Page 35 of Lost & Found

Having a small child underfoot was chaos, and it brought out the inner little boy in every man in the house. At any moment of the day, roughhousing, wrestling, and even the occasional soccer ball could be heard destroying something.

“I swear you need to teach me your makeup skills. You look fantastic and I really love your hair. Oh, you should do those ‘Get ready with me’ videos or I know how about the podcasts where they do their makeup while talking about true crime.”

“You’re joking, right?” I paused, and the innocent look on her face said it all. “Oh, dear God you’re not. Let me put you out of your misery. It’s never gonna happen. But should you ever need a smokey eye for Marcel, let me know.” I winked.

Her eyes drifted affectionately to various parts of my room. “I swear every time I step in here, I think I’ve hit a time warp or something. It screams the 90s, not that I know much about that era.”

I glanced at her attire, raising an eyebrow. “Speaking of time warps. You’re wearing a dress again. I swear we’re going shopping later. You need some pants. And don’t bother trying to tell me your dresses are on trend and all that. Wearing dresses every day screams ‘50s housewife.”

“But Andy likes it when I wear them.”

“And we all know why. I swear I don’t know who is worse, you or Kinsley.”

“Kinsley,” we both said in unison and laughed loudly.

I jumped up and grabbed my beanie, feeling suddenly self-conscious. Victoria reached out her hand. “He’ll love it.”

“What are you talking about?” I scoffed, trying to brush it off.

“Okay, we’re still in the denial stage.”

Choosing to ignore her words, I studied my image once more. I hadn’t done the hair cut for him. But her words hit differently today. Ever since I made the list with Pasha, it had left me unsettled and vulnerable. Marcel wanted to go over the list later, extensively. A deep dive is what he called it. It had me on edge. Always the gracious one, Tori got the hint and dropped it.

“So has your brother seen it yet? He’s gonna flip his lid, something tells me he won’t like it,” Victoria said, nervously looking at my nose piercing.

“That’s because he needs to get a life and stay out of mine. And he has no room to talk. He has piercings of his own. Let him bring it up. I promise he’ll regret it.”

Victoria sighed and put her hand back out, taking the hat from me. “Don’t wear the beanie. You look beautiful.”

I touched my short locks. It was the shortest I’d ever gone. My door opened once more, and another member of the family came in.

“It’s like a revolving door today.” I smirked.

“Sorry, needed one more hug. Where are you two off to?” Marcel asked, making a beeline for Victoria.

“As if you don’t already know,” I huffed.

He leaned in and hugged Victoria. He was so cute he couldn’t keep his hands off her. Not that I’d ever say those words out loud. He didn’t seem to want to let go.

“Tori, you going to stand there and hug Marcel all damn day or what?”

He had the nerve to give me a stern look before he murmured, “Language.”

“Well, he’s a good hugger, and he smells nice.” Victoria sighed as he rubbed her back. “We’re going to go critique Pasha and Kinsley’s latest daredevil act. She makes me so nervous. I swear if he drops her…”

“He won’t,” Marcel said, soothing her. He sighed, let her go, and then turned to me. “We have our session later tonight. I want that list.”

“I’ll have it,” I exclaimed.

After a long, drawn-out goodbye between the lovebirds we made our way to the garage. We greeted Marcus and settled in for the short drive.

Victoria studied me closely. “Will you be sharing the list with me and Kinsley?”

“Yes, once it’s complete. I still have three spaces left. Which reminds me, I should start thinking about them. Why on earth I blindly agreed to let Pasha pick the number is beyond me.”

“I can guess why.”

“What?”