A knock on the door startled Ashley. She’d been so drawn into their conversation. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d found it so easy, or enjoyable, to spend time with a man. Who would have thought that when she finally let her guard down around someone, he would be a global superstar? Not to mention her secret fantasy…
Nash got up to let Brandon back into the suite. Her brother was holding two bags of clothes, shoes, and accessories.
“I got plenty of options for both of you, so hopefully something here will work.”
Nash’s suite had separate bedrooms and bathrooms on each side of the living room. It wasn’t until she went into one of the sumptuous bedrooms that she fully took in how fancy the hotel was.
Her brother’s SLVN hotel brand always provided the height of luxury. She’d been to other launches, on the East Coast of the United States, so she wasn’t surprised, but she had never actually stayed in one of his hotels. Though Brandon owned a Bar Harbor waterfront home, he lived full-time in various hotel suites around the world. She held out hope that one day he’d be able to spend some time at home with the rest of the family. Kevin absolutely adored his uncle and loved it whenever Brandon was able to visit.
She nearly laughed out loud as she imagined what it would be like to switch places with her brother for twenty-four hours. Frankly, it was impossible to imagine Brandon living in her little cottage, cleaning up dirty socks and making grilled cheese sandwiches and pizza. Just as it was impossible for her to imagine being surrounded by five-star luxury. In any case, she loved living in her cozy cottage with Kevin, dirty socks and all, so she wouldn’t want to swap lives with Brandon even if she could.
She laid out the wardrobe options on the bed and grimaced. She’d never seen quite so much beige, gray, and brown in her life. So much for her carefully curated wardrobe and the cute wrap dress she’d chosen to wear today. She and Nash were supposed to blend in when they left the hotel, not stick out due to their terrible fashion sense. But maybe these clothes were so awful that no one would ever consider, in a million years, that Nash could be with someone wearing them?
She was drawing the line at the shoes, however. Thankfully, her ballet flats wouldn’t throw off her new look.
Deciding it would be better to get it over with quickly, she took off her pretty dress, then slipped into the least offensive outfit of the bunch—a midcalf beige skirt that bunched at the waist and a floral blouse that stopped at her elbows and poofed slightly at the shoulders.
When she turned to look at herself in the mirror, she broke out laughing. Wanting to show her sisters her disguise, she took a quick selfie and planned to send the photo later, when they would be awake in Maine. Honestly, she couldn’t wait to see what Nash looked like. Carefully folding her wrap dress into her bag so that she could change into it as soon as they’d finished making their escape, she headed back to the living room.
Her brother couldn’t hold in his laughter when he saw her. “Looking good, sis. Beige is definitely your color,” he teased.
“I think you’re right about these clothes. I wouldn’t look twice at me in these. Not when I’m going to blend in perfectly with the stone buildings.”
“That’s the idea,” Brandon said, still laughing.
Just then, the other bedroom door opened, and Nash walked out.
She tried not to laugh. She really did. But within seconds, Brandon was laughing so hard that a gurgle of laughter escaped her throat too.
“I take it you both think this disguise will work,” Nash said in a dry voice.
She tried to get her own mirth under control, but it was a lost cause. “I wouldn’t have thought there was any disguise that would hide who you are. But seeing you now?” She giggled again as she took in his outfit. “It just might be possible.”
Instead of being all beige like her, he was wearing varying shades of green. Ashley used to think green was a good color. But lime green, Army green, grass green, and pastel green definitely did not go together.
Though his pants were a too big around his hips, they seemed to fit at the waist. They were also a little short. But not in a fashionable way. She was pretty sure his clothes were made of the same polyester she was wearing.
Still grinning, Brandon explained, “I sent my assistant to the nearest charity shop, and I think she did a great job, especially on such short notice.” Then he said, “Wait, there’s more,” and handed Nash a horrendous pair of leather slip-on shoes and a floppy sun hat.