A Place for Daydreams (Rosewood Beach #3)

Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Hazel tapped her fingers against her lips as she looked down at the magazine that was open on the bathroom counter in front of her. There were so many different spa day ideas on the page in front of her, she hardly knew which one to look at first.

It will depend on what supplies I have, she thought, glancing down at all the products she had spread out on the bathroom floor. For a foot soak, I’ll need mineral salts and maybe some essential oils.

She found the bag of Epsom salts that she’d purchased and noticed that they were lavender scented. She smiled, thinking to herself that she’d bought her supplies in such an eager hurry that she hardly remembered what she’d purchased anymore.

She looked at the other ideas on the magazine page. There were some recipes for homemade bath bombs, but she decided against that. She wanted to have the kind of spa where she could wear silk pajamas and sit comfortably for a while. She knew she wanted to have a foot soak, and she made a mental note that she would need to get a bucket of some kind to put her feet in.

She thought to herself with a chuckle that it was a bit overwhelming, which was ironic because it was supposed to be relaxing. But she had a feeling that if she set up her spa with a lot of the different things that the magazine suggested, like candles and soothing music, it would be absolutely delightful.

“Hey, Mom?”

Hazel looked up as she heard her daughter calling for her. “I’m in here, honey! In the bathroom, looking at some stuff.”

A moment later, Samantha waltzed into the bathroom and shrieked with delight when she saw all of the fun things that Hazel had spread out on the floor. “Whoa! What’s all this stuff?” She crouched down, inspecting the lavender Epsom salts and the face masks and the colorful scented candles. “These look so fancy. What are you doing with them?”

“Well, I saw this magazine here when we were at the store and I got the idea to have an at-home spa day.” Hazel laughed. “I thought it was time for some real self-care.” She hesitated, not knowing how to explain to her daughter that she was still feeling bad that Jacob was dating someone else. She didn’t know how to explain to her that she felt a need to love herself more than she usually did. “I’ve just been feeling a little blue lately, and I thought that having a spa day would be a fun way to pamper myself and remind myself that I can make myself feel special.” As she spoke, she remembered a thought that she’d had the other day. She’d decided that she wanted to appreciate her opportunities to love the people right in front of her rather than pine over the sort of love that was absent from her life. A second later, she got an idea that made her smile. “So, I’ve decided to have an at-home spa day, using these supplies here and some of the ideas in this magazine. Do you want to do it with me? We could have a spa night together.”

“Oh my gosh, yes!” Samantha clapped her hands together, looking thrilled. “That sounds like so much fun. I bet we’ll both feel like total princesses.”

“I bet we will too,” Hazel said, beaming at her daughter. She suddenly felt even more excited about the spa day than she had before. “What about Thursday night? You don’t have any after-school clubs then, right?”

“Nope, not on Thursdays. That sounds perfect.” Samantha grinned gleefully. “So what do we do first? Looks like you want to do a foot soak, huh? We’re going to need some buckets for that.”

Hazel laughed. “Aye aye, Captain, you read my mind. Do we already have buckets that would work, or do we need to go out and buy some?”

“I think we’ve got some plastic buckets in the basement where we’re storing craft supplies. We could always put the craft stuff in a box for now and use the buckets. What do you think?”

“Sounds good to me.” Hazel grinned, struck by how having a teammate made her plans not feel overwhelming anymore.

“Cool, I’ll go make sure they’re a good size!” Samantha darted away, and Hazel turned back to the magazine with a chuckle. She turned the page, feeling excited, and then got the idea of doing her and Samantha’s nails together.

That would be so fun, she thought eagerly. I still have that manicure kit that Alexis gave me for Christmas. We can file our nails and use cuticle oil, and then I can help her paint hers whatever shade she wants. I have a lot of different colors, and a lot of them are sparkly, which I know she’d love.

Hazel grinned as she started to picture all of the fun and relaxing things that she and Samantha could do together on their spa day. She had a pencil tucked into her ponytail, and she pulled it out and started to jot down a list on the back of the magazine. She kept glancing down at the supplies that were on the bathroom floor, making sure that they had everything they needed to create her ideas.

“Here are the buckets!” Samantha appeared suddenly in the bathroom, and Hazel laughed.

“You scared me! Oh yes, those should be perfect. Great idea, honey.”

“You’re welcome!” Samantha set the buckets down on the floor next to the rest of the supplies with a flourish. “You know what else we need?”

“What?” Hazel pursed her lips as she looked at her daughter. She felt a surge of affection for the clever, cheerful girl who always managed to brighten her days.

“Squishy socks.” Samantha nodded emphatically and disappeared again.

“Socks?” Hazel called back.

Samantha didn’t reply, and Hazel chuckled and went back to making her list. Within a minute, her daughter was back, triumphantly holding up two pairs of very soft polyester socks.

“So that we can have the foot soak, put lotion on our feet, and then put our feet in these socks.” Samantha added the socks to their stash on the bathroom floor. “It’s going to feel amazing.”

Hazel laughed. “You’re right. That’s a brilliant idea. You want to hear this list I’ve written up? You can tell me what you think.”

“Yeah!”

Hazel read her list aloud to her daughter, who grinned as she listened.

“That all sounds great to me,” Samantha said. “What should we get ready next? How about we pick a relaxing music playlist?”

“We could—or we could create our own?”

“Yeah! I’ll go make us some popcorn. We can sit in the living room and listen to Zen music all night.”

Hazel laughed, feeling grateful that she had someone planning with her, and that she got to bless someone else with the fun day that she’d been wanting to plan.