“She’s been growing out her hair to donate it to Locks of Love, and she wanted to check and see if it is long enough to cut it today,” Deacon explained.
There was a collective awe from the entire salon, Robbie, who added, “Bless her heart.”
Jenna stopped and looked at him with an expression he’d never seen on her face before. One he had no clue how to read. He wondered if she thought he was playing her or something. He wanted to tell her his plan had been to get his haircut, it wasn’t his fault his daughter was the best wingman in the world.
“I grew it out from here to here.” Tabby lowered back down onto her flat feet and put her hand on her shoulder, then her waist. “Cause when I met Harper, she had no hair, cause of the medicine she had to take, so I told her I’d give her mine.”
Jenna bit the inside of her lip, and he sensed she wanted to say no. He could tell that she didn’t want them there, and he suddenly felt guilty for ambushing her. In his defense, he hadn’t thought he’d walk in to hear her declaring that she’d neverfuckingdate him, so there was that. If anyone should be the injured party, shouldn’t it be him?
She was the one lying. They had dated. Sort of.
He was going to apologize and say they should have made an appointment when Jenna smiled widely down at his daughter and his heart exploded in his chest. There it was. That was the smile. Having it directed at his daughter was even more potent.
“Okey dokey artichokey, do you want to come back to my chair so we can see if those buns are hiding enough for a donation?”
This morning Tabby had wanted her hair in space buns. He wondered if she got it cut today, would she even have enough hair for him to put in braids or buns? That thought made him a little sad, but obviously, it wasn’t about him.
Tabby nodded enthusiastically as she hopped up and down and clapped.
“Hi, I’m Jenna,” Jenna introduced herself.
“I’m Tabitha, but everyone calls me Tabby.”
“What would you like me to call you?”
“Tabitha.”
“Okay, Tabitha it is.”
That surprised Deacon. Was his little girl so grown up that she wanted people to stop calling her Tabby?Tabithaskipped beside Jenna, and Deacon tried not to think about how the sight of the two of them walking side by side made him feel.
Jenna glanced over her shoulder, her smile was textbook forced friendly when directed at him. “You can come to, Dad.”
He could feel all of the eyes in the salon tracking the trio as he followed behind his girls. He knew technically they both weren’t, but that’s what he thought when he saw them walking together,my girls. When they got to her station, in the back left corner of the salon, Robbie had a chair waiting for Deacon beside the vanity, and there was already a pink booster seat for Tabby in Jenna’s sleek black salon chair. Once Tabby climbed in, Jenna used the hydraulic foot lever to lift her up.
“Okay, Miss Tabitha, let’s see what you are working with.” Jenna chit-chatted with Tabby about her favorite TV shows, songs, and friends as she carefully unwound her space buns, letting her thick light brown hair spill over her hands and cascade down Tabby’s back.
“Whoa,” she said, catching Tabby’s gaze in the mirror. “Your hair is even longer than I thought. You’ll be able to donate a whole bunch.”
“Really?” Tabby’s face lit up, and she reached back torun her fingers through her hair, as if seeing it for the first time. “Really?”
“Really, really,” Jenna nodded as she ran her fingers from Tabby’s scalp down the length of her hair. “Wow, Dad, you have taken really good care of these curls.”
“Thanks.” He could tell that she wasn’t just saying that. Jenna looked impressed by the condition of Tabby’s hair. Her hair was not easy, and it had taken him a while to get a handle on it.
“He used an ouchy brush once!” Tabby eagerly relayed.
She was never gonna let that go.
“He did?!” Jenna smiled, and he could tell she wanted to laugh. “Yeah, I’ve done that, too. Sometimes you can’t tell what brushes are gonna be ouchy. Did you tell him it hurt?”
Tabby nodded her head up and down.
“Did he stop?”
“No! He said, ‘let me try from the bottom of your hair, not the top.’”
Okay, maybe she wasn’t the best wingman.
