Stacy blinked a few times. “There are…thirty-six more like you? I’m sorry, are you…what? How does anybody even have thirty-six kids?”
“No! No, oh my God!” Keith laughed out loud. “Oh God, no. Sorry, no, I have two brothers and a sister, but I also have my parents and five aunts and uncles and however many cousins that leaves to make thirty-six.”
“Twenty-six,” Stacy said with a glint of humor. “You have twenty-six cousins who are willing to fork over a hundred dollars to see you get your hair cut?”
“It’s a thing,” Keith admitted. “I haven’t had it cut since I was twelve, see. Trimmed, but not cut.”
His stag tossed its head. Keith, unable to stop himself, tossed his own a little bit, shaking his hair back over his shoulders as the stag said,Stop talking. Let her admire us. You’re not standing up straight. How can she admire us if you don’t stand up straight? Take a deep breath. Lift your chin. You look like a fawn, all wobbly and ridiculous. How can she admire us if you’re ridiculous? You should let me talk to her.
Stacy, blissfully unaware of the lecture going on inside of Keith’s head, visibly tried to collect her jaw. She was adorable, stunned. She was probably adorable at all times. “You haven’t had it cut since you were a kid? Oh my God. I’m simultaneously honored and terrified.”
You’re a deer, Keith reminded his stag.Youcan’ttalk. Be quiet and let me handle this.He had spent his entire life arguing with the stag, mostly without much success.Ithad spent his entire life posing and making him look like a self-centered, vain twit, and he hadn’t had much success stopping that, either. But it had no comeback for ‘you can’t talk,’ because it couldn’t. “I’ve seen people coming out of here all day with their new haircuts,” Keith said to Stacy. “I trust you.”
He would trust her anyway. He knew instinctively that he could. With everything, including the mane of hair that he was admittedly very protective of.
She said, “If you’re sure,” a little uncertainly, then drew a deep breath and straightened her shoulders like she was putting professional armor on. “All right, then. If you’d like to hang your coat up and have a seat?”
“Right! Of course.” Keith shucked his coat, hanging it up. “Should I lose the flannel, too?”
“I’ll be working around your nape, so yes, please.” Stacy smiled nervously at him. “Fewer hairs to get stuck in your collar that way.”
“Oh, in that case, maybe I should just take my shirt off.” Keith couldn’t believe he’d said that out loud, but his stag said,Yes! Then she can admire us!with conviction.
Stacy’s cheeks turned a bit more of that golden pink. “It’s, ah. I. Um. I mean. Pro…I kind of wa... But no. Proba…probably not. You’d, ah. You’d probably…stick to the chair?”
Keith mumbled, “I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I said that,” and ignored his stag’s,So she can admire us!!!as he hung up his flannel shirt and slunk to the chair.
Stacy breathed, “Oh, my,” as she untucked his hair from between the back of the chair and his own back, and spread it out. “My goodness. You. Wow. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. It’s not very professional to actually drool over a client’s hair. I’ll get hold of myself in a second.”
“No rush.” Keith smiled at her in the mirror, trying not to promise that he would be happy to get hold of her any time, because that was definitely not what she had said. Or suggested. In any way.
She smiled back, and Keith thought his world could stop right then and there. He could live in that moment forever, gazing at his fated mate’s beautiful smile in the mirror. Stacy, however, had other ideas. “All right, in order to know the full length we’re cutting, it’s best if it’s wet. Are you up for a hair wash?”
“I love having my hair washed,” Keith said with absolute sincerity. “Even when I go in for a trim I get them to wash my hair. It’s the best part of going to a salon.”
Or at least it had been, until he walked intothissalon and found his fated mate. But that was too much to drop on someone he’d met five minutes ago, so he’d settle for beaming at her until the moment was right.
Stacy said, “Okay,” briskly, and patted his shoulder. “Over to the sinks, then. Let’s get you set up.” She tucked a towel around the base of his neck and fussed his hair into the basin after he sat, her fingers strong and certain against his scalp before she fiddled with the water, then ran a trickle over his head. “How’s that?”
Stags didn't purr, and Keith briefly regretted not being a cat shifter. “Great. It’s perfect. Incredible.”
“Good. Man, you’ve got a lot of hair. So you haven’t had it cut since you were a kid? What’s that about?”
His eyes had already closed, but he opened them lazily and smiled up at her. “The embarrassing truth is, a girl I had a crush on said I had great hair and should never get it cut, so I haven’t. But twenty years is probably long enough to let go of a childhood promise to someone whose name I can’t even remember, especially in the name of a charitable cause.”
Stacy laughed. “Was she cute?”
“So cute. That said, I don’t even remember what she looked like. Dark hair. Big brown eyes. That’s about it.” It was true, but he probably would have said it anyway, because he wanted Stacy to think she was his type. His eyes drifted shut again as she worked shampoo into his hair, and he was afraid he gurgled. “That feels so good.”
“It really is the best part of a haircut,” Stacy said with a smile in her voice. “I think it’s one of the reasons I became a hairdresser. It’s a little tiny luxury for people and we all need that so much right now.” The door chimed and she said, “Oh myGod,” in a completely different tone.
Keith, startled, opened his eyes and lifted his head a little, then dropped it back down into the sink’s neck cradle with a groan as fifteen or so people poured into the salon. “I mentioned my family, right…?”
“I didn’t know they were all coming to watch you get your hair cut!”
Other voices drowned hers out for a moment:oh my god, he’s actually going to do it!That was his sister.But his beaautifuull haaaaaaaair!His mom.It’s about time.His dad and two cousins, more or less all at once, and then a whole bunch of cousins all with some variety ofI can’t believe he’s doing it,while his twin brother came to examine him, lying there in the basin. “Big choice, bro.”
Stacy made a startled sound. “I thought you said there wasn’t another one of you lying around!”
