Chapter 87

Chapter 87

Holly

Operation Mum was now in play.

I'd been here a week and things had transformed dramatically. Nat looked ten times less gaunt, thank fuck, but it was more than that. I could see my bestie's personality come back online now, day by day. Pumping was starting to work and being able to condition Nat to believe that someone else could see to the babies was helping her relax more.

We just had one more thing to do.

"Ready, ladies?" I asked the mothers-in-law as we looked up at Nat's house.

"You're sure about this?" Jane asked. "Natalie has been through a lot and?—"

"I've known her my whole life." I smiled then, remembering it. "When all the other kids didn't want to play with me due to who my family was, she did. Nat and me…" I met her curious gaze. "It's not the same as the mate bond, but we're best mates and that's almost as good."

With that I marched up to the front door.

"What's going on?" Natalie was being escorted rather firmly down the stairs by Thorn. I winked at the best twin, thanking him for his help. "Why do I have to get dressed for another day on the couch."

"No couch," I said. "Well, later some couch, but right now, we've got a surprise."

"Um, no…" She turned on her heel, ready to march back upstairs, but was met by a wall of bear shifters. They all stood there, a barrier between her and her bedroom. "I don't need any more surprised. I don't."

"How do you know if you don't try?"

Her eyes narrowed and Nat made very clear she knew where this was coming from. Thorn threw me a thumbs up from behind her head. They'd been using that line on her all week to get her to try things a different way to varying degrees of success. Not everything worked, but we were making progress.

"You know you don't get to use that line on me forever," she said, grabbing her denim jacket off the peg and pulling it on.

"So I don't get to guilt you into trying frog's legs for dinner?"

"Nope."

"One thousand year old eggs."

"Pretty sure that would just kill me," she growled.

"OK, so hair salon and shopping it is then."

I said that last bit super fast, grabbing her arm and dragging her out the door before she could protest.

"Oh this will be fun."

Jane was positively rubbing her hands in glee because we were about to induct Nat into the world of mum-ness.

"A hair cut?" Nat's hand went to her hair as we walked in the door, blinking when she realised it was still damp from the shower. "I don't need?—"

"I don't need double chocolate cheesecake on a stick with Nutella drizzled all over it." My hands clapped down over my stomach, trying to stifle the grumble there. "But damn, it was so good the last time I was in town." I glanced at her. "You don't have to cut your hair. Just get a trim, let someone else take care of you for once."

"Hello ladies." The hairdresser approached with a broad smile. "How're we all doing? Natalie, come through."

I trailed along, watching my bestie go pale as she was sat down in front of the mirror. Her eyes widened as she was forced to stare, really stare at her own face. There were still hollows in her cheeks and the dark rings around her eyes had faded somewhat, but not completely. The spell was broken as the hairdresser moved closer.

"So the booking is an open ended one. If you want to do a cut and a colour, we could do that, or just a trim…?"

Natalie's focus shifted to us.

"You could try shorter." Jane patted her chic bob. "It can be more practical for small children."

"Or go crazy with a bit of colour." Meryl had some streaks of it in her long, dark locks.

"What do you want?" Ingrid took charge, putting her hands on her hips as she demanded an answer. "It's your hair, your decision."

"Maybe shorter…" she said.

The hairdresser moved then, undoing Nat's messy bun and then experimenting with some different lengths.

"I was thinking a mum haircut." Nat's eyes found mine. "Not anything frumpy. Something stylish, but easy enough that you can wash it and go without needing to style it. Something that makes you feel good about yourself without a lot of effort."

"Is that a thing?" Nat asked the hairdresser.

"Sure, it's a thing." The woman smiled as she pulled out one of those plastic capes. "That's what we do for most of our clientele. You've got little babies?" Nat nodded. "Then your days of spending hours with the straightener are over for a while. Let's try something like this…"

Half an hour later, Nat emerged with shorter hair that now fell in loose waves around her face. The many layers softened the hard planes of her cheekbones, making her look about ten years younger and she flushed when she saw the end result.

"What do you think?" the hairdresser asked, showing my bestie the back of her head with a hand mirror.

"I…" I think we all leaned forward, on tenterhooks waiting for her reply, something she noted with a smile. "I love it. If this is mum hair now, I'm down with it."

"Woo hoo!" People in the salon turned to stare as I threw my hands in the air, right as Jane went to pay the receptionist. I didn't care. They didn't matter, but Nat did. Those little pink circles in her cheeks, I felt like I hadn't seen them for so long. "Pretty damn awesome for a ranga."

I went to ruffle her newly cut hair but Nat's hand shot out, stopping me in my tracks.

"I know what you're doing."

Her tone was quiet, pitched just for me.

"Making you look less like some swamp hag?" I asked, hunching over and affecting a monstrous pose. "Stopping small children from crying out when they saw you? You know, that might be why those kids of yours wail so much."

Instead of listening to my stupid reply, she swept in and hugged me tight.

"That makeover you did on me in year 9?"

"Oh yeah." Nat and I had watched Grease religiously when we were kids and she totally had a Sandy moment the next day at school. Boys turned to watch my bestie walk past in her newly hand tailored uniform and the cool girls' eyes narrowed, seeing they now had competition. "That."

"Thank you. Really." She held me at arm's length, staring into my eyes. "So now we?—"

"Move onto the next phase of Operation Mum."

"What?"

That quizzical look was everything I was after, so I dragged her outside with a cackle, towards the soccer mum van.