“What is?”
“My name.”
“Oh.”She giggles.“Close enough.”
CHAPTER 12
Summer
Bruno is speaking to me like I’m hard of hearing.I hold up my index finger and wag it at him.“Do not.Cut.My hair.”
He snatches my hand and studies it in horror, then grabs the other one.“Alma!”he shouts.“Emergency manicure!”His eyes drop to where my toes stick out from the spa slippers.“Alma!Pedicure, too!”
I snatch my hands and hide them under the bib.I curl my toes under.“I’ve never had a manicure or a pedicure, and I’m not about to start now!”
“You’re so funny,” Bryttni screeches.
Looks like she’s returned.Just a bit ago, she dropped me off at the spa and ran up to check on Declan.And now she’s back.Still mostly naked.“He’s watching football,” Bryttni says, “but he’s in a grumpy mood.”
That’s weird, since “watching football” and “grumpy” don’t usually go together with Declan.Maybe he doesn’t have any snacks.
Bryttni teeters on her high heels to stand close to Bruno.“Put your waxer on standby,” she whispers.“And tell the esthetician to have an extra vat of wax on hand.”
“No way, Bryttni.No wax!I’m not fucking kidding!I want to look like a grown woman, not a newborn piglet.”
She and Bruno laugh at me, and Bryttni leans in and smiles.“Womanis great, Summer.Bearis not great.So how about we compromise and get you a nice little coochie cleanup.Whad’ya say?”
I see myself in the mirror.All the color has drained from my face.
“Don’t worry, honey,” Bruno tells me.“It doesn’t hurt all that much.Now, I’ll just trim the dead ends from your beautiful hair.Sound good?We’ll keep it long and thick.”
“But not what’s below the belt,” Bryttni clarifies.“And let’s give her highlights, maybe a subtle mix of auburn and blond.”
Bruno nods.“Girl, you and I are on the same page.”
“I’m not on the same page!”I yell.“I’m on a totally different page.I think I’m reading a different book, and the title is ‘Las Vegas is a Hellscape’!”
Bruno and Bryttni laugh again.They think I’m amusing.I think I’m about to have a panic attack.I begin to get up from the salon chair, but Bryttni pushes me down.She’s stronger than she looks.
She puts her face an inch away from mine, her caterpillar eyelashes tickling my forehead.“Summer, it’s New Year’s and you have a date with a hot asset manager.Do you know what that means?”
“I think it means he makes a lot of money.”
“You bet it does, but I’m talking more about the part where you’ll be with Mr.Volcano on New Year’s.Focus, Summer.You need to show off your fine self.”She pulls back and grins at me.“You’re a hottie, too, you know.”
My face grows warm.“I’m not.”
“You are,” Bruno says, grabbing a sharp pair of scissors.“Has no one ever told you that?”
“I mean, well…” Bruno and Bryttni are waiting for the details.“I’ve gotten comments about my tits and ass from rodeo cowboys, but that usually ends badly for them.Others have mentioned my hair.”
“Oh, honey.”Bruno clicks his tongue and shakes his head.“Tits, ass,andhair?That’s the winning trifecta in this town.I’m not fluent in rodeo cowboy, but even I know that means you’re a stone-cold fox.”
Bryttni goes off to get her brows shaped while I let Bruno start the long process of adding highlights.I’m not the kind of woman who lets herself get bullied into doing something she doesn’t want, but there’s something about Bryttni’s confidence in my potential that has me curious.
What if she’s right?What if I’m a hottie somewhere underneath my dusty jeans and scuffed cowboy boots?What would happen if my hands no longer advertised that I’ve spent the past week driving in fence posts?
At some point I’m led to a pedicure chair, catching my reflection in a mirror as I walk past.My head is covered in layers of tin foil flaps.An assistant puts a sparkling water in my left hand while Alma goes to town on my right.My feet soak in bubbling hot water while the chair massages me from skull to calf.
