Page 44 of The Wish List
“I can imagine the issues.” Declan nodded. “Although not the part about friends.”
“It’s true. I think Shauna and I are alike in enough ways that maybe we could become better friends. Real friends. I’d like to have more friends.”
The look he leveled at her could only be described as scorching. “Am I supposed to forget that I told you I’d like to be your friend?”
Heat poured through Beth, and it felt like her knees might melt. But she was distracted as Freya waved and called her name. “Beth, come here. I need you to settle a debate.”
“I’ve got to go,” she told Declan.
“I’m sure you do.”
She walked away, but in a move that was completely out of character for her, she turned back and met his heated gaze. “I’d like to be your friend as well,” she said before she lost her nerve and maybe even more.
She started walking toward her sister again before he could answer, but something made her glance over her shoulder one last time. The emotion banked in his stormy sea-colored eyes made her glad she had.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“OH,MY, ILOVEIT.I love it so much. I couldn’t love it any more than I do.”
Trinity grinned as Michaela Davis beamed at her reflection in the mirror she held. Trinity had taken about three inches off the girl’s long hair and added a few layers to frame her face. It wasn’t a huge change but enough to take Michaela’s style from girlish to a more mature look.
“So you like the haircut?” Ash asked his daughter, grinning just as broadly at the joke. He lifted his hands in mock question as he caught and held Trinity’s gaze. “I think she likes it, but I’m not quite sure.”
“I don’t like it. I love it.” Michaela turned her head from side to side. “It makes me look so much older.”
Trinity caught the flash of panic in Ash’s eyes.
“Not that much older,” she said quickly. It was just the three of them in her mother’s kitchen, as Freya had gone to the rehab facility to have dinner and watch a movie with May.
Michaela sat in one of the old oak kitchen chairs that had belonged to Trinity’s great-great-grandmother, according to family folklore.
She’d brought her supplies to Magnolia and had used her favorite floral-patterned cape to cover the girl after washing Michaela’s hair in the kitchen sink. The scissors she’d splurged on after graduating cosmetology school felt right in her hand. It made her more certain about the decision she’d made to stop into the salon around the corner from the bakery downtown earlier that afternoon.
She’d introduced herself to the owner, explaining her history as a Magnolia native and her plan to potentially move back. She understood that someone about to have a baby didn’t make the most sense as a hire. Still, she told the woman that she’d be willing to fill in over the holidays if anyone needed a day off and had offered photos of some of her clients out West as well as the letters of reference from the two previous salons where she’d worked.
At least she’d had the forethought to get those. When the salon owner had asked if she could call Trinity’s former bosses, Trinity asked her not to. She’d done her best to explain that she needed a fresh start without anyone from her past knowing where she’d landed.
Although she hadn’t explicitly mentioned abuse, the knowing flare of understanding in the woman’s eyes made it clear she knew exactly why Trinity needed her location to stay a secret.
But she was done letting fear or shame rule her life. She had more important things to think about, like her baby boy. Now that she’d gotten used to the idea of having a son, she liked it. She would be a mother who raised an amazing man. It was both a challenge and a mission to reclaim her life and pride for both of their sakes.
“I think I look like I’m sixteen.” Michaela was still admiring herself in the mirror. “I could probably borrow Gran’s car, and I wouldn’t even get pulled over.”
Ash looked absolutely stunned before he snatched the mirror from her hands and put it on the counter. “No, you can’t drive your grandmother’s car because you are eleven, not sixteen. You don’t know how to drive, and every police officer in Magnolia would recognize you.”
“Well, yeah, but I still think if I was driving really fast, they might not know it was me as I sped by.”
Ash threw up his hands and looked so discombobulated it made Trinity smile. “If you were speeding by, they would pull you over. Also, you are eleven.”
“And you look lovely,” Trinity said. “I’m happy you like the cut.”
“Next time, can we do highlights?” Michaela glanced hopefully toward her dad. “Please.”
“Your hair has natural highlights,” Trinity assured her. “I have clients who pay for hair like yours.”
That seemed to satisfy the girl, at least for the moment.
She got up and took off the smock, handing it to Trinity. “Thank you so much. It’s the best Christmas gift ever. Unless Daddy gets me a puppy.”
