Chapter Seven
When Hayley had messaged Summer early the next day, Summer had sent back several cry-laughing emoji, along with the message, You don’t own a dress?
Hayley had stuck her tongue out at the phone. What would she need a stupid dress for? Dresses were hardly practical. And they usually required special shoes, and sometimes women got matching handbags, too. Hayley shuddered. What had she gotten herself into with this date?
Not a date, she reminded herself as she pulled into Summer and Jackson’s driveway that evening. Not a date—a brief meeting. A way for her and Marius to get to know each other well enough to convince Boris Dickteeth Lockman to back the hell off.
Summer was waiting on the porch. The rain had stopped, but Hayley had to dodge a few puddles on her way up the drive.
“You’re sure you don’t mind loaning me a dress?” she asked.
“Of course not!” Summer said. “I’ve already pulled them out of my closet. There’s this gray one…well, I’ll let you choose. But I have my eye on one in particular for you.”
Hayley followed her inside. Jackson sat at Summer’s scrapbooking table, his laptop open in front of him. He smirked when Hayley came in. “You going on a date, sis?”
“Shut up, wankmaster.”
“Solid burn, Hayles. Seriously, though. Who are you going out with?”
Summer was watching Hayley expectantly, too, obviously just as invested in the answer as Jackson. Best to get this over with. She turned to face them head-on.
“I’m going out with Marius.”
“I knew it!” Summer shouted, holding her hand out to Jackson.
He shook his head, frowning good-naturedly as he reached for his wallet and pulled out a twenty. He handed it to Summer. “Guess that means you’re buying take-out tonight,” he said. Then he looked hard at Hayley. “I thought for sure you’d told him to get lost on Friday.”
“I did. Listen, it’s not…” Hayley looked up to the ceiling, hoping an easy explanation would appear in the fan above her head. “I may as well tell you, but only if you promise not to freak out.”
“Freak out?” Jackson said. “What, does he have some kind of weird hold over you? I kicked his ass once, and I can do it again.”
Hayley laughed. “In that case, I could kick his ass, too, because we know I can kick yours.”
Jackson pretended to lunge at Hayley, but Summer stepped forward, concern written in her face. “Hayley,” she said. “What’s going on?”
“The Lockmans.”
It meant nothing to Summer, but Jackson swore. “How’d they even find out we were back?”
Hayley shrugged. “Who knows? If any of them were traveling through town, they’d have seen us. We’re not exactly hiding. Who cares, anyway? The point is, Boris called and wants to meet to discuss our old agreement. I told him I was with someone. So Marius has agreed to pretend to be that ‘someone.’”
“Fuck,” Jackson said. Then he turned to Summer and explained the situation—the Lockmans had agreed to help the Jaynes during the pride war…provided the Jaynes promised Hayley would marry their golden son, Alec.
Summer’s eyes grew wider and wider, and she said, “This is awful.”
“Yeah, it’s a pain,” Hayley said. “But Marius is game to pretend to be my mate, and we just need to get to know each other a little better so we can be convincing.”
“What if they ask you outright?” Summer asked.
“There are ways of getting the truth out while not being entirely truthful,” Hayley said. “I think we’ll manage it if Marius and I look like we’re mated.”
“Hence the date tonight,” Summer said. “I guess we should get you dressed. What time is he picking you up?”
“Eight.” Hayley looked at her phone. Just an hour left.
“Then come along, Cinderella,” Summer said.
Hayley could hear Jackson trying not to laugh as she followed Summer into the bedroom.
“Shut up, Jax.” She lifted her hand behind her back and flipped him off.
Summer’s queen-sized bed was covered in several extra layers of multi-colored fabric. Hayley eyed it like she’d watch a spider dangling from her ceiling. She wasn’t scared of anything else—snakes, sharks, horror films—but spiders freaked her the hell out.
Dresses too, apparently.
Summer picked up a shimmery gray thing and held it against Hayley, who winced.
“Come on, it’s not that bad,” Summer said. “Didn’t you go to dances in high school?”
“Nope.”
“She scared all the boys away,” Jackson shouted from the other room.
Summer frowned in his direction. “Stop eavesdropping you big…you big…”
“Twatwaffle,” Hayley whispered.
Summer snickered. “You big twatwaffle!”
She and Hayley giggled while Jackson yelled, “Shut up, Hayley! I’m trying to work!”
“I’ll take this one,” Hayley said to Summer, gripping the dress that was already in front of her.
“You barely looked at it,” Summer said with a laugh. “Don’t you want to try a few on?”
“Nope.”
“Well, you have to put it on at some point,” Summer said, pointing to the bathroom.
Hayley held in the aggrieved sigh that was trying to force itself from her lungs and marched to the bathroom. She quickly stripped and tugged on the dress.
“My bra shows,” she complained through the door.
Summer said, “You’re not supposed to wear one with that dress.”
Ugh. Really? She pulled the dress off again and removed her bra, feeling her nipples tighten in the cool air. Then she put the dress back on. Was girlie stuff always such a chore?
Hayley turned to face herself in the mirror. The dark, shimmery gray looked all right. And the cut, straight across her chest, showed off her shoulder and arm muscles. She did a couple of squats, and the fabric moved with her. At least she could move in this thing. She’d seen dresses that had made her think the people wearing them would be the first to die in the event of any natural disaster requiring quick movement.
“What do you think?” Summer said.
Hayley opened the door and stepped out. “It’ll do.”
Summer’s mouth fell open. “Hayley,” she whispered. “You look beautiful.”
Hayley’s first reaction was to snort, but Summer looked so sincere, she couldn’t do it. “Thanks,” she said. “Thanks for lending me this dress. I would’ve hated to buy something that I’d only wear once.”
“You should keep that,” Summer said.
Hayley stared at her like she was crazy. “It would just take up space in my tiny closet.”
“It looks like it was made for you.”
“Nonsense. It’s your dress.” Hayley started putting the other dresses back on the hangers stacked at the foot of the bed.
“Leave those, I got it,” Summer said.
“Um, no, you didn’t empty your closet and make a big mess just so I can leave you with it,” Hayley said.
“You can’t put off the date forever,” Summer said.
“Good point. But let me get a few of these, first.”
In a few minutes, the dresses were put away.
“Shoes,” Summer said, passing a pair of ballet flats to Hayley. Good thing they weren’t heels, or Hayley wouldn’t have been able to walk in them.
“Thanks,” Hayley said, slipping them on. They pinched just a touch in the toe, but if she could survive a couple of hours sitting across from Marius at dinner, then she could survive a couple of hours in these shoes.
Hayley grabbed the clothes she’d worn here. She looked back to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. Something black peeked out from under the bed. “Hey, I think you dropped your phone,” she said, picking it up.
Her thumb inadvertently lit the screen. A message was up in prominent display, from Jackson.
Summer, I love you. Always.
“Thanks,” Summer said, taking the phone. Her eyes crinkled at the edges at the sight of Jackson’s message, even though he was only twenty feet away in the other room.
Maybe Hayley’s brother was a twatwaffle, but he and Summer had something really special. With a pang, Hayley hoped that someday she’d be grown-up and responsible enough to have something like that.