The Curl Up and Dye (9 page)

Rachel was watching from her upstairs window. T. J. handled that like a pro, which made her realize he probably was. He was too good at sex and too smooth of an operator not to have been in this position before. What was it he’d said to her when she was taking her leave? Oh yes… he’d told her not to worry about a thing, and that he’d been shot at in rosebushes before. She sighed, hoping she hadn’t bitten off more than she was willing to chew. T. J. Lachlan was just for fun. Someone like Mike Dalton was for keeps.

***

Four days later

Saturdays were always busy, but this one was crazy. It was the last weekend before Thanksgiving, and everyone was out and about, running errands and stocking up. Unless there was an emergency need for medicine, the pharmacy would be closed Thanksgiving Day.

Mitchell was already at work. She overheard him talking to an elderly lady about cats, and after the lady left, Lily picked up the conversation.

“Hey, Mitchell. Did I hear you tell Mrs. Bolliver that you had a cat?”

Mitchell nodded. “Yeah, her name is Cleopatra. I am her servant and that is all. If she’s in a good mood, she lets me pet her.”

Lily smiled. “That’s funny. I didn’t know you had a cat. You never talked about her before.”

Mitchell shrugged. “You never asked me about that stuff before. So, you can go to lunch now,” he said, and went back to facing an aisle.

Lily sighed. It was true. She’d worked with Mitchell for more than seven years and never once asked him a personal question. Proof again that she’d been living in a vacuum.

She exited out the back door. Mike’s car was parked behind the fitness center. He still wasn’t allowed to lift anything, but he was getting stronger every day, or so she heard through the grapevine. She wouldn’t know because they were still at odds.

She pulled the collar of her coat up around her neck and put her head down as she walked into the wind. She had a destination in mind and a task that needed to be done. The sooner she got it over with, the better.

About four blocks down, she heard what was becoming a familiar sound—the rumble of T. J. Lachlan’s hot-rod truck. When she got to the end of the block, she had to wait for traffic to pass, part of which was him and his truck.

She wouldn’t look and was no longer sure she cared what he thought. As luck would have it, the old lady in the car in front of him stopped to wave LilyAnn across the street.

She lowered her head and moved quickly across the intersection in long, hurried strides.

A few minutes later, she was at All Saints Cemetery. She walked through the gates with purpose, heading straight for Randy Joe’s final resting place.

The newly turned earth beside Ina Gerty’s tombstone was a reminder of Mr. Gerty’s recent demise, but there was no need to worry about him any longer. His troubles were over.

She glanced at it once, somewhat surprised his given name had been Joaquin, which set her to wondering what on earth would possess a woman to name a child Joaquin with a last name like Gerty. Definitely an oddity, but the world was full of them.

When she finally arrived at Randy Joe’s tombstone, it dawned on her that this was the first time in eleven years she’d come without flowers. Maybe it was just as well, because her gift to him today was freedom. She was turning loose of the memory and all that came with it. Now he could be just another soul at rest.

Lily knelt down near the headstone and began sweeping the dry leaves from the grave like she always did.

“Hey, Randy Joe, it’s me. I’m on my lunch hour, have a lot to tell you and not much time, so I’ll get right to it. I’m making changes in my life, and part of it is letting go of you. I’m actually ashamed of how long I kept dragging you through my misery, but the truth is, I didn’t know what to do with you. I know that sounds stupid, but I was only eighteen and teenagers aren’t known for having all that much sense.”

A siren suddenly sounded, but it wasn’t a long, continuous whine. More like a short burst of “whup whup,” which usually meant Lonnie was signaling someone to pull over. She supposed he was about to hand out a traffic ticket, then made herself focus again on the job at hand.

“So here’s the deal, Randy Joe. I’m working on making myself over. I want to belong to someone again and I know you understand, so this is good-bye. I’m sure it’s fine with you. I’m the one who got trapped in the past. Anyway, I have my health and prospects. For a twenty-eight-year-old spinster, it’s not a bad place to start.”

She was all business as she got up to brush the dry grass from her slacks. That was a lot easier than she’d expected. She felt good about this as she started walking out—like she’d just centered her focus for the first time in years. She paused at the gates to look back. The silence was telling.

No one here had an opinion or an ax to grind about her decision. All the misery and confusion of life was left to the living. By the time she got back to work, she felt like a new person. What had once defined her was gone. What she would become was still an unknown, and that was where the excitement lay.

Mike was at odds with himself. He was still smarting from the chewing-out his dad had given him. Yes, he probably should have tried to woo LilyAnn years ago, but they’d settled so easily into the friendship, and he loved her so much that he was afraid if he told her how he really felt, it would ruin the little bit of connection with her that he had.

Today was Tuesday. Lily’s mom and stepfather would arrive sometime tomorrow. He had to figure out a way to mingle congenially throughout Thanksgiving dinner without making a scene.

His dad had dropped him off at the fitness center over an hour ago and wouldn’t be back for a while, which was fine with Mike because he had somewhere to go.

“Hey, Stewart, I’m going to The Curl Up and Dye. If Dad shows up, tell him where I’m at.”

“Will do,” Stewart said.

The day was gray and chilly, looking like it might rain. Mike buttoned his coat as he started up the street. Even though he was feeling stronger every day, he was in no shape to pick a fight.

There wasn’t an empty parking place on the block where the salon was located. It didn’t bode well for a walk-in, but the least he could do was ask.

As usual, the bell jingled when he opened the door, and as usual, a half-dozen people turned to look at who was coming in. He recognized a couple of women from church with their hair in various stages of disarray, but no one was in Ruby’s chair, and she was on the phone. He moved to the counter as she hung up.

“Hey, Mike. You look better every time I see you,” Ruby said.

“Thanks, Sister. I feel better every day.”

“Are you here for a haircut again?” she asked.

“Actually, I would appreciate it if you would trim up my eyebrows and anything else that needs trimming, if you know what I mean?”

Ruby grinned. “I don’t have anyone for thirty minutes and can do it right now if you’re ready.”

“I’m ready,” Mike said.

He hung his coat on the coat rack and then followed her back.

Ruby was considering the best way to interfere in Mike and LilyAnn’s business again. It made her crazy when people didn’t just come out and say what was on their minds, and sometimes the only way to make good things happen was for someone to stir the pot.

She got him in the styling chair before broaching the subject of LilyAnn again.

She got her little trimming shears and began cleaning up his thick, dark brows. “Y’all still having Thanksgiving at LilyAnn’s?”

“Yes. My mom and dad are excited. They haven’t seen LilyAnn’s mom in years, and they’ve never met her husband.”

Ruby continued to comb and trim, purposefully lulling him into a comfortable state of being as they talked.

“Is LilyAnn doing okay? I mean, after finding Mr. Gerty dead like that, and all?”

“I think so,” Mike said.

“That’s good. I sure like that girl. She’s on quite a mission, isn’t she?”

Mike’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, you know… all that walking back and forth to work every day and eating healthier. I swear, every time I see her she’s on the run. The weight must be melting off, because I can sure tell a difference in her clothes. Not that she didn’t look sweet as can be before, but she’s getting some pride back in herself, don’t you think?”

“Doing it for the new boyfriend, I guess.”

Ruby paused to pick up a tiny pair of clippers for trimming ear and nose hairs. “LilyAnn has a new boyfriend? That’s strange. She’s never mentioned a thing like that to me. Have you met him yet?”

“No,” Mike said.

Ruby laughed. “I’ll bet she brings him by for you to vet, you being like a brother to her and all.”

“I never thought of myself as her brother,” Mike muttered.

“Really? Since you guys were always doing stuff together, and because you grew up next door, I just assumed that was probably the relationship you shared.”

“Nope.”

“Well, I’ll bet that’s how she sees it, because you treat her like your sister.”

She turned on the clippers, which sounded to Mike like a bee had flown in his ear, leaving him to think about what she’d just said.

Mike wished she’d shut the hell up because she was sounding like his father, and he’d heard all this before.

Fine. So it was his fault LilyAnn didn’t know he loved her.

Great. It was his fault that he’d let her get interested in someone new without stating his own case first.

Whoop-tee-fucking-do. Everyone was an armchair psychiatrist and he was a dumb-ass.

“Girls are funny,” Ruby said. “Sometimes they don’t know what they want until they realize they can’t have it.”

Mike’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

Ruby made a final cut and then picked up the blow-dryer.

“If I was a girl, and some guy I really liked, but only thought a friend, suddenly appeared to have a new girlfriend, it might make me see him in a different light. Just a thought. So give me a couple of minutes to blow this dry, then you’ll be good to go.”

Mike’s head was spinning. Really? If he wanted LilyAnn to fall in love with him, he had to get himself another girl? Seriously? Lord. No wonder he was such a loser when it came to women. He would never have thought of such a crazy scheme.

He was at the counter paying when LilyAnn walked in. For a second he thought Ruby had engineered this meeting, but when Ruby spoke, he realized LilyAnn had an appointment.

“Hey, LilyAnn, go on back to the shampoo station. Soon as I take Mike’s money, I’ll be right with you.”

Lily nodded. “Hey, Mike.”

“Hi,” he said, but she was already walking away.

Ruby shrugged at Mike, as if to say, see what I mean?

“You have a good Thanksgiving, honey, and take it easy.”

“You, too,” Mike said, grabbing his coat on the way out.

He paused outside and glanced back through the window. LilyAnn was taking off her coat and talking to someone in an animated fashion, and as she turned, he could see the weight loss Ruby had been talking about. Funny. He hadn’t noticed the loss any more than he’d noticed the gain. LilyAnn was still in his heart, no matter what she looked like.

He hunched his shoulders against the cold and had started walking when someone honked. He turned to see his dad pulling up to a curb. He stopped and got in.

“Ready to go home?” Don asked.

“Yep,” Mike said.

While everyone else was planning Thanksgiving festivities, he was trying to figure out who the hell he could rope into pretending to be his girlfriend to make Lily jealous.

***

Ruby was scrubbing LilyAnn’s scalp a little harder than usual because she knew it was the way Lily liked it. What the girl needed was a full-body massage. Either that or get laid, but she’d probably never go for it. She wanted to know who the guy was that LilyAnn had her eye on, and then she’d go from there.

“So, you’re having Thanksgiving at your house, right?”

“Right,” Lily said. “Mama will get here sometime tomorrow to help. It will be great to have her home again, even if it’s only for a couple of nights.”

“Have you started baking yet?” Ruby asked.

“I made two pecan pies last night and put them in the refrigerator,” Lily said. “I’ll make the cornbread tonight so it will be ready to make dressing on Thursday morning. Mama always says that fresh cornbread doesn’t make good dressing. It needs to be a day or two old to do it right.”

“I agree with your mama,” Ruby said, then began to rinse the soap out of Lily’s hair. “You do know you’re looking fabulous, don’t you? I swear girl, what have you lost, ten… fifteen pounds already?”

Lily smiled. It felt good for her progress to finally show.

“A little over fifteen, but part of that I attributed to the scare of Mike’s accident. I’ve never been as afraid as I was when he passed out in the car on the way to the hospital.”

Ruby nodded. “I can only imagine. He’s like a brother to you, isn’t he?”

Lily frowned. She’d never really put a tag to their relationship. Mike was just Mike and always there.

“I guess.”

Ruby squirted some conditioner on LilyAnn’s hair and began massaging it into the scalp.

“Oh my gosh, that feels so good,” Lily said.

Ruby smiled. “I love to make my clients look and feel good, and you’re looking mighty fine. I hear you have a new beau. When are we going to get to meet him?”

Lily frowned. “Where did you hear that?”

Ruby shrugged. “I was thinking Mike mentioned it, but I could be wrong. Maybe I just assumed it when you decided to make the big lifestyle change.”

“Oh.”

“So, who is he?” Ruby asked, and then leaned close so that no one else could hear. “I won’t tell. I swear.”

“I don’t have anyone special in mind. I just want to look really good before I put myself back out there, so to speak.”

“But honey, waiting isn’t going to make a difference. Besides, if a man is worth his salt, he shouldn’t care what you look like, and everyone in town has known you all your life.”

LilyAnn shrugged.

Ruby laughed. “So we’re being secretive, huh? Oh well, I’ve snooped enough. Let’s get you over to the chair and make you gorgeous. Okay?”

“You can try,” Lily said, and then she laughed, too, because it felt good to be positive about something.

Ruby grabbed the blow-dryer and the round vent brush and set to work.

“Mike was telling me that he and his folks are having dinner with y’all on Thursday. Said his mother was really excited to see Grace again.”

“I’m sure she is,” Lily said. “They lived side by side while they were young wives and then mothers raising their babies.”

“That must be a great thing,” Ruby said. “Maybe one day soon Mike will marry his girl, and you’ll marry your guy. Then you two can live side by side and raise your children together like your mothers used to do.”

Lily’s eyes widened. “Mike’s girl?”

Ruby nodded. “He never mentioned a name, but I definitely got the impression there was one. Oh well, I’m sure you’ll meet her soon enough, you and Mike being such good friends and all. Now, I need to stop talking and get you finished so you won’t be late getting back to work.”

Lily smiled in agreement, but she was still mulling over Ruby’s comment as she walked back to work. So Mike had a girlfriend? She couldn’t help but wonder who it was. Probably someone who goes to the fitness center.

When she walked past, she slowed down to look in, eyeing the people inside, but didn’t see anyone she knew who was unattached.

“Hey, LilyAnn, looking fine,” Mitchell said when she walked back in the pharmacy. He was trying to put up a display for a hand lotion special, but it kept leaning to the right.

“Thanks. Give me a sec to hang up my stuff, and I’ll be right back to help you.”

By the time quitting time rolled around, Lily was exhausted and wishing she didn’t have to walk home. On any other day, she could have hitched a ride home with Mike. His absence made her realize how much she’d depended on him. Well, she’d just have to get over that if he had a girlfriend.

Her stride was long, her steps hurried, as she headed for home. There was a lot to do before Mama and Eddie arrived.

***

While LilyAnn was walking home, Rachel Goodhope was in her kitchen and up to her elbows in flour. They had three couples staying at their bed and breakfast who were in town to spend Thanksgiving with local families, and one more couple was expected later tonight, which would have them at full capacity. That’s the way she and Bud liked it, yet Rachel was smarting under the pressure. She’d enjoyed her little interlude with T. J. very much and wanted a repeat performance while the mood was still hot, so to speak.

Bud was tiptoeing around her, afraid to even raise his voice since his outburst the other day. Everything that had happened after she had sex with T. J. seemed preordained to help her cover up the interlude. In a way, it felt like permission from God to cheat, even though she knew thinking like that was blasphemy.

She wondered what T. J. was doing for Thanksgiving. Too bad she didn’t have a good excuse to invite him to their house. It would be a kick to sit at the table with both her husband and her lover, but that would be pushing things too far.

She stirred the last ingredient into her cheesecake batter, then poured it into the springform pan and popped it in the oven just as Bud came in from outside.

“It’s getting colder.”

Rachel didn’t comment.

“I heard Patty June Clymer did a slide presentation at the Rose Garden Club on her trip to Italy,” Bud added.

Rachel paused. “Really? I’ll bet she’s got some stories to tell, spending all that time in Italy. I’d like to travel like that someday.”

“Well, it took wrecking her marriage to make it happen,” Bud muttered.

Rachel bristled. “Patty June didn’t wreck her marriage. Her cheating-ass husband Conrad did, and don’t you forget it.”

“I know. I didn’t mean it like that,” he muttered.

“Well, yes you did, but whatever,” Rachel said.

Bud frowned. Ever since he’d stuck his foot in his mouth by getting all jealous, Rachel had been on her high horse and he was getting tired of it. They’d been shopping a couple of times for a new car, but she hadn’t liked a one. He had a feeling it was going to take an upgrade to put a smile back on her face.