Karen put her hands on either side of her face as if preparing herself for a mind-blowing answer.
Kate wanted to say, Honey, I am not the one to ask. I am all about drastic changes these days. Even though I’m your hairdresser, I’m not the person to ask right now.
But then again, this was about hair. Not life choices.
“It is true, color does require some upkeep. What about highlights? That would grow out more naturally.”
Karen studied herself in the ornate gold-framed mirror, turning her face this way and that. The salon was busy today. Every chair was occupied, and the stylists were at various stages of their appointments. The place was buzzing with the sound of chatter, hair dryers and running water. A few chairs down, a client was having an animated conversation with someone about her cat. Or at least that was what it sounded like to Kate. That was the only thing she could imagine would climb the woman’s curtains. Could be interesting if it was something—or someone—else.
“Oh, Kate.” Karen sighed. “You know me. I’m just not ready yet. I guess I’ll need to think about it for a little bit longer. For now, let’s just go with the usual haircut. Let’s bring it up an inch.” Karen tsked and raised her chin. “Wait. No, you know what? Let’s live dangerously and bring it up an inch and a half.”
“Are you sure? I could give you some layers. That would give your hair a little more lift.”
Karen snagged Kate’s gaze in the mirror. “I just—I don’t know, Kate. You know I don’t do much to maintain my hair. Do you think I should? Kate, tell me what I should do.”
Irritation snapped at Kate’s nerves, threatening to bite through her calm facade. How was she supposed to solve other people’s problems when she didn’t even know how to deal with her own?
Every time she and Karen did this beauty parlor two-step, Karen always decided to think about it. Kate never nudged her to try something different, because she was there to give her clients what they wanted, not to talk them into something they didn’t want.
But today felt different. Maybe all these years, she had been doing Karen a disservice by not giving her that little push that would take her outside of her comfort zone.
Kate frowned and bit her bottom lip at the thought. Actually, running away from commitment was Kate’s comfort zone.
“Okay, since you asked, yes. If I were you, I would go for it. You said you wanted a change. Right?”
Karen nodded, eyes large, as if Kate were talking her into jumping out of a plane. Then Riki Rollins, who had the chair next to Kate’s, fired up her blow-dryer and proceeded to talk to her client over it, the noise encroaching on the confidence to try something new that Kate had intended to infuse into Karen.
Kate reminded herself to exercise patience. Karen was somewhere between her mother’s and Gigi’s age. Kate would hope that if either of them were sidelined by indecision, the person they were dealing with would be good to them and not try to sell them on something they didn’t want.
She leaned in so Karen could hear her over the noise of the dryer. “I promise I won’t do anything too drastic. Remember, if you don’t like it, your hair will grow out.”
Karen tugged at a piece of hair as if testing its ability to grow. Then with a flick of her wrist, she tossed it away.
“Oh, what the heck,” she said with an adventurous glint in her eyes. “Let’s go for it. You only live once, right? And you’re going to come over every morning and fix it for me, right?”
Kate laughed. “Don’t worry. I’ll show you how to style it. It won’t be hard. Come on, let’s get you back to the shampoo bowl so we can get this party started.”
As she led the way, a tall, familiar masculine frame caught her eye. She turned to see Aidan standing in the reception area.
Darned if her body didn’t override the common sense switch and experience that same visceral reaction she had every time she saw Aidan.
Heart pounding, she gestured to him that she would be there in a moment. She got Karen settled with one of the shampoo assistants and came back to meet Aidan.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “Is everything okay? Is Chloe okay?”
“Chloe’s fine,” he said. “I came to see if you could take a lunch break.”
Kate blinked as she realized that this was the first time since they had been dating that he had showed up unannounced at the salon to take her to lunch. And damned if it wasn’t kind of sexy. Aidan was always so proper and polite. He was the type to call to make sure that she didn’t already have plans or to ask what time was good for her so that he wouldn’t interrupt her with a client. He never did anything spontaneous like showing up unannounced.
Until now.
“I’m getting ready to cut my client Karen’s hair, but that should only take twenty minutes or so. She’s back getting a shampoo right now. After Karen, my next appointment isn’t until two o’clock. Do you want to wait?”
Kate motioned to one of the free seats next to the reception desk. “There’s a Keurig over there in the corner. You can have a cup of coffee while you wait.”
He glanced in the direction she was pointing.
“I have some things I need to do,” he said. “I’ll come back in a half hour.”
“Oh, right. That sounds good.”
She waited for him to lean in and kiss her, but he just smiled and said, “See you in a bit.”
As she watched him
