In the end, the cake looked fantastic. The decorations were better not only than any party Clarisse had had, but any party Clarisse had ever been to. And now they were up in Clarisse’s room because, shyly, she’d asked Dusty (whose makeup always looked the bomb) if she would help Clarisse with hers and she’d said yes right away!

“So,” Dusty drew it out, still stroking Clarisse’s lashes with the mascara wand, “Finley’s cute, isn’t he?”

Clarisse jerked and blinked.

Dusty giggled her musical giggle and Clarisse looked at her to see she was pushing the wand into the tube and twisting it closed.

And she did this muttering through her giggles, “The beautiful girl thinks my boy is cute.”

It was weird but way nice that Dusty thought she was beautiful when Dusty was the most beautiful real-life person she’d ever seen.

Dusty stopped twisting the mascara tube and looked her right in the eye.

“He likes you,” she announced. Yes, she announced it straight out! “Like, a lot. Are you two tight?”

“Uh…” Clarisse didn’t know what to say because she didn’t know if they were.

Sure, Fin texted her a lot, she always texted him back and he phoned her daily. They also spent time at lunch, him with her posse, her with his crew daily too.

Was that tight?

She watched Dusty’s arched brows draw together before she asked, “You aren’t?”

Clarisse stared at her.

Then she whispered, “He likes me?”

Dusty’s head jerked and she replied, “Uh…yeah, honey.”

Ohmigod!

Well, she would know. Wouldn’t she?

“You’re sure?” Clarisse asked softly and Dusty’s head tipped.

Then she did something funny.

First, her face got soft. Then her pretty, dark brown eyes moved over Clarisse’s face. Then she got up from the roller seat they rolled in from Dad’s office so Dusty could sit next to her and do her makeup but she did this bent forward. She wrapped her hand gently around Clarisse’s jaw and turned her head to the mirror.

Clarisse stared in the mirror.

Her makeup had never looked that good, ever.

“What do you see?” Dusty asked and Clarisse’s eyes went from Dusty’s awesome makeup job to Dusty who was leaned over, her jaw close to the top side of Clarisse’s head, her eyes looking at Clarisse in the mirror.

“You do great makeup,” Clarisse answered.

Dusty smiled at Clarisse in the mirror then she took her hand from Clarisse’s face and put it on her shoulder. “Look closely, honey,” she whispered and Clarisse looked from Dusty to herself.

And that was what she saw. The same thing she always saw. Clarisse.

“What do you see?” Dusty repeated.

“Me,” Clarisse answered softly, worried that answer wasn’t right.

Dusty smiled at her in the mirror.

Then she said, “Fin sees something else.”

Clarisse felt her heart trip over itself.

“What?” she breathed.

“Beauty. Vulnerability. Delicacy.”

Clarisse was confused so repeated, “What?”

“My nephew is his father’s son. And his father was drawn to things he could look after. The land. The equipment. The family legacy. His wife. The family he made.”

Clarisse didn’t get it and she really didn’t want to sound like an idiot in front of Dusty but this was Fin they were talking about.

So she went for it.

“I don’t get it,” she whispered.

Dusty was silent a second. Then she said mysteriously, “You will.”

Clarisse bit her lip. She wanted to know but she couldn’t ask.

Dusty moved, sat down next to her again and Clarisse turned to her just in time for Dusty to grab her hands.

“I know we’re getting to know each other,” she started, “but I still have to ask you a favor.”

Clarisse would do anything for Dusty Holliday. Anything. And she knew that before she saw her total coolness and the look on her Dad’s face when he was watching her walk down the stairs at Fin’s house.

“What?”

“I love my nephew,” she said gently and in a way that Clarisse knew she meant it, like, really. “And he’s seventeen. He’s a boy. He just lost his Dad. And he can’t really deal with that with his friends. But he also has to deal. The favor I’m asking is, will you look out for him?”

Clarisse didn’t like this. Not at all.

“You mean, snitch on him to you? Like, tell you when he talks about what he’s feeling?” she asked, horrified. Fin would hate that.

But Dusty shook her head immediately at the same time she squeezed her hands.

“No, not that. What I mean is, just you and him.”

Ohmigod!

It had never been just her and him. There were always other people around.

Oh God, Clarisse liked the idea of just her and Fin.

“Just me and him?” Clarisse breathed and Dusty nodded.

“Just you and him. When you’re with him, just be…you. Exactly you. So when you’re with him he can just be…him. He needs that now. He’s trying to look out for his mother, his brother and he needs someone who he can feel safe to be him with. And I think that’s you.”

“I don’t really know how to be when I’m around him,” Clarisse admitted and Dusty smiled big.

“Whatever you’re doing, honey, keep doing it because whatever that is, it’s helping.”

“Really?” Clarisse asked breathily, liking that idea.

She couldn’t say she knew Fin very well. What she could say was that he had a lot going on for a kid. Sometimes the look on his face looked liked what No looked like and what she felt like when Dad and Mom got their divorce then, later, when Dad went for full custody.

But worse.

He didn’t share but she thought it was too much to take with what he did share.

And he was really worried about what his Aunt Debbie was up to.

It felt crap, not knowing how to help him and it felt worse not having any power to do anything. She knew that last part felt even worse for Fin. So it felt awesome when they managed to get his Aunt Dusty home, get her Dad and her back together and then Dad stepped in.

Clarisse might not be able to do anything, but Dad could.

And Fin knew it too and she knew he was relieved.

It would be cool if she could help him out other ways too.

“Absolutely,” Dusty answered, taking her from her thoughts.

Clarisse tipped her head to the side. “That doesn’t sound like much of a favor because I’m already doing that.”