Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 45797 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 229(@200wpm)___ 183(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45797 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 229(@200wpm)___ 183(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
“I can’t imagine going through that. It must have been scary,” she said.
“It is what it is.” He shrugged. “There’s not a lot I can fucking say, really. The world is full of good and bad people. I’ve met my fair share of bad. Trust me, it’s fine to just want to get from one day to the next without getting killed.”
Charlotte held herself still. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“No,” he said. “It was a long time ago.”
“You know, when Jake ... when I lost my little brother, I didn’t know what to do. My parents struggled even before him, and then after, it got worse. Did you know my brother?”
“No,” he said. “I knew of him, like I knew of you, but I never really met him.”
Charlotte nodded. “I know Dad spoke about you, but it was years before I first saw you. I always thought you had a cool name. Jake did as well.”
He saw the sadness in her eyes. Savage always thought there were boundaries he would not cross. Charlotte was the Prez’s daughter, but he couldn’t stop himself from closing the distance between them, reaching out to her, and hugging her. The last thing he wanted to see was sadness in her eyes.
Charlotte held onto him tightly. This is what she needed, at this moment.
Chapter Three
“Love it,” Maeve said.
Charlotte couldn’t help but smile as Maeve cupped her chin and slowly turned her face left, then right. She had arrived at Kristin’s shop to start her usual shift, but she’d been taking all the practice from her time with Savage, and created a smokey eye.
Kristin let out a whistle. “You’ve done good.”
She couldn’t keep the smile off her face. Even her mother looked happy for her. Nancy had agreed she wanted to leave Rivermont Ridge, and so far still hadn’t left. Eden was also in the shop as she had come to see Maeve.
“Wow, I am impressed,” Eden said, and then took a seat at one of the stations. “I think it’s only fair we let Charlotte do that exact look on me.”
Panic suddenly gripped her, and Maeve smiled. “You know what, sis, you are right. This is exactly what she needs.”
“I don’t think I can”
“Take a deep breath. My sister is not going to bite you, and trust me, once you start getting into the flow, it will all come naturally to you.” Maeve winked at her.
The only person she had practiced on was Savage, and that man, even when she got a little too close with the eyeliner, seemed to have the ability to sit still through anything. It was kind of scary how still that man became.
There was no point in having nerves. She had passed her initial safety tests at beauty school. Everything was clean and sanitized, however, to give herself a little more time, she opened her makeup case and re-sanitized everything. There was no harm in doing that.
Eden suddenly reached out and grabbed her hand. “Don’t worry. You’ve got this.”
Charlotte nodded, but this was quite a different feeling all of a sudden. She didn’t feel like she had this. Far from it. It felt like this was in control of her, and she didn’t have a single clue what to do.
She kept breathing heavily. Conversations seemed to get louder around her, and after she finished sanitizing her makeup, her brushes were already clean, as she took care of them every night.
Maeve came to her and put her hands on her shoulders. “Stop thinking. If this is what you love, look at my sister like a blank canvas. You’ve got to stop being nervous, and even if it doesn’t go to plan, don’t panic. I’m here. We’re all here to help you, and trust me, there would be no judgement. We all had to start somewhere.”
Charlotte couldn’t help but nod at Maeve’s encouraging smile. One glance in the mirror, and she saw her mother had her thumbs up.
Ever since Maeve and Doc’s relationship had come out in the open, it seemed her mother had lost that harsh edge. She knew her mother was not jealous of their relationship. Not once throughout their marriage was her mother ever faithful. She, unfortunately, had to learn that the hard way, which fucking sucked big time. It was the last thing a daughter wanted to hear about her mother. It was also gross, and explained the few men she had seen sneaking out of the house early in the morning. Again, gross, but she never told her mother that. Never even questioned her as to what the hell she was doing cheating on dad. She ignored it. If she ignored it, there were no arguments. Not exactly the best foundation to have, but the best she was going to get.
After a few moments, she picked up the eye primer, and even though there were no set rules when applying makeup, there were certain tweaks that needed to be made to the order of makeup looks. For a smokey eye, she preferred to do all makeup first, followed by the foundation. Any cleanup was a lot easier with fallout.