Keeping Secrets in Seattle - By Brooke Moss Page 0,21

bunch of the facilities that the City of Portland used to house trucks and equipment, her mother owned a specialty shop downtown, and they’d lived in a big house in a wealthy suburb. She’d come from money, and from the few friends I’d seen already, so did most of her bridesmaids. I was definitely going to stick out.

“Here, put some of this on.” Kim handed me a tube of pink lipstick.

I obeyed. “You sure it’s not too much?”

We both observed the finished product in the bathroom mirror. “No way, man. It completes the look,” she said proudly. “It’s cool.”

Betsy shuffled up in her slippers and stood on my other side. “What I wouldn’t do for those eyelashes, Violet.”

“Or the lips,” Kim lamented, taking a swig of her coffee.

I examined my face in the mirror. Had I not been wearing a pink beret and matching lipstick, I would have been staring at my mother’s face. I’d grown up watching men fall all over themselves, vying for her attention. It wasn’t until I’d lost all of my baby fat during high school that I’d discovered how much I resembled her. Hazel eyes rimmed in naturally dark lashes and plump lips that resembled a red bow.

Of course, it was that face, and the hourglass figure that accompanied it, that’d attracted the boys’ attention in high school. In the years since, I became more comfortable hiding behind funky makeup, hair, and clothes, than I was au naturale. Seattle was the type of place where you could work in a tax office sandwiched between a nerd in a three-piece suit and a girl with a six-inch mohawk, and nobody would so much as bat an eye. I was more at home in costume than I was walking around with Leandra Cohen’s perfect face and golden hair.

I snapped the lid back onto the lipstick and turned away from their stares. “If you want to ogle someone, call my mom. She loves that crap.”

Kim snorted into her coffee. “Yeah, she does. The last time she was over, she asked me four times if I liked her new hairdo.”

I pulled my coat on, glad that the focus was off me once again. “All right, you two. I’m out of here.”

Betsy yawned. “Have a good time at brunch.”

“Have something super expensive for me,” Kim called, settling herself on the couch. “We won’t be here when you get back.”

Betsy’s eyes danced behind her glasses. “We’re going to an improvisational dance workshop for Valentine’s Day.”

I tried to stifle my laugh as I let myself out of the apartment. “Wow. Sounds…incredible.”

“I’m picking up on some sarcasm,” Kim bellowed, just as I pulled the door shut behind me.

I chuckled as I started down the stairs. Even an improvisational dance workshop could beat spending Valentine’s Day in a stuffy restaurant with women I didn’t know.

…

“Oh, look, she’s here.” Alicia’s voice floated across the dining room, and I raised my arm to wave. My shiny combat boots squeaked loudly on the marble floor as I walked.

I was hideously out of place.

“Yoo-hoo, we’re over here.” When Alicia wiggled her fingers at me in a cheerful greeting, the sunlight that poured through the windows glimmered on her ring.

“Hi.” My voice came out entirely too noisy, and I cleared my throat. “Er, hi.”

“Did you have trouble finding the place? I told Gabriel to give you directions.” Alicia was sitting at a long table, with four girls sitting at either side. “We ordered a mimosa for you.”

“Thanks.” I took a deep breath, flustered by the jog. “Sorry, I had to jump a few buses to get here.”

The girl to Alicia’s left wrinkled her nose. “You’re a bus person?”

I nodded. “No need to pay for gas when there is only parking for one-third of the cars in the city.”

Alicia’s green eyes sparkled. I swear she could do it on command, and I hated that about her. “I know. I’m always after Gabe about how much it costs to run our car.”

I swallowed the urge to point out that the car she was referring to was Gabe’s car. Not hers. He and I bickered over the fact that he bought a gas-guzzling all-terrain vehicle after receiving his last raise, instead of the economically earth-friendly smart car I was pushing him toward.

“I would be way too nervous to ride the bus everywhere.” She giggled, flipping her red hair back. She looked great, as usual, and it made me want to bang my head on the tabletop. “You’re much braver than I am,