“Oh.” Well, maybe that was why she was so shy. Brenna put a hand on Elise’s shoulder, leading her forward. “Come say hello to Miranda.”
Miranda sat at the manicure table, her hands under the ultraviolet light and a large bridal magazine open in front of her. Her dark hair was beautifully smooth and falling around her shoulders, and her bangs looked as if they’d been freshly clipped. “Hey, Brenna! Come and see the dresses I’m looking at. I’m trying to decide between three.”
“No, she needs her bangs done first,” Beth Ann decreed. “Honey, your roots are showing something awful.”
“That’s why we’re here,” Brenna said, dropping into the salon chair with a grin. “That, and I figured Elise might need some girl conversations after being cooped up all day with her parents.”
“Dane said that Grant’s family was in town,” Miranda commented, carefully turning a page in the magazine. “Are you guys enjoying yourselves?”
“It’s just like I remember it,” Elise said quietly, and Brenna caught a glimpse of her in the mirror as Beth Ann spun her around in the salon chair and settled a cape over her. Elise had sat down at the back of the small room, in the hair dryer chair. Her long, silky hair had fallen in front of her face again. Grant’s sister was pretty and sweet. Why did she look so terrified of people?
But then Beth Ann was in her face with foils and a mixing bowl, and Brenna lost sight of everything except Beth Ann’s br**sts as she began to fix Brenna’s bangs.
“You want to go purple again, honey?”
“How about white? Like a skunk?”
Miranda snorted.
“How about no?” Beth Ann gave her a disapproving look. “It’s your head but everyone will know I’ve done it, and I’m not about to have you go around looking like a lost polecat.”
“What about clown red?”
“You’re too pale. It’ll look awful.”
“Green?”
“Fades to gray too fast. You want pink or purple. Blue if you must.”
“Purple it is, then.”
Beth Ann nodded approvingly and began to paint her bangs with highlighting chemicals. “So tell me what’s new,” she said in a sweet voice. “You seeing anyone, honey?”
Brenna groaned. “Can no one around here keep their mouth shut?”
“Nope,” Miranda said triumphantly. She turned around from her seat and waved her hands in the air to dry them. “So spill the beans. How long have you and Grant been doing the deed?”
She watched in the mirror as Elise glanced at Miranda, confusion on her face.
“We’ve been together a while,” Brenna lied, keeping the story going. “We just haven’t told anyone. It seemed best.”
“Lordy,” Beth Ann said, wrapping Brenna’s bangs in a foil and then patting it. “We can’t leave you two alone for a minute, can we?”
“We hired someone new,” Brenna said, changing the conversation. “He’s a smoking hot, tatted-up guy. You seen him yet?”
Beth Ann’s eyes widened. “No, but I want to hear more.”
“Elise has seen him,” Brenna said innocently. “What did you think of him, Elise?”
Elise colored bright red. “He seems nice.”
“Nice and well muscled,” Brenna teased, pretending to squeeze imaginary bu**ocks. Of course, Grant was hiding an amazing body under those yawn-inducing sweaters and tailored shirts he wore, so it wasn’t like she was missing out.
“So are you going to go after him once you’ve finished breaking Grant’s heart?” Miranda asked.
“No hearts are involved. Just sex and animal lust when it comes to me and Grant. Nothing more.”
Miranda and Beth Ann exchanged a look in the mirror. “Mmmhmmm,” Beth Ann said. “And this is Grant you say you’re sleeping with?”
Brenna was getting a little tired of everyone assuming that she had to marry Grant if she was f**king him. “It is, though I might go after Rome. He seems more my type.”
To her surprise, Elise flinched slightly.
Well now, that was interesting. She got up from the chair, her bangs fully foiled. “Trade places with me, Elise. I have to sit under the dryer for a bit.”
“I can trim your hair,” Beth Ann offered. “It’s gorgeous the way it is, but a trim is always good for the ends.”
Elise shook her head, her hair falling in front of her face again. Even more curious, Brenna thought as she sat under the dryer. There was a lot going on behind the scenes that it seemed she wasn’t all that aware of. It made her feel uneasy. Things had been simpler when it had been just her and the boys, and Grant had been there to harass them. Now the boys were paired off and she was sleeping with Grant and getting upset when he wasn’t harassing her.
Even more, it bothered her that she was bothered.
Miranda fluttered her nails once more, then stood up. “I’m heading across the street to the coffee house. You guys want anything?”
“My usual,” Beth Ann said, and turned to Elise. “You want something, honey?”
“Nothing for me,” Elise murmured politely. “But thank you.”
Brenna raised her hand. “I do. Hot chocolate. Pay you later?”
Elise pulled out her purse. “If you need a few dollars, I have some.”
Miranda shook her head at Elise. “Brenna always does this. She doesn’t have money.”
Elise looked puzzled. “She doesn’t?”
“She’s always broke,” Beth Ann said with a faint smile, dropping her combs into the sterilizer as Miranda disappeared out the door. “But on payday, dinner and drinks are on her. We just get her the rest of the time.”
But Elise still looked concerned. “Does my brother not pay you enough?”
“Never,” Brenna said solemnly.
“Oh please,” Beth Ann said. “Honey, don’t let that sweet face fool you,” she told Elise. “Brenna gets paid just fine. She’s just bad at holding on to it. What did you buy this week, Bren?”
“Nothing.” At Beth Ann’s skeptical look, she amended, “The last time I went to Maya Loco, there was a nice man playing a guitar for tips.”
Beth Ann groaned. “You didn’t.”
Brenna shrugged. “It’s just money.” And if it wasn’t in her hands? She couldn’t buy anything. “He was really good, too.”