Page 12 of Playing With Forever

Lindy received farewells from Quinn and Shiloh and was on her way.

As soon as Lindy pushed through the doors, Quinn busted out laughing.

“Someone’s setting her dad up,” Quinn chuckled.

“Yep,” Shiloh agreed with a smile. “Someone’s also going to get a talking to.”

“A what?” I asked.

“Evan’s super protective of her,” Shiloh explained.

“That hasn’t escaped my notice.”

Suddenly Shiloh frowned.

“You’ve seen them together?”

That prickling on the back of my neck started again. This time it wouldn’t be ignored.

“Yes. Monday night, we happened to be visiting the same restaurant. Lindy invited me to sit with her and Evan.”

“Ah,” Shiloh murmured. “That makes sense. Evan does what he can to keep her away from anything having to do with him being a cop. That’s for safety reasons. But he also doesn’t allow her to attend any TC functions.”

That made no sense.

“Why not?” That was Quinn, though she asked the question that was preying on my mind.

“I don’t know. He just doesn’t. I’ve only met her a few times, and only because I was with Echo when they came around. I asked Echo why he never brings her to get-togethers, but he brushed me off, and I know when to push my brother for answers and when to give up. Lindy was a no-go topic, so I let it go.”

Shiloh’s explanation didn’t actually explain anything.

As much as I wanted to press Shiloh for information, like where Lindy’s mother was and if she’d ever met her, it felt like a violation of Evan’s privacy.

And one thing I understood and valued was privacy.

So, I changed the subject.

“Phil said you wanted to talk to me?”

“Yes!” Quinn exclaimed. “We want to run something by you.”

“Let’s go to my office.”

Then for the next hour, I listened to two brilliant young women pitch me a very well-thought-out program for the girls at the center. It was simple, it was sweet, and it would help with self-confidence.

“So, we have three stylists who are on board,” Quinn told me. “If the kids get permission, they’ll also offer cuts, but no bleaching or dyeing. This is about teaching them how to embrace their beauty, not change it. We’re thinking once a week for six weeks. Light makeup techniques, again how to embrace and enhance and feel good but not change. And that would only be for the older girls. The younger ones would be about how to apply nail polish, blow-dry, straighten, curl hair, general grooming. We thought we’d also talk about social media filters, how what they see on the internet isn’t real. To drive that home, one of the stylists is also a photographer and is great with Photoshop, so she can demonstrate in real time how she can change the appearance of models with a few mouse clicks.”

“And for the girls who aren’t into makeup and hair?”

Shiloh smiled. She was one of those women. “General grooming and skin care. Just because someone isn’t girly doesn’t mean they still shouldn’t take care of themselves. We have twelve girls with no mothers in the house. Six of them wear makeup and…” Shiloh trailed off, and I knew why. “They obviously were never taught how to apply it.” That was unusually gentle coming from Shiloh.

“I’ll get a program flyer and permission slip made up.”

Quinn’s sparkling green eyes rounded. “Really?”

“Absolutely. It’s a great idea. The girls are going to love it.”

“Luke mentioned he and the guys wanted to do something special with the boys,” Shiloh announced. “He was gonna talk to the guys at TC and my brothers. He was thinking fishing.”