1:00 – Nails at Next Door Nails. It’s actually next door to Vonda’s. Ha.
I asked the front desk about places to go clothes shopping for women, and they said Beek’s Boutique and the Treasure Chest, but when I walked past TC, that store looked like all lacy thongs and shit. Don’t feel pressure to buy panties. I like you just fine without. I have a feeling you’ll balk at spending my money and not the stash you have hidden in your coffee can, but this is my gift. Girly shit, just like you like, as a thank you for last night. And yesterday. And the rest of our lives. So don’t balk, just go have fun.
You deserve it.
A tear splatted onto the letter, smearing the ink on one of the words. She gasped and blotted it dry because she would keep this letter for always. Wiping her damp lashes, she leaned forward and sniffed the daisies. Orange was her new favorite color.
With a happy squeak, she jumped, spun mid-air, and landed on the unmade bed. She kicked her legs as she clutched the letter to her chest. He liked her. He really liked her. No man would go to this kind of trouble to give a woman an amazing day if he didn’t care deeply for her. And this wasn’t just their animals choosing each other either. Tobias the man was showering her with sweet gifts.
The clock on the bedside table read 10:00, so she rushed to shower and ready for a day of pampering. Girly shit, ha! Tobias probably didn’t understand her need to feel like a human woman again after those hard, rugged years surrounded by crazy men on Perl, but he’d listened—really listened—and then went to the trouble of planning a day for her. She could imagine his face stricken with mortification when he made the appointments and asked the front desk about clothing shops. Tobias was a big, tough, growly, bear-shifter, enforcer, mountain man, but he had no problem accepting her feminine side. He encouraged it, even.
She liked that he hadn’t tried to change her. He’d even called her a strong mate. She didn’t feel like that very often. Most of the time, she felt like a plastic bag in the wind—helpless. But Tobias must have seen a vein of inner strength she hadn’t given enough credit to.
Flowers! She’d never gotten flowers from a man before. Not even Jonathan-the-Pretender. She was glad no one had gifted them before because Tobias’s flowers were special now. For the rest of her life, Gerber daisies would hold a special meaning. She would dry them before they wilted and keep them forever.
Tobias had left a bag of sugary bear-claw pastries on the table, so she scarfed down two of them and then walked down the street to her first appointment, hair still wet and limp down her back.
She got her hair cut just below her shoulder blades and styled with soft curls. At her next appointment, she asked her nail technician to paint her fingernails and toenails a bright red to match her penguin nightgown. Vera smiled as she imagined Tobias’s grin when she showed him tonight. It wasn’t until mid-way through her nail appointment that she began to feel sick. Or not sick exactly, but unsettled, as if something was clawing at her insides. Waves of nausea took her as everything began to sound louder. Her head hurt with the noise of the nail salon, and after she’d paid and stepped outside, the sun blinded her, making her squint until her eyes watered. But despite a few concerned looks tossed her way from the passing strangers as she stumbled down the sidewalk, within a few minutes, she was back to her normal self again. Weird.
Shaking her head to rid herself of the last remaining ache behind her eyes, Vera made her way to Beek’s Boutique for a shopping spree. She had so much fun picking out clothes that fit her and that she thought Tobias would like. A harsh life on Perl Island had demolished her figure, making her waist too thin for her liking, but she had big plans on getting all of her curves back. She ate a crepe from a roadside vendor and then a full lunch at the taco stand before she meandered over to the Treasure Chest, which was, in fact, a lingerie store. It was surprising that a town so small could support one of these, but she was happy it was here because her undie drawer wasn’t flattering. Not if she intended to seduce Tobias on the reg. Not that he would be hard to seduce. The man had made love to her even though she’d worn llama pajamas, but still. She couldn’t wait to see his reaction when she showed him her new negligée.
While she waited in line to pay, the headache and nausea came back even worse, doubling her over. A store attendant asked if she was okay.
“I’m fine,” she gasped, holding her head like it would keep her brain from exploding. “Just a headache.” Or perhaps a migraine? She’d never had one before, but that sounded right.