Borrowed Beauty

Chapter Twenty-Three: Cow Tipping

Renee

I don’t really know why I ended up wandering down the alpha’s wing, it was kind of an unconscious thing. I was alone, again, and bored, and somehow I found myself standing outside her door, which she had conveniently left open. I expected to find her curled up in a chair with her nose in a book. Instead, I caught her on the way out of the bathroom, muttering to herself and trying to hook an earring in her ear. She was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she didn’t even see me standing there. When I took another step into the room, she yelped and dropped the earring.

“Oh damn!” she dropped to her hands and knees and started hunting for the earing. “I mean, hello Renee,” she amended.

“Hey,” I said, watching her crawl around on the floor until she found the bit of jewelry. She was still hopelessly poking at her ear, making it all red and irritated, so I walked over and wordlessly took the dangle from her hand and did it for her, slipping the French hook easily through her ear.

“Thanks,” she said, with a quick smile.

One thing I can say about Olivia: she never stays angry for long. Even when I’ve been a complete b***h. She picked up a hairbrush and started yanking it through her hair, which was hopelessly tangled and still slightly damp from the shower. “You are going to break your hair doing that,” I pointed out.

“I know but… time…” She muttered.

I caught her wrist and pulled the hairbrush from her hand, and started detangling her long, wavy hair. Her hair was thick and kind of hard to tame, but I’d always secretly kind of envied it. My hair was baby-fine, and any length past my shoulders made it look ratty and thin.

“Oh yeah? You got a hot date tonight?” I was only joking because she certainly wasn’t dressed for a date. She had on a pair of old jeans, tan hiking boots, and an ordinary t-shirt. It definitely looked like a stay-home-and-read kind of outfit, if not for the fact that she had shoes on.

“Yeah, well maybe,” she actually blushed a little. “I’m going somewhere with the Alpha tonight.”

I stiffened, and my hand involuntarily stopped the motion of brushing her hair. I pulled the brush through one more time, kind of roughly, and handed it back to her. Why did it bother me so much that she was getting along so well with Josiah? Could it be because things weren’t going as well as I had expected with the twins?

No, no, things were going fine, I assured myself.

“Where are you going?” I asked, unable to stop the snarky tone that crept into my voice. “Cow tipping?”

“I don’t know!” She shot me a worried glance, “What’s cow tipping?”

“It’s where you– oh, never mind.” I shook my head and sat on her bed as she dug through her closet until she produced a shapeless gray hoodie. She was really going all-out on the sexy. I didn’t understand why guys found her so fascinating when she didn’t even try.

I refused to consider the fact that she was just naturally appealing, or that maybe her lack of subterfuge was part of the attraction.

She didn’t even register the fact that I was insulting her appearance. Or maybe she did register it, but she was that good at ignoring me. “Well,” she looked at the time on her phone and then blew out a breath, “show time!”

“Right,” I slid off the bed and followed her out of the room, simply because I had nothing else to do. I followed her downstairs to the big sitting room and stopped in front of the massive fireplace. She stood next to me and looked a little uncertain as she glanced out the big windows. I could see the alpha out in the drive, putting something in the back of the SUV. I noticed he was just wearing a dark polo-shirt too, nothing fancy. I was starting to feel curious. Where was he taking my sister? An evening hike in the hills?

That actually sounded kind of romantic.

I touched her shoulder, “Have a good time, Livvy.”

She looked back at me distractedly. “Yeah, thanks. What about you? Are you going out to the club tonight?”

I looked away from her and studied the stone masonry on the fireplace. “I don’t know yet, maybe.” Which really meant the twins were ghosting me again, and I had no idea how I was going to spend my evening.

“Oh. Well, I hope you have fun too.” She smiled and turned to go, leaving me standing there alone. I watched through the window as Josiah practically ran to meet her. He squished Olivia into his chest for a moment and then leaned down to kiss her on the forehead. There was something so sweet and simple about that gesture that it made my throat ache. The twins kissed me all the time, but they never held me like that. They never looked at me the way that Alpha Josiah was gazing at Olivia.

I turned away from the windows and crossed my arms over my chest as if I could squeeze away the empty feeling. I flopped down on one of the couches and pulled out my phone, and pulled up some videos to keep me busy and distracted while I waited for the twins to come home. At seven I still hadn’t heard from them, so I wandered into the dining room to get some food, and sat awkwardly across from Vero. She smiled at me, but the way her lips tightened across her teeth made it look more like a grimace.

“Well dear, how are you enjoying your visit?”

“Uh, it's great. Thank you.” I smiled and lied through my teeth. I was acutely aware that this woman could potentially be my future mother-in-law. She always had this cool, aloof, professional air about her, the way I imagined a diplomat or an ambassador would behave. I couldn’t really tell if she liked me, or if she was merely tolerating my presence for the sake of her sons.

Halfway through the main course she got a phone call and excused herself, and I was left to finish the meal by myself, which was really f*****g depressing. I finished my food and went back to the couch, and back to my phone. I had one message from Aaron that simply said, “running late.” That was it. No explanation, no excuse, and no estimated time of arrival. I never bothered to turn on a light, so I ended up just sitting there, alone in the dark.

Around nine I saw headlights cut through the windows, moving the shadows from one side of the room to the other. I thought the twins were back at last, but I was wrong. Alpha Josiah practically fell into the house with a grunt, apparently attempting to open the door without unwrapping his arms from my sister.

They were so into each other, I don’t think either of them noticed that I was sitting right there. They stumbled along, tangled up, until Josiah seemed to get impatient and picked her up, which was no small feat. She wrapped her legs around his hips, and they were still kissing as they bumped their way up the curving stairs. I held my breath, half fearing and half hoping that he would drop her, but they must have made it to his bedroom.

I heard a solitary door bang shut.

“Ugh,” I picked up one of the throw pillows from the couch and lobbed it at the fireplace.

My sister and the alpha.

I picked up another pillow, but this one I hugged to my chest. And I waited. And waited. And eventually fell asleep. When I heard the front door open again, it was almost two o’clock in the morning. I sat up and blinked groggily as I watched the twins stagger inside.

They were halfway to the stairs before I called out, “Hey!”

They lumbered to a stop, moving in almost synchronized motion, which kind of creeped me out. “Oh, Renee, babe. What are you doing down here? Couldn’t you sleep?”

“I was waiting for you,” I couldn’t keep the accusation out of my voice.

“Oh, sorry, sweetheart, we were busy, so busy.” Aaron came over, and reached for my hand, tugging me off the couch and into his arms. He nuzzled into my neck, and I could smell the whiskey on his breath, and something else. His shirt was half-unbuttoned under his suit jacket, and when I stood on tiptoe and pressed my nose into his collar, I smelled the faint but very distinct scent of a woman’s perfume. A very expensive line of women’s perfume.