Chapter 1 #2
“Wow. This is huge.” While Finn was thrilled for his brother and Nikki, he couldn’t ignore the nagging ache that came with losing his best friend. As soon as he had that thought, he felt stupid. Riley was getting married, not dying, for Christ’s sake.
“You okay?” Riley gave him an odd look that had Finn pulling himself together.
“I’m happy for you, Ri. Nicholas is a great girl.”
“I love her.”
The stark simplicity of his brother’s statement stayed with Finn on the ride home.
Riley had promised to text him after he caught up with Nikki about the plans for the evening.
I love her. He puzzled over his brother’s heartfelt words while showering, and then while drinking a beer and eating his favorite after-work snack of corn chips and Cheez Whiz. I love her.
What must it be like to be so certain?
Had he ever said that about any woman, even Missy?
Nope, and he wasn’t sure whether what he’d felt for Missy was love or lust or some weird combination of the two.
One thing he knew for certain—he hadn’t had with her what Riley had with Nikki.
The realization made him uneasy as he ran fingers through his unruly mop of hair, recalling that he’d planned to get a haircut.
He searched for the Curl Up and Dye salon’s number on his phone and put through a call.
A female voice answered. “Curl Up and Dye.”
“Hi there. What time do you close tonight?”
“Seven.”
“Can you take a walk-in?”
“If you get here soon.”
“I’ll be right over.”
“What’s your name?”
“Finn McCarthy.”
“Got it. See you soon.”
He downed the rest of the beer and put the Cheez Whiz in the fridge next to the beer that was the only other thing in there. The meager contents of his fridge were further proof that he needed to get a life.
Since the salon was in town, he decided to walk rather than drive.
As the season started to pick up steam with Gansett Island Race Week underway, parking in town could be hard to come by.
A block from the salon, he noticed the dark purple paint and the sign with the catchy name painted in gold leaf.
Two smiling, laughing women were leaving as he reached the door, and he held it for them.
One of them gave him the once-over as she went by. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure.” She was old enough to be his mother.
Inside the salon, the first thing he noticed was the rich scent of shampoo and the décor that consisted of golden wood floors, black leather chairs, chrome accents and mirrors all over the place.
“I’ll be right out.” The same distinctive voice he’d spoken to on the phone.
“Take your time.” Finn looked around at the glass shelves of products that promised shine, body, vibrancy and a variety of other things he never gave much thought to.
“You don’t need that.”
Finn looked up from the bottle he was studying to find the sexiest woman he’d ever laid eyes on looking at him in amusement.
Shoulder-length dark hair streaked with dark purple, ears pierced multiple times each, her left arm boasting a colorful sleeve tattoo, a sparkling diamond stud in her nose and violet eyes that riveted him.
He’d never seen eyes that color before. She wore a black sleeveless top over black skinny jeans that clung to curves that made his mouth go dry.
“You must be Finn?”
“Ah, yeah. That’s me.” He put the bottle on the shelf and managed to knock two others to the floor. As he bent to retrieve them, his head connected with hers in a painful smack that made him see stars. Fucking hell, that hurt! When he looked up, he found her rubbing the side of her head.
“Ow.”
“Sorry about that.” He picked up the bottles and returned them to the shelf.
“You’ve got a hard head.” Her face flushed when she realized the double meaning behind her words.
A surge of heat to his groin caught him by surprise. It’d been so long since any woman had interested him, and he’d nearly given this one a concussion. “May I please request a do-over of the last minute?” He held out his hand. “I’m Finn McCarthy.”
She eyed his hand before she reached out to take it. “Chloe Dennis.”
The brush of her skin against his made his entire system go haywire. What the hell was that about? Stunned and unnerved by his reaction to her, he quickly retrieved his hand. “Do you have time for a quick haircut?”
“Sure, but with all that hair, it’s not going to be quick.”
“I can come back another time.”
“No, it’s fine.” She gestured to one of three black chairs positioned in front of a row of mirrors. “Have a seat.”
Finn headed for the chair she pointed to and sat, feeling out of sorts and off his game after the head bump. He wasn’t usually so clumsy or awkward around women, but he’d rarely encountered one like Chloe.
Goddess was the word that came to mind. She projected a cool, aloof aura of self-confidence, which he found incredibly sexy.
He stared at her in the mirror as she approached the chair, and when she ran her fingers through his hair, he felt her touch in every corner of his body.
Even the bottoms of his feet tingled with awareness.
Holy crap.
“What’re you thinking?”
He didn’t dare answer that question.
“Short or on the longer side?”
God, she was talking about his hair, and his imagination had run away with him.
“Um, short enough that it’s not in my face at work, but not super short.”
“What do you do for work?”
“Construction for my cousin Mac.”
“Ahh, gotcha. He’s insane. In the best way, of course.”
Finn laughed. “That he is. He keeps us well entertained.” Finn would miss the older cousin he’d always looked up to.
The ten years between them had all but disappeared in the time Finn had lived on Gansett Island.
These days, Mac treated him more like a peer than a pesky baby cousin.
Finn had learned a lot from Mac, both professionally and personally.
“You McCarthy men sure were blessed with great hair.”
Watching her run her fingers through his hair was one of the most erotic things Finn had ever experienced.
“I cut your dad, your uncles, your cousins. You guys could be shampoo models.”
Finn cleared a huge lump from his throat. “You think so?”
She met his gaze in the mirror. “I really do.”
Was it his imagination or did she look at him much longer than necessary? No, definitely not his imagination. He shifted in the seat, hoping she wouldn’t notice his embarrassing reaction to her. The movement startled her, and she looked away.
Nothing like this had ever happened in a barber shop.