Meet Me in Myrtle Beach (Hunt Family Book 1) (8 page)

Chapter 11

I had styled my hair a lot of different ways in the past. Most of the time, I played up my natural waves, but I was no stranger to a flat iron, so I had seen my hair straight plenty of times. I had, however, never seen my hair straight with a good haircut, and the difference was astounding.

I hardly recognized myself when the stylist turned me around. The makeup girl applied quite a bit more than I was used to, so that was shocking in itself, but the haircut made me look like an entirely different person.

I had been cutting it all-one-length all these years, and the addition of long bangs and layers gave me a whole new look. I just stared at myself in the mirror, wondering if I was seeing things. Mia and Charlotte got done with their massages while I was still sitting in the chair checking out my new look.

"Oh, my gosh, that looks so good!" Charlotte said, seeing me for the first time. "It makes me want to cut bangs!"

"You should totally cut some long bangs like this," Mia told her as she ran her fingers through my hair. She peered down at me with a smile. "Do you like it?" she asked.

I nodded excitedly.

"How could she not? It's amazing," Charlotte said. "Did they color it too?"

"No, her natural highlights just jumped out when we cut those layers," the stylist said, overhearing the question.

"I wish you could teach my natural highlights to
jump out
," Charlotte said. "This artificial stuff's high-maintenance."

Mia pushed at her cousin's shoulder. "Shut-up, don't act like you don’t enjoy getting pampered out there in all those fancy salons."

"Logan's girl comes to the house, actually," Charlotte said. A few girls overheard, but no one bothered asking her to elaborate.

"We're ready for you ladies," a woman said, coming into the lobby.

"Are you getting a mani-pedi with us?" Charlotte asked, looking at me.

I shook my head. "I think I'll just hang right here."

"Oh, come on!" she said. "Come hang with the girls.

"There's a place for you to sit back here if you'd like to come with us," the lady said.

"Is someone open to do a mani-pedi on her?" Charlotte asked.

"Let me check," the lady said.

"It's really okay," I started to say, but Charlotte and Mia both told me with facial expressions to let her go ahead and check.

Lo and behold, there was indeed someone who was available to do my nails. It took her a minute to set up, but after she did, we all went into this luxurious, dimly lit back room together.

"I can't believe you would want to check out a random Australian guy," Mia said as we sat there getting our nails done. "I thought you would have already hooked up with Henry Sherman or Finn Black by now."

Henry and Finn were two A-list actors who starred along side Logan in his latest movie. Mia's statement had all three manicure ladies looking at us with expectant expressions.

"She lives in Los Angeles," Mia explained.

"I try to tell her that just because you live in Los Angeles doesn't mean you get to go out with movie stars."

"Oh no, child," one of the girls said shaking her head adamantly. "My friend's older brother moved out there like ten years ago trying to make it in show business. She said he barely ever even sees any famous people."

"I try to tell her that," Charlotte said, "but she acts like I share a house with them or something."

The nail girl continued shaking her head like she was an authority on the subject. "Uh-uh, most of those actors over there are out of work anyway, and you don't want to get you that kind."

"That's right," Charlotte said, giving Mia an
I told you so
expression.

I watched the whole scene, biting the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. I could tell they were enjoying themselves, and it was funny to witness.

"What Australians are you talking about?"

The question caught Charlotte and Mia off guard and they looked at each other with confused expressions for a second before it dawned on them that they mentioned the Australians a minute before.

"We don't even know them," Charlotte said. "We were just talking to a couple of guys at the café next door who—"

"Were you talking to Travis Gwinn and Jackson Forester?"

"Their names were Travis and Jackson," Charlotte said. "You know them?"

The girl smiled and nodded. "They come in here to get their hair cut by the owner. I heard them talking about the Australians that were coming to town to stay with them for the summer. One of them was a super famous surfer until he almost got his leg bitten off by a shark. I think they made a movie about him or something. Supposedly he's really hot."

"I think I know about him," Charlotte said. It was obvious by the look on her face that her wheels were turning.

"Maybe you'll meet your movie star after all," the nail girl said. "All the way over here on the East Coast.

"I think he played himself in the movie," Charlotte said. "I do remember that."

"Does he have a fake leg or something? Mia asked.

"It didn’t bite the whole thing off," one of the girls said. "It was the wetsuit that saved his life."

"Yeah, but he's got a big hunkin bite-shaped scar on his thigh," said the girl who'd been quiet up till then.

"How do you know?" Charlotte asked, already seeming protective.

I tried to keep from smiling.

"Because I saw the movie," she said. "He did play himself, and he's incredibly hot to answer all of your questions."

"You think we're all talking about the same people?" Charlotte asked, looking at Mia.

"It has to be the same guys," the first girl said. "I heard them talking to the owner about the surfer and it fits with everything you guys are saying."

"What about Travis and Jackson?" Mia asked. "Are they good guys?"

"As far as I know, they're nice," she said. "They haven't been coming here too long. He's only been living here for a couple of months."

"So it's Travis's house?" Mia asked.

"Yeah, I think Jackson's just as rich as him, but he doesn't live here. He stays at Travis' when he's in town. They're best friends. I heard Jackson's got a bunch of property out near Asheville. I think that's where they're from or something. From what I understand, they invented some app when they were in high school, and the rest is history."

"Not a bad sidekick," Mia said, leaning forward to wink at me.

I smiled, but it was more from delirium rather than hopefulness. At this point, the number of eligible men in Myrtle Beach was comically large. It was enough that I knew the whole thing was too good to be true. I did not have my heart set on catching any of them. I thought I might just have to kiss one of them since it seemed like a fun, harmless thing to do on vacation, but I had no notion that I would end up in a relationship. That was just unrealistic, and I knew it. I thought a kiss would be harmless, though, and it was fun thinking about who it might be.

I tried to remember what Jackson looked like. I thought he was handsome, but I could barely even think about him without feeling guilty about Cody. It was like something inside of me felt like I was cheating when I imagined myself with anyone besides Cody, which was ludicrous.

"Oh, you thought Jackson was just a couch surfer?" the nail girl asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

"We didn't know," Mia said. "We don't know anything about them."

"They tip good," one of them said. "And you can tell a lot about a person by how good they tip."

Then, as if just realizing that she had made a faux pas in front of a customer, she shook her head and said, "Not that I'm trying to tell you guys how much you should tip or anyth—"

"We were already good tippers before you said that," Charlotte said.

"I'm really sorry," the girl said, feeling bad.

"No worries," Mia laughed. "We're practically friends now anyway after all the inside scoop we got."

"I think you should definitely hang out with those guys if they asked you to. As far as I know, they're nice."

"That's good to know," Charlotte said. "I'm glad we brought it up."

We went to a nearby clothing boutique before heading home. I wound up spending $100 on a summer dress. I didn't want to at first, but Mia and Charlotte talked me into it. They said the dress was normally much more expensive, and it was a deal I couldn't pass up. They also said it looked great on me when I tried it on, and that I should definitely wear it Friday night when we went to the party.

They seemed to be really excited about it after we talked to the girls at the salon. I, however, would just as soon stay at the beach house with the Hunt family. To me, the idea of hanging out with Cody and Ryan was even better than going to a random party were I didn't know anyone, but I didn't say as much. Mia and Charlotte were excited about meeting that Australian guy, and I knew I'd have fun once I got there.

By the time we had our nails done and shopped for a little while, I had all but forgotten about my haircut. It wasn't until we walked into the beach house and I saw Diane's reaction that I remembered how different I looked. It must have been even more shocking to her, because she had never seen my hair straight at all.

"Oh, my word, it's a complete transformation," she said, gawking at me when I came in. There were several people in the kitchen when we walked in, and everyone started talking all at once. Most of them were asking questions about our day or commenting on my hair. The only thing I heard clearly was Diane's statement because we were making eye contact.

"Doesn't it look good on her?" Charlotte asked, running her hand through my hair.

"I can't believe how different it is."

"We all got new dresses for the party, too," Mia said, holding up her bag.

"What party?" Evan asked. His question made me glance around the room for the first time. Charlotte, Mia, and I had just joined Diane, Evan, Cody, and Christy who were standing around the kitchen.

"Where's Dad and Aunt Denise and them?" Mia asked, ignoring her brother's question.

"Everyone else is out on the deck," Cody said. "Dad's grilling burgers." He glanced at me after he said it. He started to look away, but he smiled at me before he did. "It looks good," he said.

"Thank you," I said, feeling shy.

"What party?" Evan repeated as if there hadn't been a whole conversation since the last time he asked.

"We met that guy who bought the house with the lion gate," Mia said. "He's having a big party this Friday."

"Yeah, we're all going to that," Evan said, without hesitation.

"He said it was fine," Mia said, absentmindedly looking in the fridge with her shopping bag still around her arm.

I glanced at Cody to find that he was looking at me. The corner of his mouth turned up when our eyes met, and it drew my attention to his lips. I couldn’t get enough of his smile.

"Your brother's here," Diane said, looking at Charlotte. "He was tired. He went upstairs to take a shower." She turned to face me, but I was unaware because I was still looking at Cody. "Paige, I should probably fill you in that my grandson's in movies," Diane said.

"I already told her that last night," Christy said.

"We just assumed she knew," Charlotte said. "We were totally cracking up about it while we were having our nails done."

"I'm glad you gave me a head's up, though," I said. "I probably would have said something really goofy if you had just let me see him without knowing he was coming."

"You've heard of him before?" Diane asked.

I narrowed my eyes playfully at her. "I had this poster of him in my room when he was like twelve-years-old. The one where his hair was bleach-blond and combed straight back on the sides."

Charlotte busted out laughing. "I totally remember that poster!" she said.

"Me too!" Mia said, laughing. "One of my friends had that, and she asked me about a hundred thousand times if he could sign it.

"Speak of the devil!" Evan said, with a flick of the head toward the staircase.

Christy and Diane simultaneously made motherly sounds of disapproval at Evan's choice of words.

"Speak of an
angel
," Diane said.

"Coming from the lady who calls deviled eggs angel eggs," Evan said.

"That's what they
should
be called," she said.

"You making some angel eggs?" Logan asked, hugging his grandma as he came to stand around the kitchen with all of us.

"Hey baby boy," she said. "I didn't see you when you first came in."

"I know; I went straight upstairs. I was ready for a shower."

"Those filthy private jets," Evan teased.

"I actually was pretty filthy, but it had nothing to do with my trip over here. I had a charity thing to go to this morning."

"Mr. Philanthropy," Evan said.