Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
“Stained. Too tight. Not cute enough. Too flimsy.”
She groaned and shoved the pile of clothes aside. Finally. A date. So how was it that she didn’t have anything to wear? Scottie flopped back on her bed in the sewing room at the bed-and-breakfast.
She could go over to her dad’s house and flip through the few things still hanging in the closet of her old room there, but she wasn’t optimistic.
Besides, she wanted to look cute—like she’d put forth some extra effort, not yanked a rumpled shirt off the bottom of the pile at the end of her bed.
Okay, so she could have done more to keep track of her clothes while she was here, but she’d been a little busy.
And between going back and forth to Port Frisco, sometimes staying at her dad’s and then occasionally here at the bed-and-breakfast, it was no surprise she had stuff scattered all over the place.
Footsteps in the hallway made her sit up. Oh no—Tate wasn’t here already, was he? She still had an hour until seven, when he’d agreed to pick her up.
“Knock, knock.” Lainey peeked around the door and smiled. “I have a surprise for you.”
Uh-oh. That could go a couple of different ways. She bit back the snarky comment.
Lainey stepped in, followed closely by Megan, Caroline, and Emma.
“What are you all doing here?”
They crowded into the small room, carrying bags of toiletries and hair product.
“We’re here to help you get ready,” Megan said. “We heard you had a date.”
“Seriously?” Scottie pressed her hands to her cheeks. “Does the whole town know?”
“Well, not yet,” Emma teased, “but they will when they see you together.”
“Come on.” Lainey lifted a shopping bag. “Tisha couldn’t come tonight, so she sent you this shirt-and-sweater combination.”
“She bought me clothes?”
“Isn’t that fun?” Caroline grinned. “We’re hoping you have some jeans. And I have some boots.” She held up adorable taupe suede booties with a short heel.
“But we don’t know where I’m going,” Scottie said.
The girls exchanged looks.
“We do,” they said in unison.
“Not fair.” Scottie pretended to pout, but her stomach did a small, delicious flip.
She hadn’t belonged to a gaggle of girls like this since cheerleading back in high school.
And she’d forgotten how much she missed the comments, the teasing, and the enthusiasm for makeup and cute outfits that swirled around them.
“It’s a surprise,” Lainey said. “We promised we wouldn’t ruin it. But we did agree to have you ready to go in”—she checked her watch—“fifty-seven minutes.”
“Come on,” Emma said, tissue paper crinkling as she handed Scottie the shopping bag. Scottie unwrapped the most adorable cream-colored scoop-neck blouse with maroon polka dots and a chunky knit cardigan in a rich shade of cranberry.
“This is stunning,” Scottie whispered, blinking back tears.
She quickly changed into her gifted clothes plus her one clean pair of good jeans—dark wash with a little flare at the bottom—and met the ladies in the bathroom. The mirror over the sink caught her reflection—flushed and uncertain. She drew a wobbly breath.
“You look so cute,” Caroline said. “Now let us do your makeup.”
“I know how to fix my own hair and makeup.”
“We know you do,” Megan said, giving her arm a squeeze. “But let us help. This will be fun.”
“Besides, we’re sisters,” Lainey added. “We’re supposed to be bonding, remember?”
An unexpected lump filled Scottie’s throat. Sisters. Lainey rarely claimed her like that.
“Okay,” she managed, a squeak more than a word, and let them do their thing.
It was a tight fit in the bathroom. They made her stand on the striped bathmat and face the shower with its sliding glass doors.
Emma pulled out delicate earrings and a matching necklace.
Someone set a phone on the counter, and the latest country hits echoed off the tile wall.
Scottie stood still while the ladies whirled around her, a cyclone of brushes and wands, little compacts with shades called Peony and Warm Sand.
She hated that she didn’t hate it. Being handled, fussed over, was something people on the other side of the camera got to do. Not her.
She could almost float.
“Close your eyes,” Lainey said, leaning in, fingertips light on Scottie’s brow. “You have great lashes.”
“Don’t lie to me,” Scottie said, but her smile gave her away.
“I’m not.” Lainey’s laugh was soft. “Tilt your chin. Perfect.”
Scottie’s throat burned again. Compliments from Lainey were as rare as fresh blueberries in January. Was this what sisters did?
“Hold still,” Megan said, lining Scottie’s lips with a pencil. “This shade makes your lips look deliciously kissable.”
Warmth heated Scottie’s skin. “Thanks. I think?”
Laughter rippled through the bathroom.
“All right,” Lainey said, her hands on Scottie’s shoulders. “Turn around.”
Scottie turned. “Oh my goodness.” The words came out like a gasp. She gulped. “Wow. Thank you.”
“You look stunning,” Emma said.
“Tate’s going to lose his mind,” Lainey added, clapping her hands.
“I don’t know about that,” Scottie said. “I still can’t believe we’re going out.”
Lainey handed over the earrings. “When was the last time you had a date?”
“Um, I have no idea.” Scottie grimaced. “It’s been…years, probably.”
Emma’s mouth formed an O. “Why? Busy or…”
“Friends of friends set me up a few times, but nothing ever panned out. To be honest, I think I was comparing every guy I met to Tate.”
Her confession earned a chorus of awws.
Caroline held the booties like a prize. “Shoes, then we’re done. Step in.”
Scottie stepped, the suede hugging her bare ankles. She met her own eyes in the mirror. She looked like a version of herself who had it together. The blouse skimmed instead of clung. The cardigan warmed her skin tone. The necklace drew the eye up where she wanted it.
Her stomach dipped and swayed, like standing on a dock when a wake rolled through.
“What is actually happening right now?” she asked, half laughing, half terrified. “I’m going out with Tate.”
“You are,” Lainey said, eyes bright in the mirror. “And you’re going to have a great time.”
“We can’t wait to hear all about it,” Caroline said, pulling her into a quick side hug.
Scottie swallowed hard. Was this the beginning of something real—a completely different future than anything she’d let herself hope for? A life where she belonged and wasn’t always so quick to leave and dodge the pain?
She smiled at her reflection in the mirror. “Let’s do this.”
At seven o’clock on the dot, the doorbell rang.
“He’s here,” Caroline sang out.
Scottie’s pulse hummed as she quickly tucked her phone, her wallet, and the lipstick that matched the shade Emma had used on her into her purse and headed for the door, her boots clicking on the hardwood.
The girls stood in a line in the hallway just outside the kitchen, eyes bright.
“You look beautiful,” Lainey said. “Remember to take at least one selfie.”
Scottie, acting on impulse, gave her a hug. “Thank you. Thank you for everything.” She looked at Megan and Emma and Caroline too. “All of you.”
She took a wobbly breath, crossed to the door, and opened it.
Tate stood on the other side.
For half a heartbeat, her brain did not compute. Tate didn’t wear color. He relied on various shades of gray.
But tonight he’d stepped out of his comfort zone.
Pastel blue button-down, stone-colored dress pants that fit like they’d been hemmed just for him, and polished brown lace-up dress shoes.
Clean-shaven. Collar crisp. Hair behaving.
He smelled like cedar and something bright, and the smooth line of his jaw made her knees wobble.
His mouth eased open. He couldn’t get a word out. His eyes tracked from her boots up—slow, deliberate, reverent—and back to her face. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed.
“Scottie,” he said, “you look incredible.”
Heat flared up her neck. Some tiny, delighted creature inside her did a cartwheel. “Thank you,” she said, giving a little curtsy before she could stop herself. “You look handsome as well. And to believe you are not wearing gray.”
His cheeks flushed pink as he glanced down, almost shyly. “Thought I’d add a little color into my world.”
“It looks good on you. Really makes your eyes pop.”
He laughed, the sound easing something tight in her chest. “Thank you. You ready?” He held out his elbow.
From the hallway, the ladies shared their parting advice. “Bye! Have a good time! Be careful! Text us when you’re home!”
Tate rolled his eyes, grinning.
“Don’t wait up,” Scottie teased, pulling the door closed behind her. Her hand slid into the crook of his arm and stayed there, like it had been waiting for this exact space.
“So where are we going?” she asked, trying to sound breezy. Casual. Could he see her pulse throbbing at the base of her throat?
“Not telling.”
A car chirped. He led her to a convertible.
“No way,” she breathed.
“Yes way. It’s Jude’s. He calls it his little impulse buy,” Tate said, grinning.
It was a sleek black BMW sedan. The leather seats gleamed like they’d been buffed with butter. He opened the passenger door and she slid in, already savoring the luxurious interior.
“This is amazing.”
“Just you wait.”
They drove through town. The evening light did that late-summer Alaska thing—golden hues for days.
She hung her hand out the passenger side and let the breeze swirl around her wrist and stream through her fingers.
Beside her, Tate looked like a different version of himself in the pastel shirt, like someone had lifted a filter and let the true colors through.
Her brain kept snagging on his jawline, his strong hands gripping the steering wheel, the way the blue pulled the sea out of his eyes.
Stop staring, she scolded herself. Then immediately kept staring.
A few minutes later, he parked near the dock overlooking the harbor.
“Are we going fishing?” she asked.
“No,” he said, eyes sparkling. “Better than that.”
“I thought you were going to make me catch my own dinner.”