Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
“You look like a pwincess!” Hailey exclaimed.
“You’re beautiful, Bree. You always are, but yeah…it’s lovely,” Dane added, almost shyly.
“Oh my God. The anticipation is killing me. I have to see,” Bree said.
We moved out of the way. She stood and went to the mirror, and I swear, it looked like her chin trembled slightly. “I feel beautiful. I don’t remember the last time I felt that way.”
My heart stuttered at that. I knew it must be hard for her—her husband not around and trying to make ends meet while raising their daughter, almost like a single mom. I was suddenly so grateful that Dane had pushed her to go out tonight and have fun. “You’re a knockout. I might be a little jelly.” I added the second part teasingly.
“Thank you so much, Jesse.” Bree turned, pulled me into her arms, and hugged me.
“Of course. Anytime.” When we let go, I looked at Dane. “And thank you for inviting me tonight.”
Dane shook it off. “That was nothing.”
“No, it really wasn’t,” Bree added. “If you hadn’t told me to go out, I wouldn’t be, so thank you too.”
Dane nodded, shoving his hands into the pockets of his sweats. “You deserve to be happy, Bree.”
Oh God, the sweetness of that. Dane was going to wreck me. I suddenly knew that, and the thing was, I was totally okay with it. I wanted whatever Dane would give me.
28
Dane
Fuck, I was all emotional from watching Jesse make my sister look beautiful for her night out, and I didn’t know if it was because of Jesse being so kind or my sister acting so grateful.
Damn, since when am I so overly sensitive?
Was I this delicate when Steve left me? No, just angry. Really, really angry.
And okay, hurt. Really fucking hurt. Heartbroken, even. But I’d gotten stronger since then, grown some thicker skin. I’d definitely been gullible at the beginning of my relationship with Steve when I was so obviously fooled by the asshole.
Was that what was happening now?
But as soon as I glanced in Jesse’s direction as he was polishing Hailey’s nails and they were singing some pop song Hailey knew from the radio, I was convinced otherwise. She still had crumbs around her mouth from the chocolate-chip cookies we’d just pulled from the oven—Bree’s idea. And I needed to cut her off, or she’d get a stomachache, and then Bree would ream me a new one.
Point being, Steve would’ve never done any such a thing with my family—makeup and cookies and silly songs. Bree could barely tolerate inviting him over, and I should’ve taken that as a sign.
I realized I must’ve missed part of Jesse and Hailey’s conversation because both of them were now staring at me. “What?”
“Can we?” Jesse asked, coyly fluttering his eyelashes, which could only mean bad things for me. “I know exactly the right colors for your complexion.”
Ah, shit, they were trying to put makeup on me, and with that excited look on Hailey’s face, I wouldn’t get away with refusing. Jesse would call me a spoilsport, Hailey would pout, and though I hated the feel of any kind of shit on my skin, I didn’t want to disappoint either of them. Wow, I really was becoming a sap.
I arched an eyebrow. “Can I wear the cotton-candy lip gloss?”
Jesse’s eyes crinkled adorably as he laughed.
So I sat as still as possible while they went to work on my look. Jesse used a brush to spread what he called mineral foundation to smooth out my skin tone, and then Hailey stood on a chair and went to work on my eyelids and cheeks using the colors a bit too liberally—in my estimation—so who knew what the hell I looked like. But she was having a blast, so I totally played along. For Jesse’s sake too, because I enjoyed that goofy, whimsical look in his eyes a bit too much.
When Jesse swiped my mouth with the gloss I bought him last week, I rubbed my lips together at his instruction. “Mmm, I taste like you now.”
“You’re silly, Unca Dame.” Hailey patted my cheek. “How do you know what kinda flavor Desse is? He’s not a posticle.”
I bit the inside of my cheek so as not to burst out laughing, but Jesse had more trouble as a warm chuckle escaped his throat.
I tapped Hailey’s nose with my finger. “You know, by kissing someone’s lips, silly.”
Her eyes sparked with delight. “I want to do it!”
She puckered her lips, and I gave her a chaste uncle kiss like I’d done dozens of times before. “See?”
Her eyes lit up with awareness, and she clapped her hands. “Now you do it, Desse.”
Oh boy, I might’ve started something I could not finish. I did not need Hailey walking up to complete strangers and kissing them. Bree would kill me.
“We can’t just go around kissing people, okay?” I explained in a warning tone. “You only kiss family or close friends with their permission, got it?”