Plain Jayne (18 page)

“Good, I guess. I can’t imagine we’ll get it all done on time, but Nick doesn’t seem worried.”

Katie shifted again, but at least this time it seemed to relieve some of her discomfort. “And what about Lisa? Has anyone asked her what she thinks?”

Jayne caught Katie’s skeptical gaze in the mirrors and nodded over a long sigh. “I talked to Lisa myself and she’s fine with it.”

“Yeah.” Katie snorted and rolled her eyes impatiently. “I know how happy I’d be if Ben started spending every free minute with you.”

“It’s not like that.”

“Right.” Another eye roll, followed by finger quotes. “Because you’re just friends.”

A slow simmer started to heat Jayne’s blood, due mostly to the fact she was still racked with guilt over whatever that was in Nick’s kitchen last night. Dancing with him to Billy Idol was one thing, but when Nick pulled her close, held her so tight, so gentle … Jayne sighed. She’d been about two seconds shy of burying her face into the side of his neck and refusing to let him go when the sauce boiled over and saved her from humiliating herself.

And then Lisa had shown up and Jayne hadn’t been able to look her in the eye all night.

Despite what Nick’s mother thought, Jayne had never intentionally done anything to ruin one of Nick’s relationships and she wouldn’t start now. She wouldn’t be
that
woman. The girl doing Katie’s nails stood up and smiled at both of them.

“Can I get you ladies some tea or coffee? Water?”

“Coffee would be great, thanks,” Jayne said. “Little of both.”

“Tea, please. Plain.” Katie shifted in her seat again so she looked straight at Jayne. “I’m just saying—”

“There.” Regan pushed her cart out of the way and helped Jayne down from the chair. “I’m going to move you over there while that sets, and then we’ll give it a trim.”

There was a grin tugging at her mouth as she winked at Jayne, but she kept whatever she was thinking to herself.

“Katie, would you like a rolled-up towel to put behind your back?”

Katie groaned and nodded vigorously. “Thanks. At this point, I’d try just about anything.”

After a few more shifts and groans, the towel seemed to settle her enough that Regan could start on her hair. Jayne kept her face averted and pretended to be engrossed in a magazine article about celebrity pets. The last thing she needed was Katie picking up on the lingering angst Jayne carried from the night before.

When Katie shifted again, Jayne pulled out her phone and fired off a text to Nick, who had taken his list and the one Hague left to the hardware store.

Katie v. uncomfort. Maybe someone shud come get her
.

A few seconds later, her phone buzzed back his response.

OK
.

Jayne was still flipping blindly through the magazine when Debra arrived fifteen minutes later. By that time, Regan had finished Katie’s cut and was sweeping up.

“Katie.” Debra frowned. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Katie muttered. “You didn’t have to come down.”

“She’s not fine.” Jayne tossed the magazine on the little table and glared back at Katie through the mirror. “Her back’s killing her.”

Debra helped Katie down from the chair and walked her over to the desk to pay. Every other step brought a new grimace to Katie’s face, and a deeper frown to Debra’s.

“I’m sorry, Jayne,” Katie groused. “I shouldn’t have been such a cow. I swear every day I get closer to my due date, the worse I get.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“You’ll call me in the morning, right? I want details!”

Without so much as a backward glance, Debra ushered Katie out, and Jayne sat back to enjoy the silence that followed. She didn’t envy the discomfort Katie must be in, but that didn’t mean Jayne had to put up with her crap.

An hour later, Regan turned Jayne’s chair to give her a look at the final product, but it took a moment for Jayne to believe what she was seeing. For the first time since she could remember, her hair wasn’t a total disaster. In fact, she actually liked it—and she rarely liked getting her hair cut.

“We kept most of the length,” Regan said as she fingered the ends near Jayne’s shoulders. “But I cut in some layers and used the big roller brush to give it some volume. You can get the same look with curlers if you prefer, and when you don’t want to fuss with it, it’s still long enough to pull back out of the way.”

She moved to the side of Jayne’s chair as she continued. “I wasn’t sure about the bangs, but with your face shape, I think the swishy side-bangs work really well, and even though it’s parted on the side right now, I cut it with a center part so you can go either way if you like.”

“That’s great,” Jayne finally managed to spit out.

“What do you think of the color? Nothing drastic, just a little brighter.”

Still amazed that this was her own head of hair she was looking at, Jayne just nodded. “It’s … thank you!”

“Sure.” She pulled the plastic cape from around Jayne’s neck and took a second to brush away bits of hair before letting her step down. “Big plans tonight?”

“Scary plans,” Jayne scoffed. “Blind date.”

“Yikes. Well, if nothing else, your hair looks fabulous, so good luck—and you can give us all the gory details Tuesday night!”

Jayne laughed, left a hefty tip, and hurried out to her car. She’d gone home to shower before the appointment, which turned out to be a good thing because she didn’t have much time to get dressed. Her hands shook as she fought to get her mascara on and after three attempts and a small mountain of cotton swabs, she gave up completely on the eyeliner.

The front door opened and Nick’s voice boomed through the house.

“Jayne?”

“Just getting dressed.” God, was that her voice? It was more like a cackle. She stood stock-still in the middle of her room, wrapped in her robe, until she heard Nick’s door close. How unfair was it that she’d spent hours getting ready for this stupid date when he could roll in ten minutes before they were supposed to be there and still have time to shower and get dressed?

And he’d look great, too. So unfair.

Jayne pulled the dress out of the closet and laid it on the end of the bed while she went to fetch her nail scissors. She clipped the tag from the arm and the one on the collar and took them all back to the trash can in the bathroom. As the price tag slipped from her hand, something on the tag caught her eye.

No. No. No!

She yanked the tag back and stared at it wild-eyed. It was the smaller-sized dress—the one she specifically told Ellie to put back. Why the hell would she have switched them—and more to the point—why the hell hadn’t Jayne checked the damned tags before now? She’d had the dress for days!

She let out a long groan and sank onto her bed. Now what?

“You almost ready?” Nick called.

“Um, no, small wardrobe crisis.”

“Let’s have a look.” His voice was closer now, right behind her closed door.

“I … crap. Hang on.” Jayne slipped the dress on and tried to wrench her arms around to get the zipper all the way up, but could only push it up between her shoulder blades where it stuck. She pushed her feet into the shoes and exhaled as she pressed her forehead against her side of the door. “I’m going to need your help with the zipper, and I need you to be perfectly honest with me, Nick, and tell me if it looks awful.”

“Jayne.”

“I told her I wanted the other one, but this is the one she put in the bag, and I didn’t even look at it—”

“Open the door, Jayne.”

“And now we have to be there in … two minutes ago … and I don’t have anything else except that green dress I wore to the movie, and—”

“Jayne.”

The fluttering in her stomach moved up her throat and sent tears burning the backs of her eyes. She just wanted to look nice for Nick. No, not Nick. Nick’s friend. And now she was going to look like a big fat penguin. Did she have time to fight her way into her Spanx?

With a sigh, she twisted the knob, then turned so Nick could zip her up. She must have stood there for a good ten or fifteen seconds before she felt his fingers on her back. He fumbled for a second before he managed to get the zipper unstuck and two things suddenly occurred to Jayne at the same time. The dress wasn’t as tight as her critical brain remembered, and more curious than that was how the warmth from Nick’s fingers spread over her skin like a blanket. When he finally lifted them away, Jayne had to force herself not to protest.

“Please be honest. This isn’t one of those ‘do I look fat’ things. Well, I guess it is, but I really need to know and I’d rather you tell me now than let me go out in public looking like …”

She took a breath, straightened her shoulders, and turned. One look at Nick and Jayne’s heart all but shattered in her chest. Fresh from the shower, his hair was still damp and his cheeks were freshly shaved. He wore a pair of tan chinos and a dark blue twill shirt with the sleeves rolled up past his wrists. His eyes were huge, as she was sure hers were.

Blink, Jayne. Good. Now smile. No! Smirk. That’s better.

“Look at you,” she pressed her hand against his collar and arched her brow at him. “You don’t look half bad all cleaned up.”

His mouth opened slightly, his Adam’s apple bobbed twice, and he blinked hard. “You look …”

Was it a good thing that he kept shaking his head? Because generally speaking, that was a bad thing, and when his eyes kept getting bigger, Jayne tried to close the door on him, but his hand shot out and stopped it.

“Wow.” He pushed the door wide and blinked again. “You … wow.”

Jayne eyed him carefully. “Is that a good wow, or is it a ‘what the hell was she thinking’ kind of wow?”

Nick’s fingers tightened around the knob and he couldn’t seem to moisten his lips enough. “That’s a ‘Martin’s going to owe me huge for this’ kind of wow.”

A rush of warmth flooded through Jayne from the top of her head right down to the tips of her freshly painted toes. She was so caught up in the way Nick was looking at her, it took a
few seconds for her to realize there was someone else standing behind him.

“Carter! When did you get here?”

His mouth hung open, too, but the twinkle in his oh-so-dark eyes meant only one thing: trouble.

“Just now.” He all but shoved Nick out of the way, grabbed her hands, and pulled her out into the kitchen. “You’re smokin’, Jay. What’s up?”

Jayne faked a curtsy and stifled a groan. “Blind date with one of Nick’s buddies.”

“Who?” Carter asked, talking over her head to Nick, who’d followed them into the kitchen.

“Martin.” Nick’s voice was low and tight.

“Martin
Kendall
?” Carter almost choked on the words.

“Yeah, why?”

“Yes, Carter,” Jayne said, grabbing his jaw and forcing him to look back at her. “Why? And who’s Martin Kendall?”

“Oh, this is awesome!” Carter’s laughter wasn’t helping Jayne’s nerves. “I’m coming with you.”

“No you’re not,” Jayne and Nick cried at the same time.

“Then I’ll drive myself, but I’m not missing this for anything.”

“Why?” Jayne grabbed Carter by the shirt front and shook him. “What’s wrong with him?”

“Nothing,” he said, hands up in surrender. “He’s a great guy. You’ll love him; all the girls do.”

“Come on.” Nick’s jaw was tight as he tapped his watch. “We’re late.”

“I need my wallet.”

“No you don’t,” Nick muttered. “I’m buying.”

He hustled her out to the truck, her nerves frazzled to the point of igniting. Nick’s shoulders could have snapped they were so tight, and Carter wasn’t helping with his constant snickering as he helped Jayne into the backseat of the crew cab.

Lisa was ready and waiting at her door when they arrived, and one look at her made Jayne realize why Nick must like this woman. Whereas Jayne had stressed over everything, from her plain Jane black dress to her hair and barely there nail polish, Lisa looked as though being
that pretty was effortless.

Her red sleeveless dress, while simple, fit her perfectly, and it was no shock that her shoes and purse matched her dress, as did her nail color.

The drive to the restaurant, with Carter sitting beside her chuckling, was the longest five minutes of Jayne’s life. They’d barely cleared the door frame when Lisa excused herself to go freshen up.

What was that all about? How could her lipstick need refreshing so soon?

Carter charged ahead through the restaurant, but Nick took Jayne’s elbow and held her back a second.

“Martin’s my accountant. He’s a good guy, and you’ll like him.”

“But?”

“Yeah. But.” He cursed under his breath before looking back at her. “Guys are dogs, Jayne. One look at you in that dress and he’s gonna want to … well … yeah.”

“Shut up!”

“Serious like a heart attack.” He bobbed his head in a short nod and they set off after Carter, though much slower. “So if things start going too fast and you’re not sure how to stop—”

“Okay, seriously, shut up.” She inhaled deeply and pressed her hands to her waist, keeping her voice to a low whisper. “I’m going to go in there, have what I hope is a nice dinner, and then I’m going home. I mean, back to your house. And if I decide to have sex with him, I sure as hell won’t be discussing it with you!”

The restaurant was L-shaped, with a huge rock fireplace at the bend. Tables, decorated with small bouquets of pink and white carnations, were set up at different angles, with plenty of room for diners to have at least a little privacy. Soft music played through unseen speakers and huge widows overlooked a pond near the ninth hole.

Nick pressed his hand against her back as Carter pulled up a fifth chair and sat down, his grin just as big as it was at Nick’s.

Jayne tried to ignore both of them as the man at the table rose to his feet, a look of bemused disbelief on his face. Nice looking, with short, neat blond hair; he obviously worked out and wasn’t afraid to spend money on clothes.

“Martin.” Nick reached to shake his hand. “This is Jayne, the friend I told you about.”