Chapter 22
TWENTY-TWO
2 Days til Christmas
Ellie folded her arms over her chest. “My husband picked him up from your place after you hurt him.”
The whole salon went quiet.
Obviously, this was too juicy a moment even for strangers.
Was it too cowardly to run?
Probably.
Nor would it help my case. Nope. I made this mess, now I had to figure out a way through it.
I lifted my chin. “We had a…miscommunication.”
Ellie’s perfectly arched brow winged up.
“It’s not easy to explain,” I lowered my voice, “with everyone staring at me.”
“Too bad.”
I spared Ivy a glance, but she gave me an encouraging smile. Kind of. More like an, oh, shit, I’m glad I’m not you.
“I just want to talk to him. Apologize.” I swallowed thickly. “I didn’t mean to hurt him. I just didn’t know how to tell him something important.”
Ellie stiffened. “You’re married?”
“What? No!” I tried not to think about all the eyes on me. Even the big dude in the barber’s chair stood up to listen more easily.
Dear God, he was massive.
The guy fluffed his insane mane of hair. “Not that it’s any of my business, but I’ve learned that you need to put up or shut up in this town. How I got my Ruby to marry me.”
A blond stylist near the big window came over and patted his arm. “You’re a sweetie, Lucky. You and Tish are perfect together. Remind her she has an appointment for a cut on the 30th, hon.”
“I will, Melody.”
I thought he’d said his wife’s name was Ruby.
God, it didn’t matter. This wasn’t my town. Not my people.
It could be.
I shoved down that thought.
But I couldn’t exactly explain to the room at-large my brother was a famous musician and I hadn’t told Hudson, so now he thought I was a liar who lied about everything.
“Can we talk about this privately?”
Ellie shook her head. “Nope. You can say what you need to say right here. Hudson’s a good man and you really broke his heart.”
My eyes instantly welled, but I willed back the tears.
“I know he’s a good man. That’s why I’m trying to find him, dammit. I want to apologize.” I almost stomped my foot like a toddler mid-tantrum.
“Why did you lie in the first place?”
“It wasn’t my place to tell him about my brother. Not when we were so new and I was used to keeping my family private. You don’t know what it’s like to wonder if people talk to you because you’re you or to get information on—my brothers.”
Ellie frowned. “Hudson’s not like that.”
“I know he’s not. But my family is the most important thing in my life. I have to protect them first. But I want to explain that to him and maybe then he’ll forgive me. Maybe he’ll understand.” I sniffled back the emotion flooding me.
Ellie’s face softened. “I understand that. I’d literally do anything for my kids and Cal. For his whole family, really. And that does include Hudson.”
“I’m glad he has that. We all should have that. I just want to explain that to him. We’re so new. We were stuck in that house—happily, I might add.”
“I bet you were,” Lucky said from the barber’s chair.
“Lucky!” Ellie admonished.
“What? Like you weren’t doing the same thing being stuck in the house.”
Ellie laughed. “Fair. Look, I’m sorry. I just want to make sure Hudson doesn’t get hurt again. He’s never reacted like that before. At least not as long as I’ve known him. Cal was really worried about him. But you did save him from the car crash.”
The whole room went from silent to chattering.
“Okay, everyone. We’ll be here all night if we keep with story hour. Brit, you should check those foils.” Mel clapped her hands.
“We want to know what happened,” a woman said from Mel’s chair.
In for a penny at this point. “Hudson’s rental car got blown off the road by one of the big city plows. It was a dinky little car that he shouldn’t have been driving, but he wanted to surprise his mom and dad with an early arrival.”
The woman sighed. “And what else happened?”
I laughed and thanked Ellie as she handed me the seltzer she’d held hostage when she found out who I was. I took a quick sip. “His car spun off the road and right into my yard. I’m renting a cabin on the lake.”
“Oh, my God it sounds like a movie.” The older woman’s eyes lit up. “Is he hunky?”
I laughed. “Yes, even with the goose egg he had. But luckily, he wasn’t hurt any worse.”
The woman sighed. “I miss being young and sexed up.”
“Janice!” Mel laughed as she combed out the woman’s wet hair and carefully measured out cuts in that way that stylists did.
“What?”
“She rescued him from a car crash. There was no…relations.” But Mel couldn’t stop the snort.
I glanced at Ellie, who seemed amused. She was also getting on with doing Ivy’s hair. “I got him inside. There was over three feet of snow at that point. I couldn’t exactly call 911. It would have taken forever to help him.”
“You brought a strange man into the house?” Another woman—the one with the foils that needed checking—shook her head incredulously.
“I couldn’t leave him out there,” I said, flushing.
And there had been no need to worry. Not about him being dangerous—at least not to anything other than my heart.
“I think it’s romantic,” Janice said with a sigh.
“Thanks, Janice.” I said and sunk into one of the chairs near the wall. I was tired of being the person under a spotlight in the middle of the room. “He’s pretty amazing. Even beyond the hot trapped-in-a-snowstorm thing.”
“That’s what I’m talking about,” the woman in the foils said.
I spluttered and had to hold my drink away from me or I was going to wear it. I glanced over at the one person I cared about at the moment. Ellie was adding darker red streaks to Ivy’s strawberry blond hair, but she was quiet.
I leaned back in the chair, since I’d said my peace. Now I just had to see if Ellie would take pity on me and help me talk to Hudson.
“So, just how famous is your brother?” Lucky asked as he got out of the barber’s chair. His thick hair hadn’t been touched, but his beard was tight and made him look like a rockstar, truth be told.
“Lucky Roberts, that is none of your business,” Mel said tersely.
He winced. “Everyone else is thinking it.”
“You worry about your own business.”
“Fine. But if you find out, you better tell me.” He turned to the barber, who hadn’t said a word through all of the gossipy moments, and he handed him cash. “Merry Christmas, brother.”
The man nodded. “Merry Christmas, Lucky. See you in three weeks.” His voice was like smoke over whisky.
I caught a few of the salon clients sighing over both men when they weren’t paying attention.
Couldn’t blame them.
Lucky waved his way through the door. “Merry Christmas, ladies.”
Ellie took her sweet time chatting with Ivy as she made sectioned off pockets to hold deep wine-colored dyed foils around her head like long presents. I wasn’t sure if I should step outside and get some air or just continue my penance in the waiting area.
Finally, she seemed to finish with Ivy and patted her shoulder. “We’ll wash in twenty minutes.”
“I’m going to sneak off to the bathroom.” Ivy gave me a reassuring smile before she disappeared through a door at the back of the salon.
Ellie cleaned up, still not saying a word to me. The country-flavored Christmas song piped over the idle chatter. I sagged in my chair when she went into a back room.
It would probably be rude to go back there to see if she’d talk to me. Or a health code violation. Maybe both. The possibilities kept my ass in the chair, along with a bone-deep sadness.
I’d really screwed up and now I might not have a chance to ask him to forgive me.
I respected that his family was creating a wall of protection. It was exactly what I’d done. I certainly couldn’t get mad at them for defending their family member against an outsider.
I felt someone in front of me and looked up to find Ellie. She had her arms folded over her middle, then she sighed and crouched in front of me. “I want to be nosy and get the real story out of you, but I respect that you’re fiercely loyal to your brother…or brothers. Whichever it is.”
“I am. I promise, it wasn’t malicious. I just default to not telling people about,” I lowered my voice, “Quentin.”
She frowned for a moment before her eyes widened. It wasn’t a common name and with all the emphasis I’d put on the secret, she definitely caught on. “Holy crap.”
“Yeah.”
“So that’s the Ivy connection,” she said quietly. “Rory.”
I nodded. “He talked up Crescent Cove and I thought it would be a great way to get all my crazy brothers—and my sister—together. And here I am, in love with Hudson.”
My belly jittered when I said it, but then my stomach went still. The rightness of it might be a little crazy, but it was no less true.
Ellie gave a little mixture of aww and a sigh. “Happened quick with me and Cal too. Mistletoe for us.” Her eyes twinkled. “Maybe I’ll get to tell you the story someday.”
Hope flared in me.
Ellie pushed a card into my hand. “Don’t make me regret this.”
I looked down at the white appointment card, then I turned it over to find an address.
“Ivy will be done within the hour.”
“Thank you.” I squeezed her hand. “I just want to talk to him. And if he won’t talk to me, I won’t make a scene.”
She laughed. “Good luck. The MacGregors are a force.”
“I’m getting that.”
Ellie straightened with a groan. “Too many hours on my feet. And my son, Evan, is not sleeping.”
“That’s rough.”
“You don’t know the half of it.” She patted my arm. “You seem like you honestly care about him.”
“I really do.”
“Good. He deserves someone great.”
Before I could answer her, she was walking back to Ivy. I wasn’t sure if I was great, but I would try to be that for him. He deserved nothing less.
“All right, Miss Ma’am. I think you need a little spiffing up before you get your man back.” Mel waved me over.
“ Me ?”
“Yes, you. Janice was my last client tonight. Might as well get some money out of you since you caused such a commotion.”
I flushed and tucked a wayward curl behind my ear. It had been a crazy few days.
Mel laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m good at what I do. You just need a wash, treatment, and a trim.”
I walked toward her. “I’ll put myself in your capable hands. I need hair that will be irresistible to my guy.”
“That I can do.” She whipped a cape around me and pushed me toward the washing station.
Now I just needed a Christmas miracle.