“My roommate is out of town.”
“What are you doing tomorrow night?” he asked.
Delaney shook her head and opened her car’s door. “You’re a nice guy, but I’m not interested in seeing anyone right now.”
As she drove away, she looked into her rearview mirror at Steve’s retreating back. At first she’d been flattered by the attention he’d paid her, but as the night had progressed, she’d become more uneasy. A lot of maturing happened in seven years. Matching furniture became as important as a killer stereo, and somewhere along the way, the phrase “party till you puke” lost its appeal. But even if she’d been seriously tempted to use Steve’s body for her own pleasure, Nick had ruined it for her. He ruined it by just being at the party. She was much too aware of him, and there was just too much history between them for her to ignore him completely. Even when she did manage to forget him for a few moments, she’d suddenly feel his gaze, like hot irresistible tractor beams pulling at her. But when she’d looked at him, he was never looking back.
Delaney turned up the long driveway and pressed the garage door opener on the dash. And even if Nick hadn’t been there, and Steve hadn’t been young, she doubted she would have gone home with him. She was twenty-nine, lived with her mother, and was too paranoid to enjoy a one-nighter.
After she parked next to Henry and Gwen’s matching Cadillacs, she headed into the house through the door off the kitchen. A bug light and several citronella candles cast a dim glow on the porch out back, illuminating Gwen and the back of a man’s head. It wasn’t until Delaney walked outside that she recognized Henry’s lawyer, Max Harrison. She hadn’t seen Max since the day he’d read Henry’s will. She was surprised to see him now.
“It’s good to see you,” he said, standing as she approached. “How do you like living in Truly again?”
It sucks, she thought as she sat in a wrought-iron chair across the matching table from her mother. “It takes some getting used to.”
“Did you enjoy your party?” Gwen asked.
“Yes,” she answered truthfully. She’d met some nice people, and despite Nick Allegrezza, she’d enjoyed herself.
“Your mother was just telling me you’ve been busy training Henry’s dogs.” Max took his seat once again, and his smile seemed genuine. “Maybe you’ve found a new career.”
“Actually, I like my old career,” she said. Ever since her conversation with Louie, she’d been thinking about the vacant building downtown. She hadn’t wanted to discuss her ideas with her mother until she was sure she could pull it off, but the person she needed to talk to most just happened to be sitting across the table, and her mother would find out sooner or later anyway. “Who owns the building next to Allegrezza Construction?” she asked Max. “It’s a thin two-story with a hair salon on the bottom floor.”
“I believe Henry left that block of property at First and Main to you. Why?”
“I want to reopen the salon.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” her mother said. “There are a lot of other things you can do.”
Delaney ignored her. “How do I go about doing it?”
“To get started, you’ll need a small business loan. The previous owner is dead, so you’ll need to contact the attorney representing her heirs to determine the value of the salon,” he began. When he was finished half an hour later, Delaney knew exactly what she had to do. First thing Monday, she’d pay a visit to the bank holding her money in trust and apply for a loan. As far as she could see, there was only one drawback to her plan. The salon was located next to Nick’s construction company. “Can I raise the rent on the building next door?” Maybe she could force him out.
“Not until the current lease expires.”
“When is that?”
“Another year I believe.”
“Damn.”
“Please don’t swear,” her mother admonished while she reached across the table and placed her hand on top of Delaney’s. “If you want to open a little business, why don’t you think about a gift shop?”
“I don’t want to open a gift shop.”
“You could open up in time to sell Christmas Spode.”
“I don’t want to sell Spode.”
“I think it’s a wonderful idea.”
“Then you do it. I’m a hairstylist, and I want to reopen the salon downtown.”
Gwen sat back in her chair. “You’re just doing this to spite me.”
She wasn’t, but she’d lived with her mother long enough to know that if she argued, she’d end up looking childish. Sometimes talking to Gwen was like wrestling with flypaper. The more you fought to get free, the more you got stuck.
It took Delaney a little over three months to secure her loan and get the salon ready to open for business. While she waited, she did an unscientific study of the downtown business district, with emphasis on the number of customers who walked into Helen’s Hair Hut. With legal pad and pen in hand, she parked in alleys and spied on her childhood nemesis, Helen Markham. When Lisa wasn’t working or busy with wedding plans, Delaney had her report any activity she might notice as well. Delaney charted demographic statistics and visually gathered bad perm versus good perm data. She even went so far as concocting a phony English accent in case Helen recognized her when she called to ask what her competition charged for a color retouch. But it wasn’t until she found herself digging through Helen’s Dumpster one night to check out what kinds of cheap products Helen used that several thoughts struck her at the same time. As she’d stood there, up to her thighs in garbage, her foot sinking into a container of spoiled cottage cheese, she realized she’d gone a little overboard with her investigation. She also realized that the success of the salon had as much to do with fulfilling a dream as it did with kicking Helen to-the curb. She’d been away for ten years, only to come back and fall into the same patterns. However, this time she wasn’t going to lose anything to Helen.
By the end of the unscientific study, she could see that Helen did a thriving business, but Delaney wasn’t worried. She’d seen Helen’s hair. She could steal her old rival’s clients-no problem.
Once the loan went through, Delaney put away her legal pad and got busy on the shop itself. A grimy layer of dust covered everything, from the cash register to the perming rods. Everything had to be scrubbed down and sterilized. She pored over the previous owner’s books, but the numbers didn’t match the inventory. Either Gloria had been completely inept, or someone had come in after her death and stolen cases of hair products. Not that Delaney minded the theft all that much since she didn’t have to pay Gloria’s heirs for the missing supplies, and everything in the shop was at least three years behind the current trends anyway. Still, it left her a little uneasy to think that someone might have access to the salon. In her mind, the prime suspect was of course Helen. Helen was a thief from way back, and who else would have use for things like cotton strips, shampoo towels, and wig pins?
Delaney had been assured that she had the only key to the front and rear entrances, as well as the only key to the apartment above. She wasn’t convinced and called the sole locksmith in town, who promised he’d be out in a week. But she was living in Truly, where a week could sometimes mean a month depending on hunting season.
Nine days before she opened for business, she had the old name scraped from the front window, and the words the cutting edge applied in gold. She had new products sitting in the storage room and new black lacquer chairs in the reception area. The hardwood floors were refinished and the walls painted a bright white. She hung up trade show posters and had the old mirrors replaced with bigger ones. When she was finished she was very pleased and very proud. It wasn’t her dream salon. It wasn’t chrome and marble and filled with the best stylists, but she’d accomplished a lot in a short amount of time.
She introduced herself to the owner of Bernard’s Deli on the corner and the T-shirt shop next door. And on a day when she didn’t see Nick’s Jeep parked in the lot out back, she marched into Allegrezza construction and introduced herself to his secretary, Hilda, and office manager, Ann Marie.
Two nights before she opened, she gave a small party at the salon. She invited Lisa and Gwen and all of her
