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I expect some derision or annoyance to be hurled my way, but he doesn’t do any of that. Instead, he quietly comes and sits beside me, taking my hand and holding it in both of his. Just like that.
Brooklynn’s eyebrows bounce in surprise, but she quickly launches into her spiel about how she’s going to do this and that my eyes will likely tear, which is a natural reflex, and how I need to keep the piercing clean and blah, who cares? Just do it already!
She tells me to close my eyes, and I do, feeling her hands on my face, cleaning my nose as she does whatever it is she’s doing. I suck in a sharp breath and hold it in, squeezing Lenox’s hand when Brooklynn asks if I’m ready. A second later, I feel the pinch of the needle and the sharp sting in my nose. My eyes immediately water. It’s like when you get hit in the nose, only worse because, after the fire of the needle, her hands are working my nose and twisting the stud into the newly formed hole.
“Done,” she declares triumphantly.
I release my breath and blink open my eyes. “How’s it look?”
She grabs a mirror and holds it up to my face. “Badass.”
I beam. “Totally badass!” I tilt my head this way and that, taking in the glint of the tiny diamond. “I love it. OMG, why didn’t I do this a hundred years ago? It’s so freaking cute and so very me.” I turn to Lenox. “Right?”
He’s giving me a funny look I can’t discern as his eyes track around my face.
“What? You don’t like it.”
“Come on, badass.” He gives my hand a tug, grabs a bottle of piercing cleaner from a nearby shelf, and then drags me along.
“Wait! I didn’t pay.”
“It’s on the house,” Brooklynn calls after me. “Consider it my wedding present and my I’m so sorry you’re married to him present.”
“Thank you! I appreciate both,” I yell out as he drags me out the back, Alice leading the way. “It was great meeting you!”
“You too,” she yells just as the door slams shut.
“For the record, that was rude. You didn’t even thank her for watching your dog.”
Lenox opens the passenger door of a large pickup truck and helps me up into it.
“Wait? Where’s your other car? The hot guy muscle car?” We drove up here in a Shelby GT 500CR. It was straight up the sexiest car I’ve ever been in. He had it custom-built just for him, but the truck we’re climbing into, while nice and obviously very high-end and possibly electric, isn’t anywhere near the same caliber of car.
“I keep it in a special garage. I can’t take it out to the house. You’ll see why. Plus, I never let Alice in it if I can help it. Her claws would scratch up the leather.”
I can’t argue with that, so I slam the door shut behind me and buckle up. Alice is in the king cab backseat, her head perched in between the two front seats. Lenox hops in and starts up the truck with a soft rumble.
My nose throbs a little, and I flip down the sunshade and pop open the mirror so I can look at it. It’s red, but that’s not surprising. I’m pale, and my skin reddens quickly and easily. Welcome to the wonderful world of being a redhead. We look awesome when we cry too.
“This has been the most surreal few days,” I comment dryly as I close the mirror and push back up the shade.
I haven’t heard from Alfie or Ezra again, but I know it’s coming. It’s not a matter of if, but when. Still, being here, I feel so far removed from that. Finally. I know I threw a tantrum about moving here—and for good reason, hello, Lenox fingering me in a bathroom—but I also know it was the right call. I have a virtual meeting with my father’s estate attorney tomorrow as well as the CEO of the financial firm my father used.
By tomorrow, everything will be signed and done.
“It looks good on you,” he says, and I glance in his direction.
“The nose ring?”
“Coming out of your prim and proper good girl shell. Doing things just for yourself and no one else simply because you want to. It’s a good look on you.”
Oh. I try not to blush. I genuinely do. But it happens anyway. “Thank you.” It legit might be one of the nicest things he’s ever said to me. “I do plenty just for myself too, you know. I became a midwife just for me. My mother would have kept me in Hollywood forever, and my father would have taught me the family business six years ago when I graduated college if I’d let him.”
He shrugs as he pulls us back onto Main Street, driving away from town. “Maybe so, but you’ve never looked more beautiful than you do right now.”
I take it back. That is the nicest thing he’s ever said to me. And it kills me. And rejuvenates me. And makes what’s about to come next even more irresistibly dangerous than it already was.
Chapter Seventeen
