Char laughed and spoke in the soft Southern accent she’d never lost, not even after living in Colorado for forty years. “No, he’s just making fun of my boys because that’s what they think.”
Lily stared at her. Char was in her late fifties and trim with lovely chestnut-colored hair and warm chocolate-brown eyes that matched Aidan’s. She walked with a cane, but otherwise seemed fine. “They think you’re feeble?”
Char laughed. “Well, to be fair to them, you’re seeing me on a good day. I’ve had some hip trouble again. Took a fall and needed surgery. But I’m on the mend. Unless you ask Aidan and Gray. I tripped last week and they nearly sent for an ambulance. They worry like a couple of grannies. Baby,” she said to Jonathan, “would you mind if Lily fixed me up today?”
“Not even a little,” Jonathan said.
Lily smiled as she went to work on Char’s hair even as a part of her ached. The Kincaids stuck together through thick and thin. For the last ten years she’d been independent. On her own. No one counted on her, and she didn’t count on anyone either.
It was best that way.
Or so she’d told herself. But she couldn’t deny just a little bit of envy at what the Kincaids had in one another. “They worry because they love you and want you to be happy and safe,” she said.
Char nodded. “I know, and of course I feel the same way. It’s just that it’s all amping up again—the resort, the past, and I can’t stop it or help them. I worry, too, about them.”
Lily met Char’s gaze in the mirror. “What’s amping up again?”
“Oh, never mind my ramblings.” Char waved her words off like she regretted uttering them in the first place. “It’s just me being silly. You’re doing a great job on my hair, honey.”
Lily took in Char’s expression, carefully blank now. Clearly she’d said more than she’d wanted. Lily wanted to push, wanted to … what? Help? She could barely help herself.
And then there was Aidan.
She didn’t need to know what was going on in his life. She was here to earn some money until a real job came through.
That was it.
She was not here to reminisce or daydream about Aidan. Besides, if she was going to think about him at all, it was to hope that he’d taken one look at her and was even now pining away for what he could’ve had all those years ago.
Later, when Char left, Lily took a walk-in customer. She was finishing up the cut when the door opened again, to another woman.
“The special please,” she said, waving a coupon from the week’s paper. “The young rejuvenating facial. I want to look thirty.”
“Mom,” Jonathan said. “It’s a facial, not a magic wand.”
She rolled up the paper and swatted him with it. “Fine. I’ll take forty.” She gave Lily a hug. “And you! How lovely to see you again!” She turned to Jonathan. “So … you can make me look forty, right?”
“How about gorgeous?” Jonathan asked his mom. “Does gorgeous work for you?”
“Aw.” She grinned at him. “Always can count on you. Love you, baby.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “That won’t get you out of leaving a tip.” He nodded at Lily. “You want my specialist to do this. She’s the best woman for the job. Plus, I hate giving facials.”
Lily loved skin care. Actually, she loved all the different aspects of what she did: cutting and coloring hair, skin care, all of it. There was just something about making people feel good that made her feel good. She loved the easy, fast people connections, too, especially since in her everyday personal life she didn’t tend to make such easy, fast connections at all.
She never had.
She gave Jonathan’s mom a facial that did indeed make her look gorgeous. Then she did an eyebrow wax for a woman who’d worked for Lily’s dad years ago.
“Such a shame how he went,” the woman said, her eyes closed while Lily worked. “That heart attack. So sudden. And in his prime too.”
Lily stilled. “Yes,” she managed. “A shame.”
“He was a good man,” the woman said, not noting Lily’s discomfort since her eyes were still closed. “And your sister too,” she went on. “Such a tragedy. You okay with being back, honey?”
Lily was still having trouble finding her words. But her client had opened her eyes now and was looking at her expectantly, so she put on her best “I’m good” expression and nodded. She even added a smile, which she thought was a good touch.
“Are you?” Jonathan asked quietly after the woman had left. “Good with being back?”
“Don’t start,” she said.
“So you’re not. Damn, I knew it.” He slid an arm around her and pulled her in for a hug. “What can I do, Lily Pad? Anything for you, you know that, right?”
“Yeah.” She hugged him back, drawing on some deeply needed strength. “I’m working on being okay, I promise. I think I just need some more time to adjust.”
A truck drove up. The man driving it parked right out front in the no-parking zone like he owned the place and ambled into the shop.