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Jenny clapped. “You look so pretty!”
“When I put on my own makeup, I look like a clown!”
Grace laughed. “Just use neutral colors. Your skin is amazing, so you want to brighten it up a little, not cover it.”
“My turn!” Jenny squealed. “Do mine like I’m going to a party. I want to look like a sexy beast! Or, you know, as close as I can get to that.”
“You’re plenty sexy.” Grace laughed, then shot Rayleen a glare when the woman snorted.
Fifteen minutes later, she turned Jenny around with a flourish. “Ta-da! Sexy beast, as requested.”
Even though she braced herself for Jenny’s squeal, she still wasn’t ready for it. Amazingly, the mirror didn’t shatter, though Grace’s eardrums trembled.
“Look at my eyes!” she screamed. “Oh, my God, will you show me what you did?”
Grace gave her a quick demo, showing her how to brush a medium color nearly all the way up to her brow to disguise the fact that her Scandinavian eyes didn’t have much of a crease. “Then a lighter color here, just beneath your eyebrow.”
“I look so hot! We have to go out, ladies. We have to. I’ll never look like this again.”
&nbs
p; “Yes, you will. You can do your makeup exactly the same way. I’m not a magician. It’s just powder and cream.”
“Blah, blah, blah. Finish your hair. We’re going to the saloon! I want to show off to all the people who normally see me covered in beer stains after an eight-hour shift.”
Grace quickly rinsed her hair and dried it, surprised when it turned out almost exactly as she’d planned. The black layers were still there, but the browns were deeper, and the purple was now a dark auburn-brown.
She carefully applied her own makeup, taking special care as she changed it to enhance the new hair color. Instead of blacks, she chose deep browns that made her eyes look softer, and a pretty pink lip gloss.
When she was done, she packed up her makeup kit and wiped down the counter. But she didn’t open the door. Instead she took a deep breath and looked at herself. She looked almost pretty now. Younger and softer. More like her natural self and less like an angry warning. She looked like a girl who might try to fit in if she found the right place.
It was scary. She felt stripped of her armor. Exposed. What if she saw Cole?
A terrible thrill coursed through her, and she glared at her reflection. She wanted him to see her like this. Wanted him to think she was pretty. How weak was that? How pitiful?
But it didn’t matter. Good for him if he thought she looked pretty. He’d just have to live with wondering whether he’d really known what kind of girl she was, after all.
Reaching for the doorknob, she hesitated for another long moment, then took a deep breath and opened the door.
This time, the girls didn’t scream. They just stared in openmouthed shock.
Rayleen recovered first. “Well, look at that. Maybe you’ll stop scaring off my customers now.”
Jenny pressed her hands to her mouth to try to suppress a squeal. It didn’t work. “You look so pretty!”
“Thanks. Are we ready to go?”
“Look at you!” Jenny continued, undeterred. “Oh, my God. Cole is going to swallow his tongue when he sees you.”
“Cole!” Rayleen barked. “That cowboy’s long gone.”
“What?” Grace asked in utter confusion. How did Rayleen know they weren’t seeing each other anymore?
Rayleen rolled her eyes. “I hope you two weren’t serious.”
“We weren’t,” Grace answered quickly.
“Good news, because Cole took off.”
