He left a tip on the counter before going to the cash register to pay his bill. She gave him another smile as she made change. “I hope we’ll see you in here again soon.”
“I’m sure you will. I’ve decided I’d like to get out of the house more often.” He didn’t think it would be a good idea to go around advertising he was looking to meet women with the long-term goal of marriage. The gossip mill would have a field day with that.
“I totally understand,” she said. “That’s why I started working here, actually. To get out of my apartment and meet people. And I’m still here because I enjoy it.”
He’d assumed she worked there because jobs were fairly scarce in Whitford, but she made it sound as if it was something she did for the enjoyment of it rather than financial necessity. Before he could ask her about it, the cook called her name and, after wishing him a good day, she walked away.
Making a mental note to ask her about it next time he was in, which would be soon, he stepped outside. It was time for a haircut, so he left his car where it was and walked up the street to the barbershop. He usually went later in the day, but before most workdays ended, so the wait wasn’t too bad. He hoped, with it being closer to lunch hours, it wouldn’t be too full.
Katie Davis, Josh Kowalski’s fiancée, looked up from the head of hair she was trimming to smile at him when he walked in. “Hey, Max.”
“Hi.” It looked as if she was almost done with the customer in her barber chair and there was one fellow waiting, which wasn’t too bad. He sat in one of the chairs along the big window and looked at the magazines fanned across the table.
None of them interested him, so he leaned back into the curve of hard plastic and watched Katie work. He knew, from all the times she’d been in his home to watch sports, that her father had been the only barber in Whitford. After his death, Rose Davis had hired a man to run her late husband’s business, but he’d almost run it into the ground instead. Katie had worked hard to get the education and licensing she needed and then had taken it back. She’d been cutting Whitford’s hair ever since.
He wondered what would happen when she married Josh and they decided to start a family. Even if Max liked change, which he didn’t, there wasn’t another barber to get used to without burning the better part of a tank of gas. Katie was the only one in town.
When it was his turn, he sat in the chair and let her snap the cape around his neck.
“You’re earlier than usual,” she said.
“I went to the diner for an early lunch. The food’s very good there.”
She laughed, looking at him in the mirror. Her blond hair was pulled through the loop of a Boston Bruins ball cap and she was wearing a Patriots sweatshirt. Some combination of New England sportswear had been her work uniform as long as he’d been in town. “You sound surprised.”
“It’s been a while since I was in there. A long while, actually. I like to cook, so I don’t eat in restaurants a lot.”
“Liz must have been surprised to see you.”
“She wasn’t there. It was...” He concentrated for a few seconds, but he didn’t even have to picture the name tag pinned to the waitress’s shirt. It just popped into his head. “Tori. Her name was Tori.”
“Huh. I could have sworn Liz had said she’d be working today. I’ll have to call her later. So, Max, going to do something wild and crazy today? Want a mohawk? Maybe some colored gel?”
The question would have startled him if he didn’t know she was teasing him. She asked him the same thing every five weeks, and he always walked out with the same cut, just a neater version. Not too short, but off his ears and neck.
As he relaxed and let Katie do her thing, he thought about the waitress at the Trailside Diner and how quickly her name had come to him. He wasn’t very good at names, as a rule, and he’d just started being able to get the librarian’s name right on the first try and without hesitation.
He’d liked talking to Tori and it was good that the diner would, assuming it usually attracted more customers as she’d claimed, become part of his routine for the foreseeable future. He could enjoy her company while trying to meet a woman he’d like to date. Or, more importantly, who would like to date him.
Chapter Two
The next day, Tori slept in until ten, but she woke up feeling antsy and not as well rested as she should have, considering she’d been in bed before two. Maybe it was the dream.
It hadn’t been a sex dream—unfortunately—but it had been sensual, nonetheless. She’d woken while it was still dark with a lingering sense of touching and intimacy and just being held. Left with a vague yearning for affection and emotion rather than steamy sex, she’d been unsettled and dozed restlessly, off and on, until her alarm went off.