The Weekday Brides 04 - Single by Saturday (13 page)

After several sets of introductions, Karen leaned into Judy’s side and asked in a whisper, “What’s with the wedge haircuts?” Every other woman they’d approached had a short bob haircut with the dramatic wedge in the back. The style had been popular a decade or so before, but very few women had kept with it. To Karen, the cut looked like someone screwed up, and she for one was happy to see hairstyles take a different turn. Not that she ever paid attention to new hair fashions. She kept her shoulder-length hair simple so she could easily put it up into a French twist or ponytail.

“It’s awful, isn’t it?” Judy laughed and they both attempted not to giggle when yet one more woman with the awful cut walked by. “Brianna is the other hairstylist in town. She returned from some hair show in Salt Lake in March and told all her clients that this was the
new look
of the year.”

Hannah jumped into the conversation. “It’s better than the perms she was giving everyone last year.”

Karen wasn’t so sure. “I take it you two don’t use Brianna very often.”

They looked horrified. “Never. Petra cuts as fast as she talks but she’d never cut your hair in a way that makes you look stupid. Even if you tell her to,” Hannah insisted.

“And she doesn’t gossip,” Judy added.

“Isn’t gossip a favorite pastime in a small town?” Karen asked. Next to bartenders, hair salons were notorious for clients unloading their emotional garbage on the stylist. Must have something to do with sitting in a chair and being told not to move for hours on end to bring out all of one’s problems to a near stranger.

“It’s the
only
pastime in a small town,” Judy told her. “Unless you knit.”

Petra’s salon housed the familiar smell of hair chemicals and shampoo. There wasn’t a hair salon in the world that didn’t have the same distinct odor. Hospitals and salons…you’d know where you were if you were blind and in a different country just by the smell.

Much like any small salon, there were two workstations with swiveling chairs. A hair-washing sink sat off to one side where clients could lie back and tuck their necks into the most uncomfortable position ever.

“Oh, good, you’re on time.” The woman Karen assumed was Petra waved from over the head of a young woman who sat in the chair. “I thought you’d get sidetracked showing Mike’s wife around town.”

“I told you two o’clock,” Hannah said. “Hi Becky.” She waved at the girl in the chair. Becky looked to be Hannah’s age. Her soft brown hair had been blown dry and was floating around her face like a cloud.

“Hi Hannah. Hi Judy. Home for the summer?” Becky asked.

“Can’t avoid it,” Judy told the girl. “Petra, Becky, this is Mike’s wife, Karen.”

Karen waved at the other women. “Hi.”

Hannah approached her friend and lifted a strand of her hair. “I like the little bit of color.”

Becky blushed at the compliment and looked at herself in the mirror. “I like it too.”

“Like it?” Petra asked with a laugh. “It’s perfect for you. Look at your eyes sparkle.”

Hannah giggled, showing her age. “You sure that’s not Nolan putting that sparkle in your eye?”

From Becky’s shoulders, Petra removed the plastic smock that kept the bits of falling hair from soiling her clothing.

“You’re dating Nolan Parker?” Judy asked with interest.

Becky stood and let her eyes slide to the floor.

Hannah gave Judy’s arm a playful push. “He took her to prom.”

While the girls talked and giggled about what was obviously an exciting subject, Karen sat back and observed as she often did while at the club. She could learn a lot about the kids by watching them interact. There was always a pecking order among teens. The popular girls tended to lead the pack and the conversations. In this trio, it seemed that Hannah had the upper hand with Becky, but Judy was obviously a rival. Probably because of her age.

When Becky stepped out of the chair, she leaned forward to catch a hair clip before it hit the floor. When she did, the shirt she wore gapped at her waist. An angry red welt mark peeked below her shirt, which she quickly tucked down as she stood.

Karen skirted her gaze away from the girls, who didn’t seem to notice, and over to Petra, who had noticed the mark as well.

“I can’t believe your parents are letting you date Nolan.”

Becky’s shy smile fell. “Daddy doesn’t like him.”

“Because he’s not Mormon?”

Becky shrugged.

Karen felt her insides start to twist.
How much did Daddy dislike Nolan?

“That’s stupid,” Judy said. “Nolan’s a good kid. Best employee my dad’s ever had.”

Petra moved around her shop and listened, something that struck Karen as strange.
Didn’t Judy say that Petra talked obsessively?
Seemed she was doing a lot of listening.

Becky placed an unconscious hand to her abdomen and offered a coy smile. “My dad isn’t going to like anyone I date.”

“Dads are like that.”

“Who’s first?” Petra asked as their conversation started to fade.

Judy stepped forward. “I am. I can’t find anyone in Washington to do my hair right.”

Karen sat in a chair and picked up one of those gossip magazines that always seemed to litter the baskets in salons. Between those and magazines dedicated to hairstyles, hair salons were well-known for ten-minute reading material. Though she pretended to read the latest Hollywood gossip, she watched Becky from the corner of her eyes. She rubbed her stomach several times, and when she reached for her purse, Karen noted another mark on her upper arm.

It killed her to watch the girl leave the salon. Alarms were going off in her head and blaring loud enough to keep her from hearing what Judy and Hannah were talking about after the other girl left.

“Nolan, really?” Judy asked Hannah after Becky walked away.

“Someone caught him kissing her after the Homecoming game. After that, they were always holding hands in the halls at school.”

“I bet her dad is pissed.”

Hannah practically fell into the chair at Karen’s side. “Probably. She’s really come out of her shell since she hooked up with Nolan. He’s good for her.”

Out of her shell?
Becky seemed as shy as they came.

“He always said he was leaving this shit town when he graduated, but he didn’t. I think it’s because of Becky.” Hannah turned to Karen and clarified. “Nolan graduated this year.”

“Oh.”

“I bet they run off together after Becky’s out of school.”

Judy lay back in the salon torture chair with her head in the sink.

“Are you good friends with Becky?” asked Petra.

“We’ve been friends since third grade. But we don’t hang out very much.” Again, Hannah turned to Karen to explain. “Her family is Mormon and they don’t like it when Becky hangs out with those of us who aren’t.”

“You’re making it sound like a cult,” Judy chastised.

“It’s true. Did you ever get invited to your Mormon friends’ slumber parties?”

Judy didn’t comment.

“Exactly. Becky and I hang out at school.”

“And she’s dating one of your dad’s employees?” Karen asked while flipping the pages of
People
magazine.

“Nolan Parker. He’s supersexy. Becky ’bout died when he started flirting with her in chemistry. The whole school was talking about them most of the year.”

The desire to learn more about Nolan Parker and Becky’s family was a constant pull. Karen had seen her share of scared teenage girls. Though Becky wasn’t crying and visibly frightened, there were a few unmistakable signs that she was in some sort of trouble. Girls held their stomachs for two reasons, and Becky didn’t seem sick to Karen.

“Oh my God, that’s you.” Hannah grabbed the magazine from Karen’s lap and twisted it around to Judy and Petra. “And that’s Mike and Zach. Wow, how cool.”

“Let me see that.”

Sure enough, the magazine had a picture of her sandwiched between the Gardner brothers the night of her anniversary party. Michael was glaring at the camera, Zach had his hand on her arm, and they were looking at each other. The hair on Karen’s arms stood up. They looked good together.

“It must be cool always being in magazines like this.”

Karen rubbed her forehead. “It’s highly overrated. Your brothers had to chase that guy out of Michael’s backyard.”

Hannah sent a puzzled look. “Don’t you mean
your
backyard?”

“Isn’t that what I said?”

“No. You said Michael’s backyard.”

Karen swallowed. “Well, you know what I mean.”

Hannah returned her eyes to the magazine and searched through it again. This time asking who Karen had met within the pages.

Petra had gone silent again. Only this time she eyed Karen.

Damn.

Chapter Ten

Apparently, Petra went from
stealth information gathering
mode to
I’m the queen of this salon and you will do what I say
mode.

Petra was originally from Germany. She’d moved to the States when she met and married a military man. As Karen learned after a brief and
to the point
explanation, Petra’s husband had gotten a stomach bug and ended up at the VA hospital shortly after she’d given birth to their son. The stomach bug had turned out to be cancer and he died six months after his diagnosis.

“What was I to do?”

Before Karen could answer, Petra went on. “Richard’s family was here, and they wanted to help me with Alec. My English wasn’t good back then.”

“Back then?”

“It’s been eighteen years now.”

“Wow, that’s really sad.”

“It was awful. But I survived. Alec was a pain in his teens. So wild my boy.”

Now this was the fast-talking woman Judy and Hannah described. She had Hannah’s hair in one hand, the scissors in the other, and she snipped, pointed into the mirror, and combed. It was as if she had three hands.

Judy sat off to the side with her new do. Although if Karen had to guess, it was her old do just redone.

Apparently happy with the cutting, Petra tossed her scissors aside, picked up the bottle of mousse, and sprayed the white foam in her palm before rubbing it all over Hannah’s head.

“Alec wasn’t that bad,” Judy said from behind her magazine.

“For a single mother, he was awful. Stayed out late, didn’t call. Gave me a heart attack when he told me he wanted to leave town and not graduate.”

“Did he graduate?” Karen asked.

“Nope. Moved to Florida.”

“How did that work out?”

Petra turned on the hair dryer and picked up a brush. She talked over the noise. “He’s OK now. Got his GED and joined the coast guard. I visit him a couple times of year in Key West.”

“See, told you he wasn’t bad. It’s this town. Makes you wanna leave before society tells you it’s OK.”

Judy had a point.

Within minutes, Petra was flipping off the smock around Hannah’s shoulders and saying, “Your turn.”

“I really don’t need a haircut,” Karen protested.

Petra paused for a minute and tilted her head. “I’ve seen your pictures for months now. Everyone coming in pointing to pictures of Mike and his new wife. Every time your hair is up as it is now, or flat on your head.”

“I don’t like anything that requires work.”

Petra made a clicking noise with her tongue and pointed to the torture chair. “Trust me.”

Judy raised one brow. “Might as well give in. She’s relentless.”

“It’s only hair,” Hannah said. “It grows back.”

“I won’t do anything that requires more than five minutes to prepare. I bet you have a headache once a week at least.”

Karen felt her limbs untangling from the chair and walking in Petra’s direction. “I do actually. It’s stress.”

“Not stress. It’s the rubber band. All that stress on your scalp is tension, gives you a headache.”

Karen allowed Petra to wash her hair and watched as the hairdresser combed out the layers and ran her fingers through the ends with thought. “Shorter. With a few long layers around your face. Yes!”

Twenty minutes later Karen left Petra’s feeling five pounds lighter. Not that her hair had been terribly long, but with this shorter style and the addition of the right mousse and appropriate hairbrush, Petra had changed her appearance.

“I like it.” Hannah played with the ends of Karen’s hair and smiled.

“She’s good.”

A familiar-looking truck was parked on the opposite side of the street. Karen glanced up to see the words Hardware Store above the building. “Is that your dad’s store?”

“Yeah.” Hannah grabbed her hand and tugged her. “C’mon. Let’s show Zach your new style.”

That’s right, the truck was the one she’d seen Zach and Michael leave in that morning. Although the road was void of any cars driving by, it was strange for Karen to walk down the middle of it without feeling like a car would scream around the corner any second. Hannah’s endless energy was weighing on her as the day moved on.

They pushed through the store with a ringing of a bell at the top of the door.

Like the inside of a hair salon held familiar smells, so did hardware stores. Sawyer’s life’s work was laid out on aisles of shelves holding boxes of everything a household could need. The narrow rows of merchandise stood eight feet tall and ran the span of the room. At the front of the store, there was a register without anyone standing behind it.