Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Cadence didn’t know what was worse, turning up to the book club meeting without having done the assigned reading or her hair.
Just kidding. She knew. It was her hair.
As it happened, perms did not look like the woman in the poster on everyone. She probably should have suspected as much when she’d waltzed into the salon that day with her request and the hairdresser had raised an eyebrow at her and asked, “Oh, honey. You’re sure?”
But Cadence had been buoyed by her decision, not to mention a bit frazzled by her interaction with Tyler. Oh yes, she’d told the woman. She was sure. Please proceed!
It had taken about an hour and a half into the process before Cadence’s confidence had flickered.
Things had pretty much gone downhill from there.
Looking at her hair now, she tried not to compare her reflection to Shirley Temple as a child. It was the closest comparison she could come up with, though.
“This is not great,” she muttered to herself in the mirror before cramming a beanie over the top of the raucous hairstyle. This was apparently her new signature look. The curls didn’t look quite as… chaotic if she put a hat over the top of them, at least.
She contained her locks a little bit more by wrapping them into a bun. As long as she kept her hat on, nobody could really tell that she was having the bad hair day to end all bad hair days.
Now she just needed to wear the beanie until the perm grew out. She didn’t even dare to think how long that would ultimately take.
By the time Cadence arrived at the book club, her unread book clutched behind her back, as if hiding it would diminish her embarrassment over not having done the reading, she was more than ten minutes late.
“Hey, all,” she said sheepishly. “Sorry I’m late.”
“Oh, don’t worry a bit,” Eleanor said, looking frankly in her element as she placed a lovely charcuterie board in the middle of a circle of comfy chairs.
These were a new addition to the space, and Cadence thought their mismatched appearances were charming.
It made the room feel cozy and comfortable, exactly like the kind of place where you’d want to pull up a chair to read.
“We’re all still getting settled in,” June confirmed.
“Everyone knows that book clubs are only half about books and half about noshing and chatting,” Miriam contributed. “Come on in, make yourself comfy, honey. Take off your hat.”
“Yeah, girl!” June chimed in. “Spring has sprung. Aren’t you hot?”
Cadence paused. “Uh, no. I’m good.”
She’d never been much of a liar. Her tone immediately revealed that something was amiss. Even Eleanor, the newest of their group, paused while placing napkins and plates so everyone could serve themselves some treats.
“Is everything okay, Cade?” Diana asked, brow furrowed in concern.
Cadence sighed. She could put this off, but she didn’t want to worry her friends. She released her hair from its tie and pulled off her hat. She could practically hear her hair spring into place, boing, like in a cartoon.
Her friends’ faces all grew aggressively neutral.
“Oh,” June said. “You changed your hair.”
“How nice,” Eleanor said, like the words hurt.
“It’s… different,” Diana added diplomatically.
Miriam stayed noticeably silent. Cadence turned to her.
“Go ahead,” she told the older woman.
“It’s… a very bold choice,” Miriam said.
Cadence felt her eyes grow damp. “Oh my goodness!” she exclaimed. “You know it’s really bad when even Miriam is being tactful!”
She let out another cry of distress at how this had come out. She turned to Miriam, an apology already springing to her lips, but her friend was clearly holding back a chuckle.
“No, no,” Miriam said, waving her off. “You’re not wrong. About either part, I suppose. It’s maybe not the most you hair I’ve ever seen. I do think it’s bold, though, and I think you should be proud of yourself for being bold.”
This was a very positive spin on things. Cadence wanted to believe it, but she didn’t feel as reassured as she might have hoped.
“I look like one of those poodles who do dog shows!” she wailed.
It was Eleanor, to her surprise, who let out a snort of laughter at that, although she quickly stifled the sound with a hand to her mouth.
“I’m sorry,” their hostess said when all eyes cut her way. “I just… that’s a very funny way to put it.”
June was next to break. “I’m picturing you with one of those little bows that people put on their dogs,” she said, laughter bubbling through each word.
“Perms were very in when I was young,” Miriam said. “Remind me to dig out an old photo of me with my hair permed way back in the day. I promise that you will no longer feel quite so bad about your own ‘do.”
“What inspired this?” Diana asked.
Cadence explained her interaction with Tyler, and the grueling hot yoga class before that. The more she got into the story, the more she could see the humor in it all, and by the end of her tale, all five of them were laughing so hard they were clutching their stomachs.
“Okay, okay,” Diana said at the end, wiping tears of mirth from between her eyes. “But what did Izzy say when she saw it.”
Cadence rolled her eyes, although she was still grinning. “She said, ‘Oh Mommy! You look beautiful… just like my dolly.’”
Cadence gave Diana a meaningful look, which made her friend gasp.
“Oh no,” Diana said. “Not the spooky one?”
“The spooky one, obviously,” Cadence confirmed.
Then, for Eleanor’s sake, as their newest friend didn’t know the context of this story, she explained, “Maybe two years ago, Tyler and I took Izzy to this flea market in Rhode Island on the way back from… I want to say a trip to see his sister. We saw it on the side of the road, figured, hey, we could use a break from the car. This seems good.”
“Wait, wait,” interjected Miriam, who had heard this story many times. “When you told me this story, you said you thought it would be harmless. Say it that way. Builds narrative tension.”
“Yeah, this is a book club,” June quipped.
“Okay,” Cadence said, “so Tyler and I thought, this is a harmless diversion. Now, that was clearly a jinx, because Izzy immediately latches on to… well, you know how sometimes dolls feature heavily in scary movies?”
“Oh no!” Eleanor said, laughing, her eyes wide. She clearly saw where this was going.
“Oh yes,” Cadence agreed. “We tried to talk her out of it, but this oh-so-helpful seller was like, ‘Oh, I’ve had this on offer for ages. Nobody ever wants it. The little girl can have it for free.’”
“Oh no,” Eleanor repeated.
“Uh huh,” Cadence said. “Now we’re stuck with this thing. It’s so spooky! Izzy thinks it’s the most beautiful doll she’s ever seen.”
“I try to avoid letting Benjamin ever see it,” June confessed, “because I don’t know what’s worse, if he’d have nightmares or if he’d want one of his own.”
“I had nightmares after the first time I saw it,” Diana muttered.
Cadence shook her head. “So Izzy thinks I look great, which I’d normally consider a huge compliment. But in this case, maybe not so much.”
“You poor thing,” June said sympathetically, although she hadn’t stopped laughing.
“Well, as part of my storied-career history, I do have some experience doing hair. Want me to see what I can do? We’ll give it a week or two to let your hair recover from the chemicals, but then we can definitely try to make it a little less… dolly-like.”
“Oh my gosh, yes,” Cadence gushed, reaching out to clasp June’s hand in gratitude. “Yes, yes, please.
“I got you, girl,” June reassured her friend with a smile. “Just go heavy on the conditioner this week to really rehydrate, and we’ll go from there.”
“My hero,” Cadence said, causing June to playfully preen. “But okay, please distract me from this hair nightmare. Did you find a place for that picture yet?”
Diana scrunched her nose. “Not yet. Sorry. I’ve been too busy obsessing about my upcoming date to obsess about home décor choices.”
“Romance gossip trumps decoration gossip,” Miriam said. “Tell us, how has the digital courtship been going?”
Diana smiled. “It’s good. I wouldn’t say that I’m in danger of falling in love or anything, but he seems really nice.
If anything, I think I’m more stressed about, like, the idea of the date than Kendrick himself?
I don’t know if we’re a forever match, but being proactive about dating feels like a big step for me, so that’s got me a little up in my head. ”
“Totally understandable,” June reassured her. “You’re making your desire for partnership something that you’re active about, instead of something that you’re hoping will come your way. That’s a big mental shift. It makes sense that it feels unsteady.”
“The only downside is that my friends are just so unsupportive,” Diana drawled sarcastically.
June laughed and bumped Diana’s shoulder. Then a gleam lit up her expression.
“Well, it seems like love is in the air overall,” she said coyly, “if the very cozy tete-a-tete I witnessed between our Eleanor and one handsome hardware store owner is any indication.”
Miriam’s gasp was so loud that Cadence was shocked it didn’t suck all the air out of the room.
“Really?” she asked, gray eyes twinkling. “You and Garrett Wilder? Eleanor, darling, spill the details. You’ve been holding out on us.”
Eleanor cocked an eyebrow at June. “I’m not holding out,” she corrected. “Someone here is making something out of nothing. I was just thanking him for all the help he has offered while I work on getting things fixed up around here.”
“Oh yeah,” June said, her tone steeped in disbelief. “The two of you definitely looked like business acquaintances. There was no smiling and no interested looking. Nope, none at all.”
“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen Garrett Wilder smile,” Diana confessed.
“He smiles!” Eleanor insisted, shaking her head. “He smiles plenty.”
“Yeah, around you,” June said, pretending to hide the words behind a cough.
“Does this mean we can matchmake?” Miriam asked, rubbing her hands together excitedly. “I really feel like I’m getting into my matchmaking era. Let us matchmake you, Eleanor!”
As Eleanor laughed and demurred, Cadence felt herself relaxing in a way she hadn’t since that disastrous conversation with Tyler.
The urge to reinvent herself had been natural, but, surrounded by her friends, it was obvious that she didn’t need to find a new way forward.
She already had a great life, great friends, a great daughter. She had a community that she loved.
That was enough. And everything else would fall into place, exactly as it was meant to. All Cadence had to do was wait and be ready to embrace her future with open arms.