Paper Princess (The Royals #1)(72)

“Everything around here is expensive.” Valerie waves her hand. “Think of it as an extension of your uniform. Besides, if you look bad, then people will think the same thing I did—that Callum is being cheap with you. Ah ha!” She pulls out a navy sundress with tiny cap sleeves and a deep V-neck edged in white lace. I don’t remember seeing it, which means Brooke must have picked it out when I wasn’t looking. “This is nice. It has a deep neckline that says I’m sexy without saying I charge fifty bucks and I’d like my cash up front.”

“I’m bowing to your better judgment.” In my former line of work, you’d need a neckline a heck of a lot deeper than that to get fifty bucks up front. I cross the room and start to change. It’s getting late and I want to make sure I head over to the party before the fireworks start.

“You okay if I borrow this dress?” Valerie drapes a white lace number against her body.

“Knock yourself out.” She’s an inch shorter than me and given the length of the skirt, the hem should hit her around mid-thigh. “Out of curiosity, how many dresses do I need?” Two seems plenty.

“A couple dozen.”

I whirl around, but Valerie looks dead serious. “You’re joking.”

“I’m not.” She hangs the dress back in the closet and starts poking up her fingers one by one. “You need afternoon dresses, boating dresses, clubbing dresses—both the country club and the night club kind”—my head is spinning— “garden party dresses, official school party dresses, after school dresses, wedding dresses, funeral dresses—”

“Did you say funeral dresses?” I interrupt.

Valerie points her finger and winks. “Just making sure you were paying attention.” She laughs when I roll my eyes, and starts undressing. “You do need a lot more clothes than you have. Appearances are important, even to the Royals.” Her voice is muffled as she pulls her shirt over her head. “Example—say even the most minor negative thing about Maria Royal and all her sons go crazy. Reed almost got locked up for assault after some kid from South East High called her a pill-popping suicide case.”

“He accused Maria of killing herself?” I exclaim, shocked by that.

Valerie looks around as if expecting to see Reed jump out at her. Then she lowers her voice and says, “It’s a rumor, and one the Royals don’t like. They even sued Maria’s doctor for malpractice.”

“Did they win?”

“It was settled and the doctor left the practice and the state so…yes?”

“Wow.”

“Anyway,” Valerie continues, “they’re fiercely protective of their mom, and I’d guess it would be important that people outside of the family believe they’re treating you right.”

A pang hits me. Is that what Reed is doing? Just making sure he upholds the family reputation? No, it can’t be. All the things we did in here, on that silk blanket and under it, were private and had nothing to do with any Royal reputation.

I check the clock and realize I need to hurry. I change in a rush, but when I look in the mirror, I see a problem. “Val, this neckline is too low.” I turn so she can see that the white bow of my bra is showing.

She shrugs. “You’ll have to go without. Wear Band-Aids if you’re worried about nipping out.”

“I guess.” Although being in the same zip code as Daniel without wearing a bra kind of skeeves me out.

It takes us another half hour to fix our hair and makeup. I actually do Valerie’s face. She’s astonished at the amount of makeup I’ve accumulated.

“You might need dresses, but your makeup kit is the bomb dot com,” she exclaims.

“Thanks but you need to shut up now so I don’t get lipstick on your teeth.” I wave the lipstick brush at her threateningly and she closes her mouth obediently.

Once we’re ready, we wait around for the Royals to leave. There’s a general slamming of doors and scuffling of feet in the hall. At least one set stops at my door.

There’s a deafening bang that makes me wince, followed by Easton’s voice. “You okay in there? We’ll be home earlyish.”

“Don’t care,” I call back, pretending to be pissed. “And don’t knock on my door again. I’m mad at you. All of you.”

“Even Reed?” Easton jokes.

“All of you.”

“Ah come on, sis, this is for your own good.”

Suddenly I don’t have to fake my anger. “You Royals wouldn’t know what was good for me if it was shoved in your face by a Playboy Bunny.”

Valerie gives me two thumbs up in encouragement.

Easton heaves a big put-upon sigh. “Of course I wouldn’t be able to see anything if a Playboy Bunny was in front of me. I’d be too busy ogling her tits to pay attention to anything else.”

Valerie can’t stop herself from laughing.

“Don’t,” I hiss. “You’ll only encourage him.”

“I hear you and yes, I am encouraged,” Easton calls out from behind the door. “We’ll be home in a couple of hours. Wait up and we’ll all watch a movie.”

“Go away, Easton.”

He shuffles off.

“Easton’s adorable. If I wasn’t so in love with Tam, I’d pursue Easton hard,” Valerie admits.