Or his heart.
Chapter Two
“We were just about to send out a search party for you.” Kalen, the makeup artist Chase usually worked with on his photo shoots, grabbed Sophie the second she stepped into the guest house. “Everyone else is putting on their dresses already. Fortunately, all you need is some light mascara and lipstick.”
Normally, Sophie would have agreed to keep her face close to bare. She’d never been all that comfortable in makeup. Lori had been the one who’d always liked to play with their mother’s eye shadows and powders. Sophie had been more interested in finding the books to tell her sister how to put it on, rather than playing mannequin.
“Actually,” she said, “I was hoping you could work a little of your magic on me.”
The woman raised an eyebrow. “Magic?”
Sophie nodded. “There’s this guy...”
Kalen gave Sophie a slow grin. “Well, in that case, I’d be happy to work a little of my magic on you. He won’t know what hit him.” She called out to the hairstylist friend she’d brought with her. “Jackie, can you come here for a sec?”
A few minutes of hushed conferencing later—in which Sophie made it clear that she didn’t want to look overly made up or trashy, just a whole lot sexier than she normally did—the three women had a plan.
Sophie sat back in her seat and tried to ignore her rapidly beating heart as they transformed her from Nice to something entirely different.
* * *
Thirty minutes later, after Kalen and Jackie had helped Sophie change into her bridesmaid’s dress without messing up her hair or makeup, Lori walked into the room and stared at Sophie in shock.
“What the heck have you done with my sister?”
The two of them hadn’t been getting along so well for the past year. Sophie hated to see the way Lori was letting that jerk she’d been dating in secret walk all over her. Everyone saw her twin as so fierce, so fearless, but Sophie knew Lori was simply better at hiding her emotions than the rest of them.
Every time Sophie had tried to bring up the situation, her sister had blocked her out of her life more and more. Lori was a master of sharp, sarcastic barbs, as Sophie knew all too well, and she’d been lashed out at one too many times in recent months. But beneath everything that had come between them in the past year, she loved her sister. How could she not, when they’d always been two halves of a whole?
Today was one of those days when Sophie needed her twin, the other half that should automatically understand everything on a DNA level, to reassure her.
In the heat of the moment, as she’d made the decision to shake things up, it had seemed so empowering to let Kalen and Jackie make her up, but for someone like her, who’d always been happy disappearing into the background, this hair, this makeup was a big departure.
What if people laughed at her?
What if Jake laughed?
She’d die. Oh yes, right then and there in the middle of Chase and Chloe’s special day, in front of three hundred people, she’d wither up and drop dead.
Lori moved closer, did a full circle of Sophie in her deep pink satin strapless dress. She’d been the last one to meet Chloe at the bridal store to pick out her maid of honor dress. Although it was definitely more conservative that Lori’s, Sophie had forgotten how well the satin hugged her curves, closer than anything else she owned, that’s for sure. It was classic movie-star style, a la Marilyn Monroe’s “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” dress, with a long slit up one leg.
Finally, Lori said, “You look amazing, Soph.”
Sophie breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “Thank God.”
“But,” Lori added with a slight frown, “you don’t exactly look like you.” Her frown deepened. “Did Kalen convince you to try something new?”
“The makeup was my idea. So was the hair.”
Lori frowned again. “I don’t get it. You’ve never wanted to try anything new before.”
Sophie forced a shrug, as if it didn’t matter to her at all if her sister got it or not. Even though it did matter. So much. “I just wanted to see what it would be like to look different for one day.”
“Hmm.” Lori scanned her again, head to toe, and Sophie knew the exact moment the truth hit her sister. “Oh, no. You’re not actually going to try to get J—”
Sophie leapt toward her sister to cover Lori’s mouth with her hand before Jake’s name left it. She wished she could tell Lori her transformation had nothing to do with him, but she couldn’t lie to her twin.
“I know what I’m doing.”
Lori shook her head, yanking Sophie’s hand from her mouth. “You don’t have a clue what you’re doing. I love J—”
“Lori!”
“—him like a brother, but that doesn’t mean I don’t see his faults, Soph. Especially where women are concerned.” Lori pinned her with a hard gaze. “Don’t do this.”
She’d never thought to admit this to anyone, not even her sister, but now she found herself saying, “You don’t know what it’s like to be invisible.” She instinctively lifted her chin and pushed back her shoulders. “I’m sick of it.”
She wanted her twin to understand, but instead of encouraging her, Lori said, “You love to tell me when and where I’m screwing up.” Sophie tried to interject, but her sister put her hands on her shoulders and made her turn around to face the full-length mirror. “This time you’re the one who needs to listen. Don’t do this, Soph.” Lori squeezed her shoulders tight. “Don’t. Do. This.”
Sophie stared at the incredibly sexy woman staring back at her in the mirror. She’d never have been able to pull this together without professional assistance.
It was now or never.
“I have to.”
Lori looked as serious—and worried—as she could ever remember seeing her. “The boys are going to be beside themselves seeing you looking like that. I mean, they’re used to me playing up the goods, but you...Nope. They aren’t going to like it. Not one bit.”
“Too bad.”
Finally Lori almost smiled, but then she asked, “What’s going to happen if your plan backfires?”
Sophie’s heart stuttered in her chest at the thought of just how many things could go wrong with her brilliant plan to teach Jake a lesson for ignoring her all these years. Still, she thought she sounded confident and secure as she assured her sister, “It won’t.”