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Cassandra’s mouth curved like a satisfied cat’s. “Jay’s always calling you his mermaid.”
Nikki’s hands dropped from her mouth, but her gaze didn’t leave the getup. “He’ll never let me out of the house in those starfish,” she said. “What am I saying? I don’t have the guts to leave the house in them.”
The costume designer shrugged. “I can whip up a bikini top and we can sew them on it.”
Nikki’s two-colored eyes gleamed. “A string bikini top in a flesh-colored yarn, yes? Jay won’t notice that until after he’s felled by lust. I love a man on his knees.”
“You’re very bad, little sister,” Cassandra said.
“And God, does it feel good.” Nikki turned, grinning, to Juliet. “Shall we get Cassandra to make you something memorable, too?”
“Not like that.” Juliet couldn’t imagine. “I don’t have anyone to wear something like that for, and not anyplace to go on Halloween.”
Nikki waved away the objections. “The second we have covered. We bought tickets for a charity thing on the thirty-first and we have extras. As for the who to wear it for…not Noah?”
Noah. Juliet’s face burned, thinking about wearing something like that mermaid costume. For Noah. Beneath her cotton blouse and matching buff-colored pants, her skin prickled as if chafed by wool.
“Are you okay?” Cassandra asked.
“Noah,” Juliet managed to get out.
Nikki shot Cassandra a look. “What about him?”
“I…he’s one of the reasons why I came here tonight. I thought you two might help me think of a present to give him.”
The sisters glanced at each other again.
“He’s been nice.” Juliet objected to the blatant speculation on their faces. “And I haven’t noticed quite how nice until lately.”
“Okay.” Cassandra sounded cautious. “What kind of gift are you thinking about?”
“I don’t know.” Juliet spun, looking for inspiration about the room. “Maybe I could make him something. Knit him a sweater.”
“No!” The sisters said together, their voices horrified.
“No?”
Cassandra took Juliet by the arm and steered her toward the seating area in the middle of the shop. “It’s a curse,” she said, pushing her onto the soft cushions. “The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater. You start to make your man one and he’ll be out of your life before you bind off.”
“But Noah’s not my boyfriend.” A little shiver tracked along Juliet’s spine. Was the open door inviting in a draft?
Cassandra must have spotted the telltale tremor. “Let’s brainstorm gift ideas later. For Knitters’ Night, we’ll get you started on making something warm for yourself. A wrap, maybe.”
Nikki watched her bustle about the shop collecting needles and yarn. “Hey, you wouldn’t allow me to attempt anything like a wrap until I was stuck on your couch after surgery.”
“Because I had to keep such a close eye on you when it came time to increase and decrease. Juliet strikes me as a person good at taking direction and following rules.”
Is that truly how they saw her? Juliet wondered. Good at taking direction and following rules? It sounded so dull and conventional. But she didn’t have time to explore the idea because Cassandra handed over a pair of knitting needles and a luscious yarn the shade of a midnight sky.
“Nice,” Nikki said, complimenting Cassandra. “She needs a color stronger than tan.”
Obviously referring to Juliet’s outfit for the evening. Again, dull and conventional. That wasn’t who she was, was it? Frowning, she shoved away the thought in order to take in Cassandra’s instructions.
“Start by casting on three stitches. Then knit one row, purl one row. On row three, increase one stitch at each end of the work. Do you know how to increase?”
Juliet nodded, though she hoped there were some instruction books lying around or that an experienced knitter would sit down beside her.
“After the increase, purl a row and keep on like that, increasing on each side of the knitted row until your piece is as wide as you want—since you want to wrap it around you, make it about as wide as the length of your back. Once you have that, you simply knit a row, then purl a row until the wrap is as long as you’d like.”
“Then I just decrease, I suppose,” Juliet said, to show she could change cash register tape and anticipate simple knitting instructions.
Cassandra beamed at her, even as her attention was divided by more women entering the shop. They were typical Malibuites, dressed in jeans that came with three-digit price tags and casually chic boots that sold for three times that. “Exactly. You knit two stitches together on each side of the knitted rows until you’re down to three stitches. Then you bind off. Easy.”
