Where Beauty Lies (Sophia and Ava London) (24 page)

“What are you talking about?”

“I just got off the phone with Dalton. He was at Christopher Wildwood’s space, upstairs, and he said it was cold
because someone had eaten through the cord on the space heater.
And he couldn’t find a lamp that worked,” she added excitedly.

Sophia shook her head. “That’s a bit circumstantial.”

“But it works. Think about it, Sophia.”

Sophia said slowly, “If it’s true, it means the motive
was
personal all along. Just one we didn’t think of, to distract us.”

“Remember when I talked to him and what frightened me was that he seemed completely convinced he’d done nothing wrong? I thought then that he was someone who would stop at nothing to destroy anyone who got in his way.”

“And we would certainly qualify for that,” Sophia said.

“What should we do? Call the police?”

“And tell them what? We think my cat ate through a cord at his house? I have to say, after how they acted when Popcorn and Charming went missing, I don’t have a lot of faith in them. I think we should focus on putting on our show and making sure Whitney gets better.”

Ava’s eyes widened. “Do you think she’s in danger?”

Sophia said, “If Christopher Wildwood is the one who kidnapped Popcorn and Charming and she’s the one who freed them, then I’d say she certainly falls into the category of people who got in his way. And when I called the hospital this morning they said she’d woken up in the night and been hysterical and they’d worried she would reinjure herself so they sedated her. They said she won’t be awake until sometime tonight.”

Ava sighed. “Poor thing. She must have been so scared finding herself in the hospital alone.”

“I’ll take five to midnight,” Sophia said as though they’d already had the conversation about making sure someone was there with her when she woke up this time.

“I’ll do overnight since I can sleep anywhere.” Ava said. Popcorn sneezed. “Don’t worry, you’re going to have a big day too,” she told him. “I promised to bring you to the studio and introduce you to our models.”

“Lucky boy,” Sophia said, patting him. “Lavender. Nice.” She looked at Ava. “Speaking of boys, do you know anything about Hunter’s mysterious errand yesterday?”

“No,” Ava said, getting very interested in a thread on the edge of a pillow case. “Why would you think that?”

“Because Hunter asked me if you’d said anything to me.” Sophia said. “And because you’re about to unravel the edging on one of the Contessa’s pillowcases now.”

“No I was just looking at the sewing treatment and wondering if we might—”

“What. Is. It?” Sophia was using her the Obey Your Big Sister voice, a combination of menace and patience.

Ava cringed away, putting her hands up. “I can’t.”

“Ava.”

When Sophia turned her Obey voice on, resistance was futile. “I heard him on the phone the other day talking to someone about getting you a ring,” Ava said really fast. “At least, that’s what it sounded like.”

“Tell me the words he used,” Sophia said in her terrifyingly patient voice.

“He said he needed something big but elegant that left an impression and would make people say ‘whoa’ even from a distance,” Ava recounted. “And he told me it was surprise for you and made me promise to keep it a secret.”

“Oh,” Sophia said. “Oh my.”

“Are you okay? You look pale.”

“Yes,” Sophia said. “I’m just really surprised.”

“And maybe that’s part of why he’s so happy Charming is back,” Ava said, warming to the idea. “Because he wants to use him in the—”

There was another knock on the door and Lily put her head around it. “Hello, Gold Team. Someone just delivered this.” She wagged a large manila envelope at them.

Sophia put up her hands. “I’m not touching it. Not after what happened last time.”

“This one came from Lucille,” Lily said, “so I think it’s probably safe.”

Ava tugged the flap open and pulled out the paper inside. She took a deep breath and read: “‘On behalf of the oversight committee and the organizers and sponsors of Fashion Week, I am pleased to reinstate the full credentials of AS by London Calling with all the rights and privileges accruing thereunto. Yours, Carlotta Shipley.’”

She handed it to Sophia, pointing to the notepaper clipped to the top. It was in Lucille’s writing and it said, “The best revenge is making them cry.”

Sophia looked at Ava. “I guess we have a show to put on.”

“Looks like it.”

“You know what that means?” Lily said. Ava and Sophia shook their heads.

“Screaming-and-jumping hug!” Lily declared. “And then waffles for breakfast!”

LonDOs

Credentials

Breaking up with your boyfriend via text

Especially if his response is, “Bummer. Okay, babe. I understand. Gotta go run lines”

#Boyswhocanmakeacoldfunny

Boys who are planning big, elegant surprises

Waffles

Quick-dry nail pens

LonDON’Ts

Christopher Wildwood

Forgetting how to be Cool and Reserved

Sophia’s Obey voice

Puppies who redecorate with bath products

Kitties who eat the cord on Mommy’s hair dryer

21

lash of the titans

Ava was still at the studio with Popcorn at eight that night, going over hems and edges and the programming for the show the next day. Sophia and Hunter had left at five to go to the hospital, and Lily, Sam, MM, and Sven were picking up the sets and then taking them to the Boathouse for installation. From the other room Ava could hear the clatter of the seamstresses doing the final alterations and she occasionally caught whiffs of the Contessa’s perfume as the woman stalked around nervously, but otherwise it was quiet and nearly peaceful. Which gave Ava space to think.

Earlier that day she’d gone to Starbucks to see Jax. He’d looked as incredibly hot as always, but it was as though a switch had been flipped in her head and she saw him just as someone to talk to, not someone to kiss.

Well, mostly.

Which should have made what she was there to do easier. Instead, as she took her mochachino and sat in the seat at his table that he held out for her, she found herself feeling shy and awkward.

“How is your sister?” she asked him, blowing on her coffee to cool it down.

“Much better,” he said. “Thank you for asking. How’s yours? And your pets?”

“Everyone is a lot happier this morning than yesterday,” she told him.

“Good.” He smiled. “I like thinking of you happy.”

This is it,
Ava told herself.
The moment. Do it. Right now.

Ava cleared her throat and said, “Jax, you’re a really great guy but—” and at the exact same moment he said, “Ava, I think you’re amazing but—”

They both stopped and stared at each other. And then started to laugh.

Still chuckling, Jax said to her, “So were you going to tell me—”

“That we should just be friends?” Ava nodded. “Yeah. I assume that’s what you were saying too.”

“Yep. That night we met, at the party? The girl who blew me off was someone I’d been dating for almost a year. She, um, called and we, uh—”

Ava reached across the table and put her hand over his. “I completely understand. Something similar happened to me,” she said.

He smiled at her. “I hope he knows how lucky he is.”

Ava felt a twinge inside her but she pushed it down. “I was going to say the same thing about your girl.” She leaned close to him. “And what an exceptionally good kisser you are.”

“Or you could just be very good inspiration.”

After that, the conversation flowed easily and by the time they both stood so Ava could leave, she felt like she had a friend, whom she was going to miss.

Reflecting on it that night in the workroom, Ava had to admit that she was a little bit proud of how she’d handled it. She’d just said, “That just goes to show you that being mature and direct is a good policy,” to Popcorn when his ears perked up and he got very attentive, as though she’d told him something particularly smart and he was dying to hear more.

But then the Contessa said, “Why, Ava, what a very interesting visitor you have.” Although it was the tone in her voice that put Ava on the alert, she still wasn’t ready for what she saw when she looked up.

Dalton was hovering uneasily in the doorway with a bouquet of flowers. The Contessa had taken up a stance in the opposite doorway with all the subtly of a tiger waiting for an antelope. In Ava’s mind warning bells and Proceed Immediately to the Nearest Exit signs began to chime and flash and whirl.

“You brought flowers for Popcorn,” Ava said, moving toward him. Popcorn was already there, dancing around his feet, and now she picked him up and held him toward the flowers. “Popcorn, do you see? That’s right. Your first flowers.”

Dalton frowned. “They’re not—”

Ava put him in Dalton’s face, cooing, “Give the nice man kisses.”

Through the puffs of Popcorn’s hair, Dalton stared at her like she might be possessed.

“I’ll explain everything,” she whispered. “Just go along with it.”

Dalton gave a painfully fake laugh and said, “Flowers for Popcorn, yeah! Welcome home, buddy.”

“I’m going to take my dog for a walk,” Ava told the room at large. “I will return in ten minutes. We will be right outside the window the whole time if anyone wants to watch and see what we are doing.”

The Contessa’s eyes narrowed but she didn’t say anything.

When they got downstairs Dalton stopped and put out his hand. “Hi, I’m Dalton. What is your name, miss?”

Ava bit her lip. “I owe you an explanation.”

He stopped and turned her to face him. Her eyes went from his to his mouth and then back. His cheeks were pink from the cold but there was still a trace of his California tan and his eyes sparkled. He looked at her from lowered lids and said, “Actually, I’d rather just have a kiss.”

She wrenched her gaze away from his, turning her whole body. She was short of breath and felt hot and cold at the same time. “I can’t,” she said miserably. “God knows I want nothing more than to give you a few thousand kisses. But I—”

“But?”

“I can’t.” She looked up at him. “Something happened before you—before—when you still wouldn’t speak with me.”

He stood up straighter and his voice had a slightly deeper tone. “Are you dating someone else?”

Ava gave a mirthless laugh, her eyes moving restlessly from one place to another, desperate to settle anywhere besides his face. “I wish it were that. That would be simple, I’d just break up with them. No. The problem is I’m
not
dating someone else. When we met the Contessa, Sophia was dating Hunter and I was single. Somehow the Contessa knew that I’d had my heart broken.”

Dalton got very still. “You had?”

Ava closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened them and saw pain etched in his face. “You know that. You knew how I felt. How I feel—”

“Do you?”

Yes,
she wanted to shout. Wanted to say it joyfully, wrap his face in her hands and cover it with kisses. Wanted to whisper
yes
in his ear, catch his smile with hers, taste happiness on his lips. She shook her head, swallowed. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me,” he said, and she felt like she could drown in his eyes.

“It can’t,” she insisted, her chest hot with frustration. “That’s the point. We’d already put in so much work on our line, not just me and Sophia but everyone, and the first week we were here the Contessa called me into her den and gave me an ultimatum: either I agree to date her nephew, or she pulls the funding for our line.”

Ava studied his expression, looking for signs of disgust or shame or disrespect, but all she saw was open, if slightly cautions, curiosity. He slid his hands into his pockets. “Did you? Are you dating her nephew?”

“No. Well yes. Yes I agreed to attend a few parties during Fashion Week with him. In exchange for keeping our line, that seemed a modest sacrifice. And he sounds like a sad sweet guy—he lost an eye in an accident or something so it can’t be very easy for him to meet people.” She sighed.

His hands seemed to be going deeper into his pockets as they talked. “How was it? Attending parties with him.”

“I haven’t done it yet. He’s not even here. But what I learned along the way is that I’d made a terrible bargain. Because it wasn’t just about going to a few parties with her nephew. The Contessa used it as a way to control me. Where I went, what I did. Who I talked to.” She looked right at him.

“Me?” he said, and then as it hit him: “Me.”

“She calls you my Dalton, because it was so obvious to everyone how I felt about you.”

His hands began to come out of his pockets. “She knows about me? About us?”

“Unfortunately, she does,” Ava said, not wanting to take the excitement out of his voice but needing him to understand. “She made it clear that if she thought something was going on between us, she would pull the funding for our line. I’m not even sure she’s not up there right now trying to do it since you came over.”

“That’s why you were so weird just now.”

“And all the other times. On the phone. It killed me to have to tell you I couldn’t see you, you couldn’t come over, when all I wanted in the world was to be with you. I knew I was confusing you and that wasn’t fair, but I was afraid to tell you the truth.”

He looked puzzled. “Why?”

“Because it meant admitting that it was impossible. It meant telling you goodbye for real. I hate having my life held hostage this way but I can’t make this decision just for me. It’s about Sophia and Lily and MM and now all the girls who are here helping.” She looked up at him, willing him to understand. “And it’s about you.”

“And you.” His voice was a low rumble she felt in her knees.

“If it was just about me, if I could choose for myself, I’d throw everything over for you. That would be worth it. I wish I could spend the day with you, doing all the things I’ve always wanted to do in New York City but didn’t get to. I want to ride in horse-drawn carriages and eat bad pizza and walk through museums and go ice skating. I want to do everything with you. And I—” She closed her eyes. “I just hope you know how amazing I think you are.” She pulled Popcorn’s leash. “Come on.”