She walks in and scans the room before taking a seat on the bed, feet dangling off the side. I drop my bag and then pull out a pair of basketball shorts and T-shirt. I take off the shirt I’m wearing and toss it in the hamper without thinking about it. Ginny’s eyes are fixed on my chest. I wait for her to catch herself, but she’s full-on checking me out.

“Hey, friend?”

“Hmm?”

“Eyes are up here,” I say with a wink.

She rolls her brown eyes, but then they land back on my bare upper body. “You’re seriously cut. Maybe I should give up ice cream.”

“Don’t you dare. You’re perfect.”

Charli zips into my room, jumps onto the bed, and covers Ginny with slobbery kisses. She smiles and leans away but pets her behind the ears.

“Down, Charli.”

Mav appears in the doorway and Charli goes to his side. “Ready, Ginny?”

“Yeah.” She scoots off the bed. “See you out there?”

I nod and watch my friend and the object of my fascination walk out of my room. I might need a shower and some Mariah first.

13

GINNY

The following night Reagan’s sitting at her vanity with the laptop open in front of her while I stand off to the side doing her makeup.

“I can’t believe how much it looks like the girl on the video. I swear I’ve tried a few of these and it never looks anything like it’s supposed to.”

“Ava’s been letting me practice on her.” I glance at the girl on the screen and back to Reagan. “The winged eye looks really good on you.”

Putting makeup on Reagan is fun. She’s so naturally beautiful I probably couldn’t make her look bad if I tried, but she’s right, I managed to get it pretty close to the girl on camera.

“You’re hired. Someday when I’m a big well-known actress, I’m going to force you to do my makeup every day. In fact, I wish you could do my makeup for the winter play.”

Reagan is a theater major, and according to Dakota, she kicks ass in the school plays.

“Doesn’t the department hire someone to do makeup for the performances?”

“Yes. The previous stage director’s mother, Ms. Morrison. She’s lovely and nice and has been doing makeup for the university performances for something like twenty years, but last spring she had me looking like a clown. There’s stage makeup, and then, there’s straight-up too much blush.”

I brush a little shimmer powder along her cheekbones. “Well, I’m happy to do it anytime. Seriously, doing your makeup every day is my dream job.”

“Why aren’t you going to school to be a makeup artist?” Dakota asks from the bed. She’s lying on her side looking at her phone.