“Yep. I’m about as sure as adding an extra block of cream cheese to a casserole dish to make it better.”
Evie laughed again.
She looked around at the cars passing her by on the interstate. There was so much goodness in her life now that sometimes it felt overwhelming. She took a deep breath and nodded. “You got it, daddy.”
“Hey,” he snapped.
Oh shit. I thought he liked that? she thought.
“Don’t you be callin’ me those sexy things when I’m at work and can’t have you.” He glanced around to make sure no one was watching him talk outside.
She playfully giggled. “Yes, daddy.”
“I hate you,” he replied with a laugh.
Within the hour, Evie strutted in to the salon and saw Myla there at her empty station reading a magazine. Kelly and Sandywerethere. And all of the ladies that were getting their blowouts, pedicures, perms and more, all turned and glared at her.
There Evelyn Morgan stood. Her first time back at the salon in almost four months. She lifted her chin and smiled to everyone. The hum of the dryers continued, but the flipping of pages and filing of nails stopped. She was radiant in her white turtleneck dress with black cowboy boots and a sporty leather jacket. Her light-brown hair was flowing like a crown of wild grasses down her shoulders. Her rosy cheeks had been bitten by the cold, and she pursed her lips in a proud smile.
“Hello, old friends!” she said and waved. Myla looked up to her and put her magazine down. Evie sat right across from her and held her nails out. “Help a girl celebrate?”
Myla grinned deviously as she chewed her bagel from Songbird Café. “Tell me,” she said as she shimmied her shoulders, “are we celebrating something with your job, the fact that you’re back, or that tall,cool glass of water Caleb Wright?” She narrowed her eyes when she said the word ‘cool’.
“All of it! But Caleb is paying for this, so give me the works, my love, and remember to keep the nails short.”
Myla put her bagel down.
All the women stared at her.
Sandy was sitting at the station next to her with her hair up in a wrap to let her highlights set in. She turned to Evie with a dirty look. “Caleb Wright is paying for this?” She threw the magazine down on the workstation. Her tech looked at her. “I knew it. I just fucking knew it. You tried to be all demure about it and-”
“Shut up, Sandy!” Evie snapped. Sandy withdrew. “No one cares about your gossiping antics. You fucked me up real bad with what you said. All I wanted to do was to figure out who tried to ruin Caleb’s life, because it was about him, not me. You’re an adult, act like one. Caleb is paying for this, and he and I are dating. The whole town knows it so…” She sat upright proudly before glaring at her again. “Why don’t you tell the town something they don’t know about me and go spit your daggers elsewhere?”
Every woman came over in a cackling frenzy of a hurry to talk to Evie. Sandy and Kelly sat dumbfounded. The women wanted to know what he was like, how she was handling his PTSD, and some even pulled up chairs to indulge themselves.
But Myla shooed them off. “Leave this girl be! This ain’t about none of y’all.”
“Yeah,” Evie groaned.
There came the banker, Miss Margie Atwood. She shooed all the girls away with her magazine. “Don’t y’all have a spice rack to rearrange or something? A casserole to go burn?”
The women left in a drone of disappointment. Myla giggled and went to work. “Pink?”
“You know it.”
Myla smiled and let her pick out her color. “Mmmm, let’s go with peach. I want pink, but not too pink, you know?”
“That’s my little graphic designer.”
As she began, Myla smiled. “I’m so proud of you to see you back. I’ve missed you.”
“Thank you for always being so nice to me.”
Myla grinned and tilted her head. “So, you want the works today?”
“Yep! Caleb’s paying for it.”
“As a good man should. One trip around the world, comin’ up!”
