Chapter 3
Chapter Three
EDEN
Today was step one in Mission Make Over New Eden.
Sure, it wasn’t the best mission name, but it was to the point.
When I climbed out of bed that morning, I felt invigorated by my plans for the day. But now that I was standing in front of Pure Elegance, the only hair salon within a twenty mile radius to town, I was questioning what the hell I was doing there.
The salon’s motto was painted beneath the name in swirly white script: “Taking your natural beauty to the next level.”
There was just one problem. I didn’t have a lot of natural beauty to expand upon.
I was just about to turn and backtrack to my car when I heard someone call my name.
“Eden?”
Spinning toward the sound of the voice, I caught Nona peeking out of the salon’s door. “Hey, Nona. How’s it going?”
Her forehead wrinkled in curiosity as she cocked her head and smiled. “It’s good, darlin’. You here to see me?”
“Well, uh, no.” I glanced down at the smock covering her pretty blouse and jeans. “I mean, not technically. You work here?”
Nona stepped all the way out, letting the glass door whisper shut and crossed her arms before leaning against the window. “Yeah. This is my place. I didn’t mention that?”
I looked through the glass at the trendy salon and noticed almost every chair was full. I should have known the woman did something in the field of beauty. Her hair and makeup always looked perfect, so it really wasn’t a surprise that she’d own a salon.
“No, I didn’t know,” I admitted, returning my attention to her. “Well then, I guess I am here to see you. Or one of your other stylists. As long as there’s availability, that is.”
Nona’s face brightened as she stood tall and asked excitedly, “You wanna get your hair done?”
Twisting my fingers together, I started scratching at my cuticles with my thumbnails, a nasty nervous habit I developed as a kid. “I was considering it,” I replied before quickly adding, “But I can come back. You know, if you’re all booked and I need to make an appointment.”
“You kidding?” she squeaked happily. “My next appointment just canceled, so I’m wide open. It’s kismet, doll. Get your cute butt in here.”
Without giving me a choice, she reached out, snagged my hand, and dragged me into the salon.
Her station was situated right in the middle of the spacious room, and I could feel eyes on me from every direction as Nona yanked me into her chair.
“So,” she started, turning me to face the mirror and pulling the elastic band from my hair. “What are we doing today?” She tousled and flipped the long strands, scattering them around my shoulders.
“I-I don’t really know. I just want it to look… better.”
Nona’s gaze met mine in the reflection of the mirror as she placed her hands on my shoulders and gave them a squeeze. “Well, there’s not much more left to do to improve on beauty like yours, but maybe we can just put a little extra shine on it. What do you say?”
The better I got to know her, the more I loved her.
Nona was just more proof that I’d done right in picking Hope Valley as my forever place.
I hadn’t run across very many people like her in my life, and I was still struggling with how to react to her kindness.
It was so new to me that the compliments and sincerity were hard to accept, but every time I looked in her eyes, pure, genuine honesty was all that shone back at me.
“I say I trust you, so do whatever you want.”
Nona let out an enthusiastic squeal that drew the attention of the women all around us. “Carte blanche? Hell yeah! Trust me, sweetie, I’ll do right by you. You have my word.”
I didn’t need her word. My gut told me Nona was the real deal, and I wouldn’t regret this decision.
Nona dropped the scissors on the counter and dusted the loose hair off my neck and face with one of those soft, puffy brushes. Once she finished, she looked at me with a brilliant smile lighting up her beautiful face. “All done. You ready to see?”
After having my head wrapped in so many foils I looked like a paranoid freak afraid of aliens reading my thoughts, then sitting with my back to the mirror as she cut, blow-dried, and styled, I was more than ready. I was anxious as hell.
At my nod, she whipped the cape off and spun my chair around with a loud “Ta-da!”
I sat speechless, staring at my reflection in the mirror.
“Uh, honey,” Nona said anxiously from behind me. “You’re not saying anything. Oh god. Do you hate it? You hate it, don’t you? Don’t worry, I can fix it. I’ll just—”
Reaching back, I gripped the hand resting on my shoulder and held on tight.
“I love it,” I replied, my excitement growing with each word.
The dull, flat brown now shined with streaks of two different shades of blonde Nona referred to as caramel and honey, giving the once drab strands a vibrant golden hue.
The weight of my thick hair gave me chronic headaches, so I’d gotten used to wearing it up constantly to combat the pain.
But with the choppy layers, she’d given it dimension while also making the once unbearable weight much more manageable.
With the glossiness of my new hair, even the boring brown of my eyes seemed to pop more. Just like she’d promised, my friend had done right by me. Actually, she’d worked a freaking miracle.
“Gotta say, doll, it was a lot of damn work, but it was so worth it. God blessed you with a gorgeous head of hair.”
My face scrunched with a tiny frown. “I wouldn’t exactly call it a blessing, Nona. More like a curse.”
“Child, callin’ a head of hair like that a curse is just plain ol’ blasphemous,” Ms. McClintock in the chair next to mine chimed in. It was my first time meeting the older woman, but hours upon hours stuck in a chair was the perfect chance to get to know new people.
Ms. McClintock was an adorably cantankerous blue-haired eighty-year-old with a hilariously salty personality.
And I found I really liked her bluntness.
It wasn’t meant to be rude. She just didn’t believe in taking the time to sugarcoat what she felt needed to be said in order to spare a person’s feelings.
I knew that for a fact when, thirty minutes into meeting her, she informed me, “Life’s too short for me to coddle all these damn young folks and their sensitive dispositions.
I don’t have forever to spread my knowledge around this earth.
And if I don’t get out what needs sayin’, the generations to come are at risk of bein’ even dumber than they already are. ”
I kind of loved Ms. McClintock.
“You should be thankin’ the big man upstairs every night as you brush all that gorgeousness.”
“It’s too thick, Ms. McClintock. I’ve struggled with headaches for years because of how heavy it is.”
The old woman snorted and rolled her eyes before patting at the curlers currently setting her hair.
“I’d take headaches any day of the week over goin’ damn near bald.
Trust me, girly. You get to be my age and you’re gonna be prayin’ to the good Lord above for some of that lustrous volume back.
You don’t like it, have Nona hack it all off and I’ll make a wig out of it. ”
Nona and I laughed before both turning back to the mirror. “The way I cut it should help a bit with the weight, but Ms. M is right,” Nona said. “This is some of the most gorgeous hair I’ve ever had the privilege of getting my hands on.”
I was quickly coming to learn that compliments and Wynona Fanning went hand in hand. It was going to take some getting used to, but I forced my face to relax and met her gaze in the mirror, offering her a sincere smile.
Just before I could open my mouth to thank her, the door to the salon flung open and a woman I’d never seen before came rushing toward Nona.
“I’m late, I’m late. I know. I’m sorry! But you will not believe what’s happening.”
Nona let out a carefree giggle at the hyper woman. “Relax, Sadie. It’s fine. I’m only just finishing up my last client now.”
The woman, now known as Sadie, blew out a relieved puff of air. “Oh thank goodness. I was worried you’d filled my spot and I was gonna have to drive all the way to Grapevine to get my roots touched up.”
Grapevine was two towns over. It was even smaller than Hope Valley, and at least a forty-five-minute drive.
It was the closest place with a hair salon if you couldn’t get into Pure Elegance, so it wasn’t a surprise that Nona’s salon was as full as it was.
The whole time my head had been baking, the door opened and closed constantly with a flood of new arrivals.
Not only was it the most convenient option, but to hear women around town talk, Nona and her stylists were far superior to the salon in Grapevine.
“No worries,” Nona offered. “Eden here had a whole lotta hair for me to get through, so you’re just in time.”
The now-less-frantic Sadie turned her eyes at me, and I got my first good look at her.
If I had to guess, she was around her early forties, with a kind face and red hair that, judging by the steel gray peeking from her roots, wasn’t the color she’d been born with.
She was a few inches taller than Nona, which put her about half a foot taller than me, and had a bit of extra weight around her midsection, but she carried herself with a confidence that made that roundness work for her instead of against her.
“Ooh-wee! You aren’t kiddin’,” she declared. “Girl, I know we only just met, but I think I might have to hate you for no other reason than pure jealousy. I had hair like that, I wouldn’t have to run in here like my ass was on fire, scared I missed my appointment.”
My cheeks blushed a fierce shade of red as I dropped my gaze. I really didn’t know how to handle people being so damn amazing, and something told me I was going to have to get used to it. Fast.
“So what’s going on?” Nona asked, pulling Sadie’s focus from my hair.
“Huh?”
“You said we wouldn’t believe what’s happening, so you gonna spill the gossip or what?”
“Oh!” Sadie visibly shook off her confusion and plopped down in the chair on my other side that had only been vacated a few minutes earlier.
“So, you’re not gonna believe this. I was over at the Vanilla Bean, gettin’ a latte because the line at Muffin Top was too long and I didn’t have time to wait for an even better latte, and everyone there was talkin’.
So when I left, I got out my phone and started callin’ around and the whole town’s in a full-blown tizzy. ”
“Enough with the buildup, Sadie. Get to the point before I keel over and die of old age,” Ms. McClintock ordered.
Sadie rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “Well, Sue Ellen was in line, and you know Sue Ellen’s a gossip if there ever was one. And she works reception at the police station, so she gets all the juicy stuff firsthand—”
“Oh, for the love of god!” one of the ladies a few stations down cried. “Get on with it before we all die of old age!”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing, but apparently Sadie knew her as well, because the look on her face said she harbored no animosity at the woman’s interruption.
“Anyway, like I was saying, Sue Ellen was yackin’ everyone’s ear off about a whole slew of calls that came in last night.
Three B&Es. Can you believe it? Three! In one night!
Hope Valley’s so low on crime that I almost feel bad for our police force.
Most we get are those damn teenagers drag racin’ on old Tolliver Mill Road.
Then we get hit with a string of robberies in one night? It’s insane!”
Nona looked at Sadie with big eyes. “Did they catch whoever was doing it?”
“No. He got away, but only by sheer dumb luck. Last house the guy broke into was Wilson Sullivan’s.
And everyone in town knows Old Man Wilson sleeps with a sawed-off next to his bed.
Only reason the guy didn’t end up with a hole in his skull is ’cause Wilson refuses to listen to his doctor about needin’ glasses even though the old fart’s damn near blind as a bat.
The robber got away, but cops are hopin’ the near miss with some buckshot deters him from breakin’ into any more houses. ”
Hope Valley might have been low on crime, but I knew too well that stuff like this could happen anywhere.
Hell, I grew up in a household with people capable of doing just that, if not worse.
But I was a single woman living on her own, and the thought of someone running around in the dead of night breaking into people’s houses was enough to set me on edge.
Nona must have caught the worry in my expression, because she put a hand on my shoulder and smiled down at me. “Don’t worry, Eden. The cops in this town might not see a lot of action, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t prepared. They’ll catch the asshole.”
I let that knowledge sink in and ease my concern. “I’ll take your word for it,” I replied. “Let’s just hope it’s sooner than later.”