“You still pissed at your dad for the other day?” Chelsea asked, sweeping the floor around her chair. I glanced at Natalie who lounged at her station, her cell pressed to her ear and yammering away. I liked her, but delving into a sensitive subject around her put me on guard. Or to be more precise, it wasn’t talking about my dad and his over-the-top reaction to my bathing suit that I wanted to hide but more so my reaction to the circumstances that happened shortly afterward.
“Not really. I’m used to the way he acts around me if I’m not dressed in a potato sack, but I swear he’s getting worse the older I get, not better. He’ll always see me as his little girl no matter what age I am. I just wish I had a sister to take the heat off me sometimes.”
“I have a sister,” Natalie cut in, ending the call and shoving her phone into her back pocket. “They’re not all they’re cracked up to be.”
“Anyone would be a good distraction at this point. I don’t think he’ll ever let me bring a guy home, and God forbid things get serious enough we wanna get married. I can’t imagine his reaction.”
“You sure about that?” Chelsea laughed.
“You’re right. I can imagine his reaction.” My chest deflated, a heavy breath forced from my lungs. “I’m doomed to be alone forever.” I had a relationship years back and look where that got me. Nowhere… that’s where.
“Well, I’m done early today, so I’m gonna head out. Either of you wanna grab a drink?” Natalie positioned her purse in the crook of her arm, standing by the front desk waiting for either of us to answer.
“It’s five o’clock.” I chuckled until I realized she was serious.
“Exactly,” she answered right away. “Time to get started.”
“You’re not even twenty-one,” Chelsea chimed in.
“So? My sister is, and we look a lot alike.” She rummaged through her purse and produced her sister’s license, passing the identification to me first.
“Yeah, you can pass for her.” I showed Chelsea the ID before giving it back to Natalie. “Does your sister know you have her license?”
“She lost it,” she said, using air quotes, “months ago.” I arched my brow. “Oh, don’t worry. She got another one.”
Chelsea opened her mouth to give her two cents when the bell above the door rang. I was done for the day as well, my last client canceling a half hour ago, so I assumed whoever had walked into the shop was here for Chelsea.
I couldn’t’ve been more wrong.
A pair of blue eyes stared back at me, his face void of any readable expression.
“Hellllooo.” Natalie rushed to stand next to Kaden. “Can I help you?” He glanced her way, giving her a tight smile before telling her no. Then he focused back on me.
“Do you have any openings?” he asked, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans.
“No.” My rushed answer poured from my lips before I even had time to think about my response.
“I can take you,” Natalie hastily said, touching his arm in an all too familiar way, one that irritated me more than I cared to admit.
Kaden’s eyes landed on her once more. “Thanks, but I only trust Riley to cut my hair.” He moved away and her hand fell to her side. He’d just blown her off, yet she didn’t seem fazed, continuing to watch after him as he moved toward me.
He sat in my chair and stared at me through the mirror.
“I said I can’t fit you in.” I glared at his reflection, but he never moved a muscle, other than the ones in his irritatingly gorgeous face. Why couldn’t he have gotten ugly after we broke up? Where was the justice in him keeping his looks… hell, even getting better looking?
“Why? You don’t look busy.” He smirked and I so wanted to smack the cockiness right out of him. But I had to be somewhat careful because if I said the wrong thing, I’d draw unnecessary attention from Chelsea. I wasn’t overly concerned about what Natalie would think because she didn’t know me all that well to begin with, and more importantly, she didn’t know my family.
“I was on my way out.” I took a step away from my chair, but he grabbed my wrist before I could escape.
“Please. It won’t take long.” He turned to look up at me, no reflection hampering his eyes from me. If I gave in and cut his hair, I feared the move was just the start of more favors to come.
“Who’s been cutting your hair? Why not just go to them?” I used to cut Kaden’s hair all the time when we were together. Mainly, I used him for practice, but despite being a newbie, I’d been good.
“Braylen. I stopped over their house one time a few years ago and she bluntly told me I was looking shaggy. She sat me down in the kitchen before I could refuse.” He looked away briefly. “She’s been doing it ever since.”
“So, why can’t she do it now?” Maybe if I kept asking him questions, stalling for time, he’d get fed up and leave. Even as the thought entered my brain, I realized how stupid it sounded. If anything, Kaden was persistent when he wanted something, and right now, he either really wanted a haircut or he wanted to be around me. Either way, I doubted he was going to leave anytime soon.
“Ryder said she can’t.”
“Why?”
“I dunno. He didn’t give me an explanation.”
Ryder was an awesome guy, but yeah, sometimes, no matter how much anyone prodded him for information, he remained tightlipped. He wasn’t a man of few words, per se, but he wasn’t an open book either.
“Can’t you wait until she can?” I was running out of patience with him and his stubbornness.
“Can’t you just take care of me?” His chest rose and fell quickly, his agitation barreling off him, and I couldn’t figure out if he was getting pissed at me for giving him a hard time or if he was irritated about something else entirely. I used to pride myself on being able to read Kaden, his moods bouncing around as often as mine. But the moment I noticed him pulling away from me was about the time when I couldn’t figure him out any longer.
Without waiting for me to answer, he scooted forward enough to remove his cut, handing it to me before leaning back in the chair once more.
“I’ll owe you one,” he said, licking his lips before grinning. But his smile fell when I tossed his vest on the chair next to me and held up the clippers.
“You sure you don’t wanna rethink this? What if my hand slips?” Now it was my turn to smirk.
“I trust you.”
With those three words, I finally caved. He deserved a bald patch for all the shit he put me through, but when it came down to it, I wasn’t about to have him walking around telling people I cut his hair like that. Bad for business and all that.
Yeah, that’s the version I’ll go with.