Kristen Blooming Read Online Free PDF Page A

and commented to herself, talking about Kristen in a way that she could have found offensive.
    “No, that’s too short, you’ll never agree…you don’t have the boobs for that top…and this dress, I’m sure your mother has taught you not to show your arms, too…Here we go! This will do.”
    “Uh…” Kristen stared in horror at the outfit Gwen selected. “I don’t wear pants.”
    “What are you? In a cult?” Gwen snorted. “Now, unless you want to wear a mini, it’s the pants.”
    “Why do you care what I wear anyway?” Kristen demanded to know, not sure why she suddenly deserved such attention from her cousin.
    While Gwen may be helping her out, she rarely actually paid Kristen much mind, but today was different. Gwen wasn’t, though. She was still the same vain person she’d always been, and so was her consideration.
    “Listen, Kristen, I have a reputation in this town, and you’re not going to ruin it with your grandmom dresses. So take it off, or I’ll tear it off.”
    Gwen probably would, too. She was known for her poor impulse control, and Kristen couldn’t imagine her reputation was such that she could damage Gwen’s good name. Still, she was helping Kristen out, and Kristen did want to change. Pants were preferable to ass-crack-revealing minis.
    “Fine.” Taking a deep breath and accepting that this was her chance to try something new, Kristen took the outfit from Gwen. “I’ll change.”

Chapter3
     
    An hour later Kristen was still fidgeting with her clothes. She felt like a woman in drag and strangely tall, thanks to the too-high heels Gwen had insisted she wear. Gwen had been full-on bossy that morning, taking over not only Kristen’s outfit choices and shoes but also doing her makeup and hair.
    Now her hair curled in waves that it never had, and she could see the shadow of her lashes thanks to the goops of mascara making them longer than they naturally were. Her lips felt caked with waxy lipstick, her cheeks hot beneath the layers of foundation and blush.
    So actually she felt kind of like a clown in drag.
    It was horrible, and she swore everybody was staring at her. What the lady at the human resources office must have thought, Kristen didn’t know. At least, she’d been polite enough not to comment but hadn’t been merciful enough not to send Kristen down the street to the sheriff’s office to get fingerprinted.
    It was a requirement for the job and a long walk down the busy main street. She got beeped at twice and whistled at once. Kristen didn’t take any of those as compliments. She swore then and there that tomorrow she was wearing her own dress and doing her own makeup. That wouldn’t save her right then, and as she shoved through the door into the sheriff’s office, things grew worse rather than better.
    “Oh my God.” An all-too-familiar voice called out in a thick a draw filled with amusement. “It’s Miss Kristen…and it looks like you grew up overnight.”
    Kristen stilled at that observation, her gaze cutting across the sheriff’s department’s small lobby to the large wooden counter that divided the deputies’ desks from the public waiting area. That counter was being manned by none other than Deputy Hammel, who cut her one of his big, double-dimple smiles that only made Kristen feel all the more awkward as she hobbled across the floor tiles, not steady in the slightest on her heels. A fact that the deputy seemed to take instant note of.
    “You okay there, Miss Kristen?” he asked, quirking up a brow as the mirth sparkled in his mesmerizing gaze.
    Kristen found it impossible to look him in the eye and think at the same time. Fortunately, she didn’t have to think. She didn’t even have to speak. Brandon’s buddy said it all as he perked up, popping out of his seat at his desk to pin her with a curious look.
    “Miss Kristen? Is this the virgin you keep talking about?”
    He said that loud enough to draw just about everybody’s notice, and Kristen