They got their doughnuts, delighting over the fact that they were still warm, and found a booth just as a family of four vacated it. Unfortunately, the booth sat diagonal to Nolan’s booth, so they could watch each other as they ate. Hayden and Emmaline sat side by side with a direct view of Nolan and Priscilla. Great.
Nolan wasn’t looking at them, but Priscilla was. She daintily popped a doughnut hole in her mouth and turned her head to say something to Nolan.
He lifted his gaze to observe them, his eyes settling on Hayden. Nolan gave a swift shake of his head at whatever she asked him.
“Think they’re going to cancel school tomorrow?” Lia asked, oblivious to the stares from the other table.
“The snow isn’t melting,” Emmaline remarked, staring out the window.
“If it’s still like this tomorrow, we won’t have school,” Hayden offered.
“That’s not a bad thing. I could use more time to study for my physics test.”
Around ten minutes passed and Nolan left Priscilla and her friends to head over to their table. “You guys ready?”
“Sure.” Emmaline wiped off her sticky fingers and stood up.
Nolan held the door open for them.
As they all walked over the mixture of ice, snow, and mud, Emmaline announced to her brother, “Look. This has to be said. I need you to cut me some slack. I like Hayden. She’s my friend, and I’m going to hang out with her. Not that I need your permission, but I want you to be cool with it.”
Heat stung her cheeks. Did Emmaline really have to start this conversation in front of Hayden? Couldn’t she do it later when Hayden wasn’t around to witness it? If they were actual friends, she would realize how much she was embarrassing Hayden. It was a reminder. Hayden had no one. No friends who understood her.
“Fine,” Nolan said quickly, staring intently at Hayden.
He might be answering Emmaline, but his gaze was fixed on Hayden, his deep brown eyes full of something that looked like an apology and that gave Hayden pause.
He knew. He understood her embarrassment and he was sorry for it.
Emmaline blinked. “Fine? Just like that?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged and the gesture seemed as uncomfortable as Hayden felt. Incredibly, her discomfort actually made him uncomfortable. She slid her gaze away, not sure what to do with that realization.
“Em, you’re seventeen,” he said in a level voice. “I’m not going to be here next year, as you’ve pointed out.”
“That’s true.” Emmaline smiled brightly. “You know I love your stupid face, right?”
He released a little laugh that sent flutters over Hayden’s skin.
Nolan pressed a hand over his heart. “Your love overwhelms me, Em.”
Emmaline punched him in the arm. “Cut it out.”
“I might as well let you start living your own life now without me butting into it. Gotta get you ready for when I’m not around every day.”
Lia slurped loudly from her straw. “You guys are so cute. For real, you’re like a Hallmark movie.”
Emmaline rolled her eyes. “Shut up, Lia,”
She wasn’t wrong. They were what family should be. Functional.
Lia rushed ahead to Nolan’s truck. “Guys! C’mon! All my bits are freezing.”
Emmaline hurried to join her. “You’re such an idiot,” she teased.
For a moment, Nolan and Hayden stood alone.
“That was nice of you,” Hayden murmured. Embarrassing for her, but nice for them.
He shrugged. “It was nothing. The right thing to do.”
And that summed up Nolan Martin. He was a nice guy who ultimately did the right thing.
I’m not the right thing.
His eyes softened as he looked at her and that did funny things to her.
Stomach churning, she turned away and joined the girls waiting outside the truck. Nolan unlocked the doors and then they were headed back to the Martins’ house.
Hayden spoke up as a CVS appeared in the near distance. “Hey, can you pull over real quick?”
Nolan obliged, parking near the front doors.
Hayden swung around and beckoned Emmaline with a crook of her finger. “C’mon, you.”
With a wary smile, Emmaline hopped out of the truck and followed her into the store. “What are you getting?” she asked.
“I’m not getting anything. You are.”
“I am?”
Hayden walked with purposeful strides, turning down an aisle and stopping. With her hands on her hips, she faced rows and rows of boxes.
Emmaline followed the direction of her gaze.
“Um. What . . .”
Hayden bent and plucked a box up off the shelf. “Again. I am not doing anything, but you are.” Holding on to the box, she resumed her search, selecting a second one from the shelf and then assessing them side by side with squinting eyes. Apparently satisfied, she handed both of them to Emmaline. “Here you go.”
Emmaline glanced down at one of the boxes. “Brazen Bombshell,” she read. Then she read the other one. “This one is a bleach!”
Hayden nodded and buried her hands in her pockets. “We’ve got to lighten your hair first. Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing, and Brazen Bombshell sounds about right for what you want.”
“You want me to color my hair?”
She arched an eyebrow at the younger girl. “You want to signal to the world that you’ve changed . . . that you’re ready for a change? This can be that signal.”
Emmaline looked back down at the box uncertainly while fingering a lock of her hair. “It’s . . . extreme.”
“I thought extreme was what you wanted. Look, this isn’t some teen movie. I’m not talking about a full makeover that’s going to change your world, but you want to get noticed? Spice things up a little? Brazen Bombshell will achieve that. Plus, that shade of red will look hot on you.”
Emmaline stared down at the boxes again, clearly imagining the vibrant hue on herself. “You’re right.” She nodded. “Let’s do it.”
They walked to the waiting cashier.
As Emmaline paid, Hayden’s gaze drifted out the glass door to where Nolan was parked, his hands draped casually over the steering wheel, his gaze fixed straight ahead. Directly on Hayden. Prickles of heat cascaded over her face and she forced her attention on the cashier ringing them up.
It was scary how good those eyes felt on her.
Lesson #22
If you’re not having fun anymore, why bother?
x Nolan x
Nolan couldn’t hide from Priscilla forever.
It was time to own up to his feelings.
His encounter with Pris at the doughnut shop had been strained. She’d been with friends, sparing them both from a serious conversation, but she’d made her displeasure abundantly clear at seeing Hayden with him, and her judgment didn’t sit right with him. She had no reason to dislike or disapprove of Hayden other than allowing rumors to influence her. Other than buying into what other people said. What other people thought.
The opinions of others prejudiced her, and even though he knew he had been guilty of the same bias, he wasn’t anymore.
Since the night he sat on Hayden’s couch and watched movies with her and listened to her theories on surviving a zombie apocalypse, she’d become a real person to him. Not just a rumor.