From across the living room, Angel catches my eye. She’s smiling—an indulgent one that I’ve learned comes whenever she’s about to let Haley do something she normally wouldn’t. “But you need to listen to Hazel,” she warns gently. “If she says you’ve had enough, that means you’ve had enough.”
Haley flicks a quick glance over her shoulder at Angel. “I will.” Then she turns back to me. “Do you know what a mani-pedi is? I do them with my mom sometimes, but Hazel said she bought special polish just for Christmas. With glitter and stencils so we can do candy cane nails if we want.”
As a matter of fact, I do know what mani-pedis are. But I think it’ll be more fun if I pretend I don’t.
With a solemn shake of my head, I tell Haley, “I don’t know. What are they?”
“Well.” Haley props her hands on her hips. “A mani is short for manicure. Which means you paint your fingernails.”
“You paint your fingernails?” I raise my eyebrows at her. “Like with the paint you use on a house?”
“No.Nailpolish.” She wiggles her unpainted fingernails at me. “In all kinds of colors. And you use moisturizer before. So your hands and nails get all soft.”
“Hmm.” I look down at my own nails. “Sounds interesting. What about thispedithing?”
“That’s a pedicure. You do the same thing, but for your toenails.” Haley’s voice dips conspiratorially. “We always use light colors when we do it here. But at Hazel’s, I’m going to get bright red.”
Now Angel is trying hard not to laugh. “What’s wrong with light colors, Hale?”
“Nothing,” Haley replies quickly. To me, she adds, “I’m going to do candy canes for my fingers and toes. It’s going to be so cool. And guess what?”
I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling. “What?”
“Hazel said she’s going to paint one of Alec’s nails, too. So they match. Isn’t that funny?”
“Itisfunny,” I agree. “Do you think I should paint my nails, too?”
Haley regards me solemnly for a second. “Sure. You could do white and silver. For the snow. With glitter.” She grabs my hand and studies it. “You should probably moisturize, too.”
“Haley.” Angel is laughing. “I think I see Hazel and Alec pulling into the driveway. Do you have all your things?”
Haley jolts like an electric current ran through her. Then she drops my hand and races across the room, where her backpackis sitting beside the front door. She slings it over her shoulder, nearly nailing Angel in the face with it. “I’m ready!”
I walk over to the window and look out at the driveway. Alec’s SUV is idling in the driveway, and Hazel’s already out and heading up to the front porch.
Haley reaches for the doorknob, ready to yank the door open, but Angel touches her arm to stop her. “Let me, Hale.”
“Actually.” I hurry over to them. “Let me do it.”
They both turn to me with matching quizzical expressions. “It’s the gentlemanly thing to do,” I explain. “That’s what my dad always told me.”
I’m not making that up. Opening the door for a woman was something he taught me early on, along with always walking on the outside of the sidewalk and standing when a woman comes into the room. But there’s another reason why I want to open the door for them.
It puts me between Angel and Haley and a potential threat.
Not that I think anything will happen. Not with Phil in police custody, awaiting trial.
That’s why Angel and Haley are back at their house instead of mine, though I said they could stay as long as they wanted. “I think it’s important to get back to our regular routine,” Angel explained. “And honestly, the longer I stay here, the harder it’ll be to go back.”
I didn’t want them to leave. During the three days Angel and Haley stayed with me, they quickly settled in as if they’d always been there. Haley made the loft into her own special space, with twinkle lights strung on the railing and a collection of beanbag chairs in one corner, perfect for cuddling with her stuffed animals while she read. And Angel took over the kitchen, adding little decorations and filling the room with delicious scents.
Then there were the evenings. My favorite time. We’d all sit in the living room while we’d play board games and watchmovies, and it felt like we were an actual family. Then Haley would go to bed and Angel and I would retreat to my bedroom—not to have sex, but to cuddle and watch baking shows and talk about anything and everything we could think of.
But Angel said she needed to go home. And as much as I didn’t want her to leave, I had to respect it.
Maybe if the case against Phil wasn’t as strong, I might have tried to convince Angel to stay longer for her safety. But once we looked at the evidence, it painted a pretty clear picture of what happened.
Thanks to Alec’s computer expertise, he was able to search through hours of footage, not just from Angel’s security cameras, but those of her neighbors. That’s how he spotted Phil skulking around her house only an hour before the break-in.
