Page 35 of Forever Mine

The cost of just a haircut equaled a good night of tips. I couldn’t afford Lily’s taste. I had already exceeded my budget and caved to let her buy me a few things in the excitement of shopping. I couldn’t let her pay for this too.

“Lily Ann, I can’t do this.” For one whole summer, she had insisted on being called Lily Ann instead of just plain, boring Lily, or so she had said at the time. Likewise, I had decided I didn’t want to be a Collier anymore. Being the youngest of six girls, all of whom had done great things and excelled in nearly everything, left me little room to do anything but screw up, so I asked to be called MC instead. It made me smile when she called me that now.

“MC, stop it. This is my treat, don’t take that from me.”

“It’s too much, I can’t.”

“We’ll talk about that later, but trust me when I say I really, really want to do this, together. Please. My roots are already showing and I’m in desperate need of a touch-up. Please.” She pouted in a way I had never been able to refuse. “Pretty please. It’s totally my treat.”

“Fine.” I caved again much too quickly and she squealed and hugged me.

For the next three hours I was washed, scrubbed, and polished to a shine, then snipped and morphed into this beautiful woman I barely recognized. I pulled on the ends of my new haircut, admiring it all. She even splurged and literally got us makeovers. I wasn’t much on wearing makeup. I didn’t see the point, except on special occasions, but I figured this was a special occasion. We were there so long they even served us a late lunch. It was a bit of a Cinderella kind of moment and I felt like I was living in a dream.

Finally done, she stopped me at the front as we were leaving.

“These,” she said, pointing to pair of designer sunglasses. “These will look amazing on you. You have to have them.”

I shrugged them off; they were over-the-top too much. The entire day had been, if I were honest. Of course, she bought them anyway and she was right, they looked awesome on me.

“I don’t think I can handle much more pampering for one day. Thank you. I’ve never done anything this crazy.”

Lily laughed. “Girl, there was nothing crazy about today. You totally forget who you’re dealing with.”

I fondly recalled several outrageous, crazy things she’d gotten me into as kids. She was right, this was probably mild for her, but it was absolute insanity for me.

She insisted we head back to Liam’s hotel. I didn’t mind, but his smell was everywhere in the room which made my growing hormones do crazy things to me on the inside. After everything I had been through, I didn’t expect to ever even want to have sex again, though I knew the possibility of it would likely happen eventually. I tried not to make any personal or emotional connections with people to encourage it. I hadn’t known if I would ever be ready for a relationship and then Liam walked into my life, and despite the barriers I was trying to keep between us, when I smelled his delicious woodsy scent, it set my body on fire and I knew without a doubt that everything would be different with him. I knew I didn’t need to be afraid he’d hurt me. His touch was always gentle, even when I upset him, or entirely pissed him off.

“Earth to Maddie.” Lily interrupted my train of thought. “Where were you just then?”

“Just thinking. It was nothing.”

“So, we’re relaxed, we look hot and we are ready to take on the world. It’s girl chat time. I have a few more questions for you.”

I groaned. “I told you, I can’t talk about it.”

“But you talked about it with Liam.”

“That’s different,” I insisted.

“?Cause he’s your mate.”

“Exactly,” I said without thinking.

“OH EM GEEE!!!!! I mean, I guessed and teased you guys a little about it last night, but I wasn’t actually sure. I mean neither of you would deny it, but you wouldn’t confirm it either. This is so incredibly awesome. I can’t imagine any other woman for him.”

I thought we had already established we were true mates. I tried to think back over the talks the night before and couldn’t remember one way or another.

“Lily,” I said sadly. “Please don’t get too excited. I’ve already rejected him. We aren’t going to mate.”

I’m not sure anything I could have possibly said would have shocked her as much. “You rejected him? When? ?Cause all cuddled up, hiding behind him yesterday when he was trying to convince me you weren’t you, was not rejection. And the googly eyes you two were making at the breakfast table just this morning was not rejection.”

“We were not. He knows it’s not going to happen. We were coming back last night to finish talking and say our goodbyes when you blindsided us both.”

“Thank God for that then. You two clearly need me for some intervention.”

“Please don’t. It’s hard enough as it is.”

“That’s the thing, you stubborn fool, it’s not supposed to be hard at all. Plus, you can't truly be that blind, that boy is already in love with you. Like head-over-heels, crazy-in-love with you.”

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