“That was so graceful. I love the look of the arms overhead,” Kaylee said in awe. “And you really haven’t done that since you stopped skating, Mr. C?”
“No. I wouldn’t lie to you.” Charlie reached for his jacket.
“Can we try a single twist on the harness now?” She rubbed her hands together.
Charlie glanced at Steve. “How does that sound to you?”
The teenager had a glint of determination in his eyes. “Let’s rock it.”
“Coach Frankie, will you stay and watch us a little longer?” Kaylee asked.
“Guys, Frank . . . Coach Frankie is here to skate, not be put to work.”
She shook her head. “It’s okay. I’d love to stay and watch.”
“Thank you!” Kaylee said, wrapping her arms around her.
Charlie chuckled. “I’ll go release the harness.”
* * *
Later that morning, Frankie met Leslie in the neighboring town of Lake Wakahanra, located between Sequoia Valley and Grizzly Springs.
She pulled her car into the spot next to Leslie’s sunshine-yellow VW bug just as her pink-haired friend was climbing out of her vehicle. “You made good time. My color artist Alyssa said she could take us early if you’d made a decision,” Leslie said.
“I have.” Frankie clicked the alarm button on her key fob. “I’m not ready to commit to anything too dramatic, but I’m willing to give having the ends of my hair dyed violet and turquoise a go.”
Leslie slapped her on the back. “Once you see how fun it is to have colored hair, you’ll never go back.”
Her friend held the door open as they entered the salon. Immediately, Frankie was struck by the cool vibe of the place. The furniture was all sleek black leather. Each station had a circular mirror and funky light fixture hanging above it. In the middle of the salon was a large planter box with tall succulents that looked to be part of the aloe vera family.
Her gaze continued to sweep the room. Three of the walls were white, but the back wall, made up of exposed brick, contained an illuminated neon sign that read “The Mane Event.” The logo had a male lion in a red boxing robe, with a silky mane and crown. Classic eighties music was piped into the hair salon from a local radio station.
“Frankie, this is Alyssa. Lys, Frankie.” Frankie shook hands with a curvy woman with seafoam-turquoise hair, ruby-red glasses, and oversized gold hoop earrings. There was a tattoo of the salon’s logo on her forearm. “Lys is the best in the business and the only person I’ll ever trust to touch my hair.”
The salon owner laughed and set them up in two chairs adjacent to one another, with sparkling water and chocolate-covered strawberries.
Leslie reached for the fruity dessert greedily. “These are the best! Lys’s husband grows the strawberries himself. I don’t know what he does to them, but they’re the sweetest things ever.”
Alyssa wrapped a smock around Frankie’s neck. “I’ll tell you what he does. He’s obsessive about checking the pH of the soil, the temperature, the humidity levels, and whatever else might affect their growing conditions in his greenhouse. It drives me insane, but that’s what I get for being married to a plant biologist.”
Leslie nodded. “Jason’s a professor at Fresno State.”
“Ah.” Frankie pulled her hands from under the smock and reached for a chocolate-covered strawberry. Taking a bite, she found the chocolate was dark, rich, and creamy, and melted the moment it touched her tongue. The extreme sweetness of the berries balanced out the tartness of the dark chocolate perfectly. She groaned. “I need a basket of these.”
“I’ll pack one up for you before you leave.” Alyssa pivoted Frankie’s chair, so she faced the mirror and adjusted her shoulder-length copper-colored hair, distributing it evenly on both sides of her shoulders. “What would you like to have done today?”
“I’ve never dyed my hair before. Leslie talked me into dipping my toes into the world of color. So, maybe purple and teal ends?”
Alyssa studied the ends of her hair. “If I were you, I’d start with just one color. We could lighten your lovely hair one shade and have the very ends be a subtle violet. If you like it, in a few weeks we could add some more color to it.”
Frankie exhaled deeply. That was much more in her comfort zone. “I’d love that.”
Alyssa walked over to Leslie and draped a smock over her clothing. “What about you?”
Her friend grinned. “Since spring’s coming up, I’d like you to chop off my hair so it’s Twiggy short. I was thinking a tangerine orange with some daffodil-yellow highlights.”
Alyssa rolled her eyes. “You can’t do subtle, can you?”
