Chapter 19 #2
"I'm nails!" A young girl with wild red curls bounces up from one of the salon chairs.
"I'm Tinsley, and I might only be fourteen, but I still got this nail thing down.
" She comes to stand in front of me with a bright smile.
"But I'm not really licensed, so we keep this on the down-low.
" Tinsley whispers the last part. She’s adorable.
"That actually works better for me. I've been working on stacking up my list of crimes."
Kindred snorts a laugh, but it dies quickly when the door to the salon opens. I turn around to see who has made her eyes widen at the sight.
Holy snowballs is my first thought when I see the man standing in the doorway.
He’s big. The kind of big that comes to mind when I read bear shifter books.
It’s easy to know who he is. The uniform gives him away.
This is the infamous sheriff. The only person that seems to be able to get under Kindred’s skin.
“Kindred.” He has his attention fully on her. No one else matters to him.
“What?” she snaps. “Why are you bothering me again?”
“Did you steal a bottle of hair spray and assault someone with it?”
“I don’t use hair spray.” She runs her fingers through her long silky locks to prove her point. He audibly takes a deep breath as though he’s trying to maintain his patience.
“And throw glitter at him?”
“Glitter?” Kindred scrunches her nose, a confused expression taking over like she’s never heard the word before.
The sheriff steps farther into the shop, letting the door fall closed behind him.
"And no way Laney said I stole shit." She says that with such confidence I find myself nodding along like it's pure truth.
"Didn't say from where."
Kindred rolls her eyes at that. "That must have been a hard mystery for you to solve." She takes the three steps that are between them so she's dead in front of him.
Kindred is tall, and she still has to drop her head back to look up at him. Even though I know she's staring up at him, holy Christmas cakes, I’d swear that she's really glaring down at him.
"What's this?" She pokes his chest. I see one small green glitter on his perfectly fitted uniform. It's even got those ironed pleats in the right places. Kindred lifts it onto her finger. “Are you trying to frame me?”
He closes his eyes, shaking his head.
Kindred steps back, dropping the bag of glitter at his feet. “See!” She points at it. The sheriff glances down to the floor where the bag of green glitter rests. “He’s trying to frame me.”
"Is this how you want to play this?"
Is he really going to arrest her? Wait, could Kindred be poking to get arrested? I don't think she'd admit that, likely not even to herself, but I think it's very possible.
"Play what? You've seen it." Kindred turns her attention to me. "You saw that bag of glitter fall from him."
"Ahh, yeah. The bag of glitter," I say. That might be safe. I'm only acknowledging the glitter, not saying where it came from.
"See?" Kindred's expression turns smug, but I notice her cheeks are turning pinker by the second.
"Tinsley?" the sheriff asks.
"I'm blind." Tinsley starts walking around, running into things. I put my hand over my mouth. It's the only way to restrain my laughter. I love how all the women in this town are willing to go down with the ship not to turn on each other.
"We're not getting involved in this one," Betty tells him while Noel is now very busy inspecting the shelves with product on them.
"This is your warning, Kindred." He steps into her space. "You better be on your best behavior tonight."
"I promised Candy I'd be on my worst behavior tonight. You wouldn't want to make me a liar, would you?" She isn’t backing down. If anything, she’s poking him more.
"That sleigh has already left the North Pole." He steps back from her. "See you ladies later." The sheriff gives us a nod before turning and leaving the salon.
"Oh my sugar plums. I was sure I was about to see that one jail cell for myself."
"No one would arrest you, Candy Cane." Betty motions for me to come over to one of her chairs. "We all see how Mayor Hollis is with you."
"This is true. He's even sent out a few emails warning all of us about upsetting you." Noel pulls out a color palette, holding it up next to my face.
"He did what!?" I don’t know what to make of that. I hope it doesn’t give people the wrong impression of me.
Everyone has been so nice and welcoming. It can actually be a little overwhelming, and I get emotional about it. Not in a bad way. I feel accepted and like I can be one of them. I never felt that way at college or with Max. Here, it comes so easy and natural.
"It's sweet, and honestly, it's not that off the mark for New Hope. Have you told her about the town's history with love and romance?" Betty asks Kindred.
"No, because it's a bunch of bullshit." Kindred drops down into one of the chairs.
"What is it?" Now I want to know.
"Never in the town's history has there been a divorce. People here fall hard and swiftly."
I smile up at Betty. "Really?" That sounds about right.
"No, not really." Kindred cuts in. "Okay, there aren't any divorces, but it's not all sugar cookies and gingerbread houses around here when it comes to love." She does air quotations around love.
"Ignore her." Betty waves her off. "Her time will come."
"Over my frozen corpse." Kindred folds her arms over her chest.
I'm with Betty on this one. I think her time is coming too. Sooner than later based on her recent interaction with the sheriff. They are about to blow, and I’m happy that I’m going to bear witness to it.
I, however, keep that to myself. With Kindred being my new BFF, I have to side with her. In public, at least. I'll be digging more into this later. I'm sure that Mary is already thirty feet ahead of all of us.