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Here, I can see bruises the size of Landon’s fingerprints all over. I’m fair-skinned, so I bruiseveryeasily, but the story my skin is telling is one that feels much more dramatic than what actually happened.
If I let Hannah give me a massage, she’ll be focusing on working different parts of my body. It’s hard to imagine she wouldn’t see a lot of these bruises. The massage would even give her an opportunity to study them closely before she even brought them up to me.
Shit.
I can’t let her get that close.
Licking my dry lips, I try to ignore my racing heartbeat and look around the room for inspiration.
Big, white fluffy towels are folded neatly on the counter for anyone who wants to enjoy the sauna and get the maximum benefit.
On impulse, I take off my panties and wrap a towel around my body. I know the sauna room is darker anyway, and it will be steamy. Hannah won’t be looking at my body the way she would for a massage, and the towel is huge so it covers most of it if I wrap it right.
Yep, this will work.
I take my hair down and put it back up more tightly, then I wash my hands and head back to the spa room.
“New idea. My back feels fine now. Let’s skip ahead to the sauna.”
“Are you sure?”
I nod. “As tempting as it is, I just had a massage when Mom and I went to the beach resort. I probably shouldn’t mislead my body into thinking my new rich girl life comes with multiple massages each week.”
Hannah cracks a smile and walks over to put back the lotion she picked out. “All right. I’ll go change.”
I smile until I see her off, then my smile drops and I sigh heavily.
I’m growing tired of lying to the people I love, and this is only the second week.
My serenity from yoga is slipping away, so I try to reclaim it, clearing my thoughts of Landon and everything associated with him.
I haven’t checked my phone in a while, so while Hannah is in the bathroom, I take it off the folded stack of yoga clothes I sat on the table in front of the white couch facing the hot tub area and check my notifications. Some social media stuff I don’t care about, but there’s a text from my mom that just came through two minutes ago.
“Hey honey, how’s your day with Hannah going?”
“Amazing,” I text back. “She’s an angel on earth and we don’t deserve her. How are errands going?”
“Good,” she texts back. “You know Kara, Kayleigh’s mom from the 8-9 ballet class? She’s a member at the club, too, and I ran into her at the store. She invited me to play tennis with her. I was thinking maybe you could bring Hannah as your guest and we could all play together, then maybe we could have some lunch before Hannah has to go home.”
“That’s a great idea,” I tell her, remembering what Hannah said about the rest of her household likely eating while she’s out.
“Hannah can borrow something of mine if she needs a tennis outfit. Tell her to take whatever she likes.”
“We were just about to hop in the sauna and then probably take showers. Do you think we have time?”
“Sure, just make them quick showers, lol. Kara and I will have a cocktail and catch up while we wait for you.”
“Perfect. I’ll run it by Hannah, but I’m sure she’ll—”
Before I can finish my message, I hear the bathroom door open and Hannah emerges in a white fluffy towel like mine and a stack of yoga clothes in her hand.
“Hey, perfect timing. After the sauna, do you want to meet my mom at the country club for some tennis and lunch? One of the dance moms wants to play, so I think it would be us vs. them.”
“Sure,” she says, bending gracefully to drop the stack of clothing on the table next to mine. “I haven’t played tennis in a long time, though. I may be rusty.”
“That’s okay,” I say, quickly tapping out a message to Mom while I talk. “Mom said you can raid her closet for tennis clothes, and she has some really cute club outfits. We can take my car if you’re coming back here, or we can take yours and then I can get a ride home from Mom if you have to leave.”
“We can take my car. I haven’t started any of my weekend homework, so I should probably go home and take advantage of no one else being there for a while.”
