“Yep, and he’ll believe me.” She conveyed a certainty she didn’t at all feel. “He’s not going to like it when I tell him you’re the one leaving the threatening notes.”
Sophie shook her head. “You can’t tell him.”
“Tell me why you’ve been sneaking around trying to scare me, and I might not call Nick.”
Sophie stared at her for few long moments then took several steps backward. “Go ahead and call him then. I’ll just deny it.”
Delaney watched the girl disappear from the parking lot, then she turned and entered her salon. She couldn’t let Sophie get away with what she’d done, but the problem was, she didn’t know what to do about it. She had no experience with children, and she didn’t want to drop something like this on Lisa when she arrived back from her honeymoon. Also, she suspected Lisa might have her own problems with Sophie, and she didn’t want to add to them. That left Nick. She wondered if
She was still wondering the next afternoon when Sophie walked into the salon at three-thirty. Delaney looked up from Mrs. Stokesberry’s wig and spotted the girl hovering near the front door. She’d clipped the sides of her thick hair into flower barrettes, and her dark eyes were huge in her small face. She looked like a scared little girl in a big puffy coat. “I’ll be with you in a minute,” she called to her, then turned her attention to her client. She fit the white wig on the older woman, then handed her a black helmet of hair stuck on a Styrofoam head. She gave Mrs. Stokesberry her senior citizen discount, then helped her out the door.
Delaney turned her attention to Sophie and waited for the girl to speak. After a moment of hesitation Sophie said, “You didn’t call Uncle Nick last night.”
“Maybe I did and you just don’t know yet.”
“You didn’t because I’m staying with him until Dad and Lisa get back.”
“You’re right. I didn’t call him.”
“Have you talked to him today?”
“No.”
“When are you going to?”
“I don’t know yet.”
A deep furrow settled between her brows. “Are you trying to torture me?”
Delaney hadn’t thought about the agony the thirteen-year-old must be going through waiting for the bomb to drop. “Yes.” She smiled. “You’re never going to know when or where I’m going to say something.”
“Okay, you win. I wanted to scare you so you’d leave town.” Sophie folded her arms over her chest and looked at a point somewhere behind Delaney’s head. “Sorry.”
She didn’t sound sorry. “Why’d you do it?”
“Because then my uncle would get everything that you always took from him. His father gave you everything and he had to wear holey jeans and T-shirts.”
Delaney didn’t remember Nick wearing anything holey. “I was Henry’s stepdaughter, do you think I should have gone naked because my mother married Nick’s father? Do you really think what Nick wore was my fault?”
“Well, if your mother hadn’t married Henry then-”
“Then he would have become a great dad?” Delaney interrupted. “He would have loved Nick and bought him anything he wanted? Married your grandmother?” She could see by the look on Sophie’s face that was exactly what she thought. “It wouldn’t have happened. Nick was ten when I moved to Truly, and in those ten years his father never acknowledged him. Never said one nice word.”
“He might have.”
“Yes, and monkeys might have flown out his butt, but the chances weren’t good.” She shook her head. “Take off your coat and come on back,” she ordered. She didn’t think she could look at Sophie’s split ends for another minute.
“Why?”
“I’m going to wash your hair.”
“I washed it this morning before school.”
“I’m also going to trim those dead ends for you.” Delaney stopped by the sink and stared toward the front of the salon. Sophie hadn’t budged. “I’m still not sure I shouldn’t call Nick and tell him about the notes you’ve been leaving.”
With her scowl back in place, the girl shrugged out of her coat and walked to the back. “I don’t want my hair cut. I like it long.”
“It’ll still be long. It just won’t look like a frayed rope.” Delaney used a mild shampoo and conditioner, then moved the girl to the salon chair. She combed and clipped, and if all that glorious dark hair had been attached to another head besides the girl frowning at her through the mirror, she might have been in stylist heaven. “You might not believe this, but your Uncle Nick doesn’t want what Henry left me in his will. And I certainly don’t want what he got.”
“Then why are you always hanging around him, dancing and kissing and making him take you home when you get sick? I know all about the will, and I saw you staring at him. Grandma has seen it, too. You want him to be your boyfriend.”
Had she really looked at him in that way? “Nick and I are friends,” she said, as she sniped two inches of dried split hair. But were they? She didn’t know how she really felt about him and was afraid of what he might feel for her. Afraid he might feel nothing one way or the other. “Don’t you have boys who are just friends?”
“A few, but that’s different.”
They both fell silent and Delaney thought about Nick and what she felt about him. Jealousy for sure. The thought of him with another woman made her stomach knot. Anxious, wondering when she might see him again, and disappointment at knowing it was probably best if she didn’t.
She let down the remainder of Sophie’s hair and slightly beveled the ends so it would curl under easily at her shoulders. She grabbed a big round brush and blew it dry. Mostly Delaney felt confused.
“Why are you being nice?”
“How do you know I am? You haven’t seen the back of your hair yet.” She gave Sophie a hand mirror and spun her around.
Relief flooded the girl’s eyes when she saw her hair hadn’t been butchered. “I don’t have money to pay you.”
“I don’t want your money.” Delaney removed the cape and neck strip and lowered the chair. “When someone asks you where you got your hair cut, you tell them at the Cutting Edge, but if you go home and start washing your beautiful hair with something harsh and it starts looking like hell again, you tell everyone you got it cut at Helen’s Hair Hut.” She thought she detected a slight smile but wasn’t quite sure. “No more notes, and I’ll accept your apology when you really mean it.”
Stone-faced, Sophie studied her reflection. Her eyes met Delaney’s, then she walked to the front of the salon and grabbed her coat. After she walked out the door, Delaney watched her move down the sidewalk. Sophie waited half a block before she ran her fingers through her hair and tossed her head. Delaney smiled. She recognized the signs of a pleased customer.
She turned from the window and wondered what Sophie’s family would think.
The next morning she found out as she decorated her salon for the Christmas season. Nick walked into the front door of her salon wearing his leather jacket and platinum Oakley’s. Delaney had just started coffee brewing and was preparing for her nine-thirty appointment. She had a half an hour before Wannetta Van Damme teetered in for her monthly finger wave.
“Sophie told me you cut her hair.”
Delaney set a roll of clear tape and a string of green garland on her styling station counter. Her heart hitched a beat and she placed a hand on her stomach. “Yes, I did.”
He reached for his sunglasses and slid his gaze down her black turtleneck and short kilt skirt to her black riding boots. “How much do I owe you?” he asked as he shoved his Oakley’s in his jacket pocket and pulled out a checkbook.
“Nothing.” He raised his gaze to hers once again, and she lowered hers to the middle of his chest. She couldn’t look in his eyes and think at the same time. “I cut hair sometimes just for promotion.” She turned to her station and straightened a jar of sanitized combs. She heard his footsteps behind her but kept her attention on her work.
“She also told me she’s the one who left those threatening notes.”
