“Girl, are you ready to pop yet?” I ask.
“Almost.” She grins.
I take in her costume of what looks like white gauze wrapped around her from neck to toes, a stylish white turban and black-and-white makeup. The woman’s a million months pregnant and looks stunning. “What are you?”
She rubs her hand over her belly in an affectionate circle. “Mummy to be!”
“Oh my God.” I snort-laugh. “Damn, that’s good.”
Shelby pops up next to her. “You have to see Charlotte. She’s so dang cute.”
I check out Shelby’s sparkly velvet and chiffon dress embroidered with silver stars and threads. A necklace of rainbow crystals at her neck and her face glammed out with silver makeup and rhinestones. “Fortune teller.” Shelby shrugs. “My version.”
“Pretty.” I study her makeup again. “How long did that take?”
“Hours.” She gestures at Serena. “We filmed the whole thing. It came out great.”
Damn. I can apply some eyeliner and shadow well enough to avoid looking like a clown, but Serena’s skills are movie level.
Lilly touches my shoulder and gives me a quick hug. I’d barely had a chance to talk to her earlier. “Where’s your costume?” I ask.
She points to the ceiling. “Z brought all our stuff up earlier.” She pats Serena’s back. “Her train case is literally the size of a train.”
Serena giggles. “No it’s not. I did bring a lot of stuff, though.”
“Has anyone seen Hope?” I ask.
“Um, last we knew she went to take a shower,” Lilly laughs. “We haven’t seen herorRock since.”
“Oh, Christ,” I mutter at the ceiling.
Serena points at Lilly. “Your face is going to take forever. Let’s get going.”
“You know what, I better check to see if Hope’s decent,” I say to the girls, pulling out my phone to send her a text. I notice she sent me a text earlier that I never saw or responded to.Ooops. “Did anyone bring curling irons?” I ask as I type out anare you decenttext.
“I did!” Shelby volunteers. “I got this cool new auto-spinning one.” She twirls her finger in the air. “At the press of a button.”
“I brought a few,” Serena says. “All different sizes.”
“Oh good. I need a small-diameter one for Hope’s hair. She saidabsolutely notto wearing a wig with her costume.”
Shelby wrinkles her nose. “Don’t blame her. It’s already hot as Hades in here.”
“I got you,” Serena assures me.
I walk over to Wrath and tap his arm. “We’re headed upstairs.”
“Let me go with you,” Grinder says to Serena. He tosses a worried glance at the staircase.
“You all right, Serena?” I ask.
“Yes, just a little big and clumsy.”
“Shoot. I don’t know if there’s a room down here we can—”
“I’m fine,” she says. “Gray’s just being overprotective.”
Lilly snorts. “It seems to be going around.” She flashes a knowing smile at Grinder.