matter of making her brain cooperate. It wasn’t easy, but she was working on it.
“Where’s Sebastian tonight?” Joy asked as she slid into the chair next to Gigi. They were at Blueberries, a farm-to-table restaurant in town, and still waiting for the famous actress Carly Preston to join them. When Gigi had first gotten the invitation to have dinner with Joy, she hadn’t really been in the mood to socialize, but Joy talked her into it by letting her know that Carly really wanted to talk shop about Gigi’s new skin care line. Carly had been gifted samples, and Gigi was intensely curious about what she had to say about her products.
So instead of staying curled up on her couch, she’d dressed up, curled her hair, and painted on her favorite red lipstick. When she’d checked herself out in the mirror, she’d barely recognized the woman staring back at her. She was well rested, happy, and looked like a million bucks, thanks to the skin care products she’d recently refined for women of a certain age.
“Sebastian’s in San Francisco working on tracing the history of the sale of my mother’s ring,” Gigi told Joy as she held her hand out, admiring the gorgeous piece of jewelry. “He thinks that if he can find the authentication papers, we might be able to trace who brought it to them before they auctioned it off.”
“Wow. That would really be a breakthrough, wouldn’t it?” Joy opened her menu, scanned it briefly, and then closed it again. She turned her attention to Gigi and raised an eyebrow, clearly still waiting for an answer.
“Yes. It really would,” Gigi said quietly, still staring at the ring. Sadness washed over her, and Gigi wondered if there was ever going to be a day when the pain from the loss of her mother didn’t feel like it was going to shatter her heart.
Joy reached over and covered Gigi’s hand. She didn’t say anything; she just squeezed, silently offering her support.
“Thank you,” Gigi whispered. “You’re a really good friend.”
“So are you.” Joy leaned into her, making their shoulders bump before she straightened and flashed a smile at the gorgeous green-eyed blonde that had lit up movie screens for the past forty years. “Carly,” Joy said, standing and holding her arms out to the other woman. They hugged, and when Joy pulled back, she scanned Carly and nodded her approval. “You look incredible. Love this off-the-shoulder number, and those skinny jeans do fabulous things to your back side.”
Carly flushed slightly, and Gigi knew in that moment what everyone loved about the actress. Sure, she was great at her job, but there was something so charmingly wholesome about her that it made it difficult not to instantly love her. “Thanks,” Carly said to Joy as she leaned in and gave her an air kiss. “You’re not looking too bad yourself. Love that dress.”
“It was a gift from Troy. He said he wants to do a shoot in the woods. Isn’t this perfect?” She twirled and showed off her fairy-like flowy dress that was covered in flowers and butterflies.
“It’s gorgeous on you,” Gigi said. “You have the perfect willowy body for that type of dress.”
Carly nodded her agreement, and then both women turned their attention to Gigi. “Joy’s not the only one who looks camera ready,” Carly said to her. “My goodness woman, you look absolutely radiant.”
“Radiant?” Gigi asked. “I think you two might need your eyes checked. When’s the last time you got your contact prescriptions updated?”
“I actually got mine checked about a month ago,” Carly said, laughing. “But I like your style. Kinda funny, even if you were hitting below the belt with the old-age eyesight jokes. Just you wait. One of these days, you’ll wake up and squint because you can’t see across the room. Then when you look at your phone, you can’t see that either. Literally, you’ll be flying blind until you can get your appointment. Which will be about two to three weeks, because everyone else you know in your age group is going blind, too.”
Joy just shook her head. “I’m not stepping into this one. But, Gigi, we weren’t kidding. You’re glowing. If that’s the new skincare line and not a surprise pregnancy, then I’m gonna be first in line at Skyler’s boutique opening. Cause damn, girl, you look hot.”
“Surprise pregnancy? Bite your tongue. That’s the last thing I need right now,” Gigi said.
“I notice you didn’t deny that it might be a possibility,” Joy teased.