Deeper Than Dreams by Jessica Topper Read Free Book Online

mirror as she ran a wide paddle brush through the wiener curls she had created, and pulled a small can of hairspray she’d hitched in the waistband of her low-slung jeans.
    â€œVoilà! And va-va-va-voom. You’re one sexy bitch.”
    Downstairs, Mindy was waiting with her stash of womanly weapons. “Oh, jeez. We’re not even going to need this.” She tossed her eyelash curler back into her kit and gave me an envious smile. I think I liked her a little more already.
    The clinking and spray of dishes being washed was our soundtrack as she began to prime my face. “Just us chicks in here,” she murmured, dabbing here and there. “With the men in the kitchen . . . where they belong.”
    Liz laughed. “Damn straight.”
    â€œSo, Kat. What are you looking forward to most tonight?” Mindy twirled a long makeup brush, not unlike Jim twirling his drumsticks last night. She was a rock star in the world of makeup, and exuded a cool confidence as she got to work.
    â€œI don’t know,” I said, wiggling my nose where the powder tickled me. So far, the Library Lions gala had been more an abstract concept than anything else.
    I thought of its namesakes, Patience and Fortitude, holding stony court by the regal stairs. I imagined sophisticated food and soft lighting and a stellar Who’s Who of the literary world partaking in drinks and dancing. But it was all just pale backdrop and props for a night out with my man. Plain and simple.
    â€œLooks like we have no need for this, either,” Mindy joked, tossing the blush she was about to use back into her case.
    â€œShe’s already thinking about the post-
ball
activities, I’m sure.” Liz cackled demonically. Mindy grabbed an angled brush and swept it through her bronzer with a grin.
    â€œVery funny, Red. I’m excited for the entire night. But most of all, I’m looking forward to just being out with Adrian. He has this way . . . this way of insulating us, no matter how maddening the world gets.” I thought back to the time he took me to that sold-out Dead Can Dream show at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Even when surrounded by thirty-six hundred headbanging fans, we had been in our own little world together.
    â€œYes, but that was before the world realized Tigger was Digger,” Liz reminded me. She’d once referred to him as the bouncy cartoon character, due to the fact that, thanks to me, he had been hanging out under the radar as a highly entertaining figure to the sippy-cup set. “You may have to share him a little with the mad, mad world now.”
    Liz’s words of wisdom weren’t meant to smart, but the slow burn of them sunk deep and got me thinking. It was all fairy tales today, but what if Adrian went on tour? How could I deny him what he loved doing because of selfish fear?
    I looked in the mirror and my heart shriveled. It had taken the intervention and kindness of a half dozen conspirators toget me looking this good, while nubile twenty-year-old fans with crow’s-feet two decades in their future would be throwing themselves at Adrian every night on the road.
    Mindy swooped in with shadow, so I tried to relax and let her brush away my negative thoughts. “I love working in jewel tones this time of year,” she explained. “And you, my dear, are the perfect canvas.”
    â€œYou know,” Liz said, reaching to swivel up a violet lipstick. “I always thought Leanna would make a great subject for Mindy’s show.”
    â€œLe? How so?” I asked, relieved to have a change in subject. Our friend had joined my, Liz’s and Marissa’s fab four posse in ninth grade, and was a petite Korean beauty.
    â€œAdmit it, she was an angry black swan in high school. Pretty, but she’d tear your head off.”
    I laughed at Liz’s observation. “Leanna was a bit of a punk, wasn’t she?”
    â€œShe’s toned down