Nothing to Hide - Isabel Sharpe Page 0,53
side of the bed. “Didn’t you wear that on your date with Kendall the night he—”
“Stop!” Julie held up a hand, turning side to side in front of the mirror. “Not another word about that creep. This skirt is the only one I’ve tried on today that might work, and if I think about him I won’t want to wear it. So why didn’t you tell Jonas?”
“Because it wasn’t the right time. We were having a great, fun fantasy time together.” Allie sighed. Julie would never understand. “Why bring my ugly reality into it?”
“You know, the only person who really can’t handle your childhood circumstances is you. I bet Jonas would be fine.” She’d struggled out of the black shirt, having gotten herself hopelessly tangled in the slashed ribbons. “Damn it. Now I remember why I never wear this thing. Can you help?”
“Sure.” Allie took the top and started following the fabric strips from the side and shoulder seams, trying to figure out what belonged where, and where Julie’s head and arms fit. “I do see your point. But I think I made the right decision.”
“I think you’re using something that hasn’t been a factor in your life for over ten years to keep people from getting close to you.”
“I do not mind getting close to people.” Her temper rose again. “Hold your arms still.”
“To keep men away, then. And don’t bring up that Raymond story. He was a jerk.”
“He was, but case in point.” Allie had been crazy about Raymond at the time—of course hindsight was twenty-twenty—and things had been going well between them for nearly a year. Then he’d come to her mom’s apartment to meet the family. Her brothers had gotten into a huge argument, her mom drank a whole bottle of wine after three cocktails and insulted Raymond’s taste in food and music, and a cockroach had run across the kitchen floor while they were washing up. Things went from special to splitsville within two weeks.
“I love your family.”
“When you come over, my brothers can’t talk because they’re drooling too much.” She moved the last strip of fabric to the right place and pulled the shirt back over Julie’s head. “Ooh, we have a winner!”
Julie turned to the mirror and smiled. “I’d rather have what you’d designed, but yeah, okay, this will do.”
“You look fabulous. Have a great time tonight.”
“Do me a favor.” Julie caught her arm as she passed her. “No, two favors.”
Allie rolled her eyes. “Uh-oh.”
“One, stop trash-talking your family. The only person who comes out looking trashy is you. Two. Think seriously about taking this job you’re not really excited about. Life is too short to piss it away on things that don’t really matter to you.”
Allie clenched her teeth. Easy for Trust Fund Julie to say. “I get that, but—”
“Think about it.” She gave Allie’s arm a shake. “Just think seriously about it.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll think seriously.” She met Julie’s eyes and softened her voice. Her friend was worried about her and trying to help. “I promise.”
“And two...”
“No, you already did two. I’m done.”
“Not done, now there’s three. Three.” She pulled Allie closer. “There is something about the way you react to this guy Jonas that you need to figure out. Because I believe with every fiber of my being that if you do, you will unlock some crap about yourself that you desperately need to be rid of in order to be happy. So my number two is—”
“Number three.”
“Number three, then.” She got right in Allie’s face. “Promise me, promise me, you will go back up to Lake George and see Jonas again this weekend.”
* * *
JONAS TURNED OFF Lake Shore Drive into Morningside’s driveway. His tires spun briefly, throwing up a shower of gravel. He was going too fast, but he was pissed off and more than ready to be back. The drive had been brutal, the MassPike bumper to bumper with Friday summer traffic, slowed further by not one, but two accidents. Any sane person would have waited to drive up early Saturday morning. But he was apparently not sane.
Now, instead of arriving in time for a leisurely afternoon with Allie to start their weekend together, he was here at nearly dinnertime, while Allie had apparently tried to rent a truck—why the hell hadn’t Erik made it clear they’d ship the trunks to her at their expense?—and then waited hours at the office only to find the truck had broken down and wasn’t going to be available. Now she