23. Maisie
Chapter 23
Maisie
S unbeams and sparkles shoot out of my fingertips as I walk through the town square.
I spent the night with Harlan.
Just saying it makes me want to dance my way through town shouting it from the rooftops. I spent all night in his arms — getting the best sleep of my adult life and nothing changed.
Nothing changed.
I gave Harlan the worst of the secrets sitting in my soul, and he still wants me. He wants me and Audra in his life and I don’t know what to do with the feelings that are brimming in me ready to explode outward and shower everyone in the happiness I feel right now.
There’s a part of me that wants to live in the moment — to enjoy this — enjoy Harlan. But like the girls pointed out, I have decisions to make.
Do I want to take the steps needed to kick Sean to the curb permanently? To get some justice for the horrific way he forced me to live? I’m not sure yet. But I am sure that I don’ t want to leave.
But Harlan offering to help me get back on the road, toward the only type of safety I’ve known, means the world to me. Because even as he was offering it, I saw on his face how badly he wanted me to choose him and choose to stay.
Easiest choice I’ve made in a long time.
I don’t want to leave. I’m not going to leave. For better or worse, I made my choice after sharing the last of my horrific past with him in his kitchen last night.
Now I just have to decide how I want to move forward. And that’s going to take a little more time to process in my brain.
Right now? I’m going to get my haircut. Something I haven’t had done to me in too long. No more cutting it over whatever rental sink I’m staying in.
The long black tresses need the love — and honestly I’m almost as excited about getting my hair done as I am about spending the night in Harlan’s arms.
I pull open the door to the local salon, Chop Shop, when Jedd’s impatient voice reaches me. “No. You cannot cut my damned hair, Mischief.”
“Jedidiah Calhoun, you look like a damned chia pet. Just let me clean it up.”
“And have you scalp me? Hell no.”
They both turn in my direction as the door swishes closed. The two of them are standing toe to toe. Andy’s explosion of red curls dances down her back, and the height difference between the two of them is almost comical.
“Am I interrupting?” I ask.
Jedd steps around the reception desk and holds his arms out. “Hand her over.”
“What?” I ask.
Andy rolls her eyes. “I’m going to fold a few towels while you two get situated. Maisie, when you’re ready, come on back.”
She disappears around the front desk, and I look at Jedd.
“Jem sent me down here so I could help with Audra while you’re getting your haircut.”
Originally, Jem was going to watch Audra for me while I got my haircut, but something came up at the café when she texted this morning. I was just planning to hold Audra on my lap and hope that Andy could work quickly.
I should have asked more questions when Jem said that she had it covered, but I didn’t, and here I am, presented with Harlan’s brother, who’s standing hipshot after arguing with Andy.
“You don’t have to do that. I can hold her,” I say.
“Don’t deny me my fix of baby snuggles. Hand her over.”
Three weeks ago, if there was a man I just met demanding access to my daughter I would have pepper sprayed the shit out of him. But like Everette, Harlan’s brothers have started to grow on me.
Getting a haircut while not wrangling my daughter into sitting quietly?
Yes, please and thank you.
“Okay. Thank you.” I unlatch Audra from the baby carrier and pass her to Jedd asking, “You want the carrier or just her?”
“Just her for now. Lord knows I’m not going to get her from my dad tonight at dinner. If I need my hands for anything, I’ll figure out how to put it on.”
I drop the diaper bag on the chair next to him. “Okay. She should nap for about another hour, she just had lunch. She usually sleeps good after eating, but if she wakes up or gives you any trouble just come get me.”
“Shoo. Go get pampered. We’ll be right here, and if I need you, I’ll holler.”
I nod and start toward the back. Quiet pop music sounds from somewhere, and Andy’s softly singing while she folds towels.
There are four stations, all of them sit empty, so I don’t know which chair to take.
“Hey, girl. Just take a seat and I’ll be right there.” She nods to a station as a tall Black man with a closely cropped faux-hawk comes out of a room in the back.
“And who is this beauty?” he asks Andy.
“Maisie, this is Jenner. He runs the barber side of the salon with me and is my business partner. Jenner, this is Maisie and that cute little cherub out front with Jedd is her daughter, Audra.”
“Nice to meet you,” I say while sitting in the salon chair. Andy finishes up the last towel and snaps the door closed before coming over to me. She grabs a cape and whips it open before covering me and snapping it closed at my throat.
Her hands immediately dig into my hair massaging my scalp. Fuck that feels good. I haven’t had anyone do my hair in … too long to think about. “What are we doing with all this hair?” she asks while running her hands through the length and moving it to the front of my shoulders.
I shrug, tilting my head to the side. “I usually just trim it myself…”
A horrified gasp comes from behind me. “You’ve been cutting your own hair, sugar?”
I nod. “Yeah. I mean. I’ve gotten it trimmed a time or two, but sometimes it’s just easier to take a pair of scissors to it when it gets in the way.”
“Oh. Wait a sec. You’re the woman who wrecked her camper out on the interstate, aren’t you? Staying at Sheriff Sexy’s place until you get back on your feet?” Jenner turns to Andy. “She’s the Maisie doing the website overhaul for us?”
There’s no judgment or pity in his voice, though the way he said it makes my shoulders hunch and he notices.
“Oh fuck. Don’t mind me, babes. There’s no filter between my brain and my mouth. Something that my honeybee, Kent, is always yelling at me about.”
Andy snorts. “Kent is his husband — and I’m on Kent’s side of this argument — per usual — where Jenner is concerned.”
“Don’t you sass me, Andy. I haven’t had any coffee this morning, and I’ll gladly ask you to not.”
Andy rolls her eyes at me in the mirror, a playful scowl covering her features. “Well go get a damned Mocha then, you grumpy ass. And yes, this is the same Maisie.”
Jenner shakes his head. “You see what I have to deal with? Also, I loved what you did with the color scheme. And the online booking system you integrated will save my sanity not having to answer the damned phone all the time.” He taps his head and nods in my direction. “You’re a smart cookie. I don’t know why we didn’t do that before.”
“I’m glad you like it.” I wasn’t aware that Andy had a business partner, but it makes sense, the two businesses in a small town would be smarter combined. Less operating costs and similar enough markets that it makes sense.
“Back to your hair. I can trim it up for you, no problem. Clean up the ends and then maybe add a little layering or face framing in there?” Andy asks, but her nose is scrunched, and she doesn’t look like she’s in love with the idea of a low maintenance haircut.
“Or you could let me play a little bit?” she continues.
“Uh,” I hedge.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to scalp you, regardless of what the barbarian in the front says. Do you prefer your hair longer?”
“I heard that, Mischief.”
Andy rolls her eyes at Jedd’s holler.
I nod. “Yeah, it’s easier for me to pull back since Audra likes to yank on it or it gets in the way when I’m hunched over my keyboard.”
She smiles. “Okay. So trust me for a second.” She grabs a hank of my hair and makes a chopping motion — way higher than I expect her too. Like lots of inches higher. “I really want to shorten it, it’ll lighten the weight — because, girl, you have a shit ton of hair — but we’d leave it long enough for you to pull back — while tossing in layers to give you more volume so it doesn’t lay so flat all the time if you style it.”
She pulls her phone from her pocket and swipes through the screen to show me a picture. The image of the woman on the screen has cute fluffy hair, little kicks of it around her face with deep side swoopy bangs, and I want that. I want to have cute hair that doesn’t just hang down my back or end up in a ponytail when it gets in my way.
I’m already changing so much about my life. I want Harlan. I want the town. And I want pretty hair.
I just have the have the confidence to take what I want.
“I love that. Let’s do it.”
She smirks over her shoulder at Jenner. “Yes! You’re gonna look like a billion dollars by the time I’m done. Come on, let’s get you shampooed.”
“Ready for the big reveal?” Andy asks after switching off the blow-dryer, and I shift to the left. My ass went numb twenty minutes ago, and I’m more than ready to be out of this chair. The more hair that hit the ground the more nervous I got. How is it possible that I still have any hair left on my head? What if I look terrible? What if Harlan hates it? What if I hate it? Oh my god, this was a terrible idea.
What was I thinking? I should have just trimmed it myself in the apartment bathroom.
I nod to Andy. My throat tight.
Stop it. It’s just hair. It’ll grow back if you hate it.
The logical part of my brain knows that it’s just hair, that it’s not that big of a deal, that people get bad haircuts every day. But I got excited at the thought of changing a little something about myself, to give myself a little bit of self-care and maybe confidence that I haven’t had time for since Audra was born. It was just easier to let my hair grow and throw it up when it got to be too much for me to handle.
Andy turns my chair, and I promptly start crying.
The woman in the mirror is one that I haven’t seen in so long. The dark shadows under my eyes almost gone. My long black hair — that’s usually tied up — is shorter, kickier, punchier and frames my features in a way that makes me look younger than I feel.
Behind me, I can see Andy and Jenner trade horrified glances. Jenner swipes up a box of tissues and brings them over just as Jedd asks. “What’s going on? Why is she crying?” His phone is in his hand, and they all start to talk over each other.
“I’m texting Harlan, Maisie,” Jedd says, juggling Audra and his phone .
“Maisie, do you hate it? I’m so sorry,” Andy says while I wipe my eyes and shake my head trying to figure out how to tell them I love it.
“Jedd, don’t you text your brother. Andy back off.” Jenner turns the chair to face him and crouches down. “Sugar. What’s wrong?”
I shake my head. “Nothing.”
Puzzlement covers his face. “Nothing’s wrong. But you’re crying?”
“I love it.” I sob harder while smiling. “It’s really pretty — I’m really pretty.”
Andy and Jenner share a glance. “Happy tears?” he asks Andy.
“Sounds like it,” she says.
I snag a tissue from the box. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to freak you out. I just haven’t felt very pretty in a long time.”
“Sugar, you’re not the first person to cry in a chair in this salon. And you won’t be the last. But I’m pleased as punch that you like it enough to feel pretty again,” Jenner says with a smile and a friendly pat to my shoulder.
“You like it? Really? Don’t bullshit me,” Andy asks.
The door opens with a violent swoosh. “What the hell is going on here?” Harlan’s voice comes over the low wall between the reception area and the hairstylist’s stations.
“Nothing,” I say quickly, blowing my nose. “I just got a little overwhelmed.”
Harlan’s in his work uniform. The black cargo pants sitting on his hips in a way that’s sexier and sexier the more that I see him in them. The cuff of his short sleeved shirt pinches his biceps where it’s caught and I want to jump and dance and shout that he’s mine. For however long this thing lasts between us, he’s mine .
Jesus Christ. What the hell is wrong with me? My emotions are swinging from one to the other back and forth in a way that’s making me dizzy. One second, I’m happy crying, and the next, I’m ready to jump Harlan with no in-between.
A quick mental calculation takes place in my brain, and I realize my period is due.
Whelp, now this little emotional outburst makes more sense.
Dammit.
He looks me over from head to toe, and his gaze catches on the hair that’s sitting on the floor around the chair. His eyes whip back to my head where the new shorter — lighter — crown of hair is fluffed and blown out to perfection. The strands softer than I’ve felt them in a long time.
I don’t even own a blow-dryer to recreate the magic swirling around my scalp.
Andy unsnaps the cape from my neck, and I stand — mostly to get some blood flow back to my ass, but to also reassure Harlan that I’m fine. He snags my hand and tugs me to stand closer.
“Do you like it?” I whisper hesitantly.
Harlan shakes his head at me.
Oh god. He doesn’t like it.
Fuck.
“I love it. But that wasn’t the right question,” he says.
“What?” I ask.
“The right question is if you like it, Sunshine.”
I tug at the end of the hair behind my ear. “I do.”
“Then that’s all that matters. You’re beautiful to me no matter what you do with your hair.”
“Thank you.” He thinks I’m beautiful. Butterflies take flight in the pit of my tummy.
“You’re welcome. Come on. I’m on lunch for the next hour. Let’s take Audra and that new haircut for a stroll to get some ice cream, what do you say?” He lifts our joined hands and presses a kiss to the back of mine — the strands of his beard scratchy and tickly on my skin.
“I say yes, please.”
And just like that Harlan gives me back a piece of my heart that I didn’t know was missing.