Tangled Up With My Brother's Best Friend by Taylor Holloway

Author:Taylor Holloway [Holloway, Taylor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-07-06T16:00:00+00:00

35

Ainsley

“Behold,” Lettie the makeup artist said, holding a mirror in front of me. “Her majesty the Princess Amaranth, heir to The Winter Castle. And she’s ready for her close-up.”

I blinked at my reflection. Was that me? The woman in the mirror did not look like Ainsley Taggart, Los Angeles-based college student and nerd extraordinaire. The woman in the mirror was not even human. She didn’t look like she belonged in a classroom or a coffee shop. She didn’t do yoga. She didn’t eat at In-N-Out. She looked like she belonged on a throne in a faraway kingdom. She was also a total stranger. Even Becca wouldn’t recognize me, and I’d thought she was pretty damn good.

It was finally Friday. I’d been waiting all week for this, pacing the floor. But my pacing and obsessing over Holden was finally at an end. Today I was hanging out with Lettie, The Winter Castle’s head makeup artist. She was doing the final makeup test on me. And after today’s test I was going to go knock on Holden’s door and say… something. I’d been working up to it all morning and still had nothing planned beyond the first ‘hello.’ At this point I was just going to have to wing it.

“Wow,” I managed, finally locating enough breath to form a response. “I look different.”

Lettie laughed and snapped a picture of me with her phone. “Different?” she questioned teasingly. “That’s all I get after an hour of work? Different?”

“Incredible,” I corrected. “I look unrecognizable. Thank you.” The awe in my voice was probably obvious.

I’d always thought my features didn’t fit together quite right. My eyes were too wide set. My nose was too small. My lips were too full. But looking at them now with expertly applied makeup, they did fit. In fact, they looked damn good. I wished I had paid more attention to the techniques and products Lettie had used to make me look like this. I was almost glowing from the inside out.

“You’re really talented,” I told her. “I’m usually lucky if I can put on mascara without looking like a racoon.”

“Usually I do monster makeup,” Lettie told me, putting her brushes back into her train case. “This makes a nice change, actually. I forgot how much fun it is to make someone look flawless and ethereal instead of, you know, dead or frightening.”

“I definitely don’t look like a monster,” I said. “You’re really good.”

Lettie smirked. “And according to Holden you look perfect,” she said, showing me his text back to her. She’d just texted him the picture she took of me.

I flushed in pleasure. “I’m glad he likes it.” My voice was soft.

I wanted him to think I looked perfect.

I still didn’t know what to make of Holden. He was handsome, charismatic, and talented, but I didn’t know if he was interested. Sometimes I thought he was. Other times I wasn’t sure. It all amounted to a lot of sleepless nights and replayed conversations. I’d never been so distracted by a guy before.

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