If that’s what you decide.”
I didn’t think I’d ever heard him stumble like that when he spoke.
He was staring right into my eyes, like he was saying the most important thing ever. “Whatever you want. But do whateveryouwant. Whatever feels right toyou.”
So much deep paranoid confusion ran through me. “Why? You like me as a blonde.”
“I like you asyou.Beyou.We’ll talk later.”
Clementine bustled me into a side entrance with a neon, metal sign of circles and skinny lines that vertically readLazuli,as if the letters had tumbled down a waterfall.
I tried to head for the check-in desk with the big brassReceptionsign on the front in the very nicely appointed lobby, unbleached linen furniture and sumptuous plants and orchids like I was in a rain forest, but Clementine held my arm firmly and propelled me toward a side corridor.
