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“You always look so gorgeous,” Immy told her.

Lauren stilled, giving her a shocked look. “Oh, um, thank you. That’s very . . . kind.” She said the last word as though she hadn’t experienced anyone being kind to her before.

That made Immy sad.

“It’s just the plain darn truth,” Immy told her. “You always look beautiful. So polished and perfect. I wish I could get my hair to stay in place or wear gorgeous clothes like you do.”

“Are you always like this?”

“What do you mean?” Immy asked. Like what?

“I thought it was an act when I first met you,” Lauren told her. “Figured there was no way you could be this . . . nice.”

Immy blinked at her. “Is there something wrong with being nice?”

“It’s just that usually people your age aren’t this genuinely kind and sweet anymore. We all have it beaten out of us.”

“Beaten?” Immy whispered.

“I didn’t mean literally.”

“Oh. I’m just . . . me.”

But maybe she was too nice? Perhaps she should harden up a bit? Be more ruthless?

How did she do that, though?

“I guess you have plenty of people to protect you, don’t you? When you’re on your own you have to be tougher, more ruthless.”

Immy wasn’t sure she had it in her to be ruthless. It didn’t sound like fun. But she guessed shewaslucky. Although . . . it wasn’t like her life had been a bed of roses.

“I didn’t realize you were coming to see Jenner this morning,” Immy said. “He’s not here.”

“That’s all right. I’m not here to see Jenner. I’m here to see you. May I sit?” She gestured to the chair across from Immy’s desk.

Okay, so Jenner didn’t get a lot of visitors and she probably didn’t really need to have these chairs. But there was nothing wrong with wanting to look professional, right? There was also a sofa which she sometimes curled up in if she was getting tired.

Which happened quite a lot.

“Uh-oh. I don’t get a good feeling about this.” Why would the other woman want to talk to her?

“Look, Immy, I just want to speak to you about what happened the last night of the tour.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“When you pretended to be ill so Jenner would go back to the hotel to check on you.”

Wow. Just wow.

Had she really just said that?

Immy wished she hadn’t told her that she looked good now.

“I didn’t do that.”

“No?” Lauren tilted her head to the side. “Are you sure?”

“I never pretended to be sick. I told him that I was fine. He was the one who insisted on checking on me.”