He pretended to adjust another strand and let his thumb graze her jaw just briefly, then dropped his hand. “Come on,” he said as he stepped away. “I’ll walk you back.”
She cleared her throat and started walking. “I can do it myself,” she quipped almost steadily.
“I know,” he told her as he came beside her, walking close enough to occasionally brush arms. “But I really want to see if any of the girls wear those green facial masks to bed. That way, I can picture them like that all the time.”
Mal snorted and nudged him. “Jerk. I think you just want some of my secret Nutella stash.”
He considered that and looked up at the sky as if weighing the options. “Green masks… Nutella… I think it balances out. Let’s do both.”
Mal laughed again, and the sound echoed faintly in the morning air, and somewhere in the vicinity of his heart.
ChapterSeven
Mal was going to shoot somebody, as soon as she found a gun. This was, without a doubt, the longest morning of her entire life. For all its pleasant start, the subsequent hours were doing their utmost to obliterate any and all good feelings that might have remained from it. It was a sad thing to state that the dress fittings had been the best part of the bridesmaids’ adventures thus far, probably because all the girls had known what they looked like and only got to complain about the fit, which was quickly adjusted to each girl’s tastes. The boysenberry one-shoulder gowns flattered everyone’s silhouette and had just enough sparkly things to calm the girly girls without offending the rest of them.
The hair and makeup tests, however…
“Retract the claws, kitten,” a soft Southern accent calmly broke through her thoughts before she could properly process her frustrations into an appealing picture.
Mal glanced at Caroline, who finished her hair, makeup, and fittings ages ago and was sitting on a nearby sofa, looking as though she had been posed for a magazine shoot. Except she looked just as bored as Mal. If it weren’t for the fact that she was looking up at Mal through her now heavily lined and falsied eyelids with a half curve to her mouth, she might have been just as miserable too.
“Don’t tell me you’re enjoying this,” Mal muttered as she pretended to take more pictures of Bethany and Sophie, still in their chairs with the hairdressers fussing at them.
Caroline snorted softly and switched her crossed legs. “Nope. I have no idea how a girl with a pixie cut can take three hours on hair, but what do I know?” She shrugged and looked over at the window seat where Jenna was sitting, anxiously watching her friends. “Call me crazy, but I thought this was all supposed to revolve around the bride, not her bridesmaids.”
Mal followed her gaze and sighed. “Yeah… Are they always this mean to her?”
Caroline didn’t have to ask what she was talking about. Subtle insults, and not-so-subtle insults, had been flying back and forth ever since they arrived, from all the girls except Grace. Mal wanted to snap back but held her tongue, feeling it was not her place. But Jenna just smiled and laughed as if it had all been jokes, and her friends laughed too.
It wasn’t funny, and it had to hurt.
“Yep,” Caroline said tightly. “Drives me nuts, and I’ve told Jenna they aren’t really her friends, but she won’t listen to me. She knows they’re being mean, but she doesn’t rise to it. I don’t know if that makes her sweet or stupid, but God love her, I can’t do anything about it.”
Mal hummed a noise of discontent, then looked at her cousin again. “You look great,” she said, changing the subject.
Caroline gave her an amused look. “Thanks. It’s a bit much for my taste, but it will do for Jenna. The hair, I like.” She turned her head, and, really, the sweeping updo was very flattering on her. Mal was convinced no one else could pull it off that well.
“The hair is awesome,” Mal assured her.
A fake, trilling laugh came from one of the other girls, and Mal groaned and gave Taryn a look, which was returned with similar sentiments.
“What about your hair and makeup, Mal?” Caroline asked. “What are we doing for you?”
Mal gave her a dirty look, and Caroline laughed and took her hand. “Come on, chica. Just because you’re low maintenance, and do it very well, doesn’t mean we can’t gussy you up a bit.”
Mal eased her hand away, smiling at her cousin’s earnestness. “No. I just work here. I’m just the help, Caroline.”
Now it was Caroline who gave her the look. “Call yourself that again, and I’ll fix your face up real nice.”
Knowing Caroline, she would too.
Mal swallowed nervously. “You’re scary, you know that?”
The blinding smile was back. “Yeah, I’ve heard. And if I didn’t love my twin so much, the rest of the girls would think so, too. Besides, come wedding day, you’re part of the family in more than name only. You have to dress up then.”
“I’ll figure it out when that time comes.”
“As long as you let me do it, I’m good with that.”