by Jamie Pope
“I’ve got no other choice. I’m going to live with my grandmother.” It was a lie, but Nova knew she couldn’t go to Mansi. She couldn’t bring chaos and shame to the peaceful tribe on Martha’s Vineyard even though that’s where she had longed to go.
“Cover up,” he ordered, knowing what could happen to a young girl travelling alone.
“Yes, sir.”
“Make sure someone knows where you are during every leg of your trip.”
“Yes, sir,” she said again as they turned to leave. She couldn’t do as he asked because that was the point of running away. She wanted to get as lost as possible.
* * *
“Ouch!” Nova felt a sharp smack to her side as she leaned over her grandmother. “Mansi! Stop hitting me.”
“Don’t you ouch me. You’re the one who’s inflicting torture on me!”
“I’m cleaning up your eyebrows.”
“Torture!”
“I have to master eyebrow threading if I’m going to be good enough to work in Boston. You want me to be good, don’t you?” She removed a few more hairs and attempted to dodge a few more slaps. “Old woman! You’re not being very helpful.”
“Why is this taking you so long?”
“Because you have caterpillars growing up there. I’m trying to shape them.”
“Why do I have to be your porky pig? There are a hundred women on this island you could practice on.”
“It’s guinea pig, Mansi. And I want you, because you are the most beautiful person I know.”
Her grandmother smiled slowly, revealing her gap-toothed smile. “You’re full of it.”
Her grandmother was in her mid-seventies, and the opposite of petite, standing at nearly six feet tall with a soft round body that looked like it was made to give comfort. Mansi may not be the American standard of beauty but Nova did think she was one of the most gorgeous women she had ever seen. She had waist-length silver hair that she always wore loose, brown skin, high cheekbones, and deep, dark eyes. She had given birth to six children and faced the hardest of times and Nova wanted to be just like her when she grew up.
Mansi had saved her. More than once. She would have been dead or in prison without her.
“I’m only a little full of it. I can’t have you walking around town looking like you don’t give a damn how you look. I’ve got a reputation to uphold. How can I be known as the island’s beauty diva if my own family looks like they just rolled out of bed?”
“I rarely leave the house. In fact I’m mighty annoyed that you made me come here today. We could have done this at home.”
“No. All my tools are here.”
“You could have brought them to the house! You travel all over the island to do weddings.”
“But I wanted you to get out of the house. You haven’t been out since Wylie and Cassandra’s wedding. You can come sit in my salon for a couple of hours. Now sit still for five more minutes and I’ll let you go.”
“I want to go now,” she complained.
“You’re worse than Teo.”
“Are you going to leave him at my house tonight?”
Mansi had a lovely gingerbread cottage that Wylie had built just for her. Her brother had originally come to this island as a government contractor, building affordable housing for the people who had been on Martha’s Vineyard since the beginning of time. Mansi’s home had been his special project. There was a kind of warmth there that was impossible to find anywhere else, including her own tiny apartment in the center of town, and that’s why she left Teo there often. Nova worked a lot of nights and weekends doing hair and makeup for the weddings of the island’s wealthiest. But there were a lot of nights when she wasn’t working that she had left him there, thinking that her son would be much better off under her grandmother’s stable influence. He was. He was a respectful, intelligent, insightful little boy. But leaving him in another’s care all the time had made him think that she didn’t want him around. It wasn’t true. Everything she was doing, every extra class she took, every job that took her away from him was all for him. To give him a better life, a more stable life than her mother gave her.
But his little five-year-old mind didn’t see it that way. He confided to his uncle that he thought that she didn’t want him anymore. Hearing that was devastating to her. The worst moment of her life.
She had done so many things that she wasn’t proud of, but those things were in the past, those things she couldn’t change. She could try to change how she was with her son. She never wanted him to look back on his life and think for one moment that he was unloved.
“I would like to stay over, too. Is that okay?”
“Give up your apartment and come live with me. I have the room. I don’t particularly enjoy your company but it would be nice to have a live-in servant.”
“You’re so funny, old woman.” She kissed her cheek and then grabbed the finishing spray off her station and gave her grandmother’s hair a liberal dose.
“First you try to yank the skin on my face and now you’re trying to suffocate me! If I didn’t know any better I would say you are trying to kill me to get your inheritance.”
Nova slanted a brow at her. “What inheritance?”
“My entire collection of tiny spoons goes to you, my child. I’ve got well over a hundred now. You could get good money for them.”
“Ah.” Nova grinned at her grandmother. “Well, in that case you had better watch your back. I want those spoons so bad I can taste it.” She turned away to get her phone out of her bag. “Now look gorgeous. I want to take a picture of you for my Instagram account.”
“What?”
“I put pictures up on my social media account so people can see my work.”
“You’re going to put my picture on the Internet?”
“Yes, Mansi. I am.”
“Turn me toward the mirror. If you’re going put my pictures up, I want to see myself.”
Nova paused and put her hand on her hip. “Are you going to let me take the picture after you see yourself?”
“Maybe. I might kick your butt if I don’t like the way you cut my hair.”
“Fair enough.” She spun her grandmother around to face the mirror and held her breath. She was nervous. She had done thousands of good haircuts at this point, but her grandmother’s approval meant more to her than any stranger’s.
She watched as Mansi scrunched her face and studied herself. She was silent for so long that Nova was starting to get scared. Her grandmother usually told her like it was, so silence was far scarier than any words she could say.
“I want you to contour my face.”
“Say what?”
“And give me red lips, too. I want to look like one of those girls on the TV with the big bottoms.”
“A Kardashian?”
“Yes. One of those. Do it.” She spun her own chair around. “If I’m going on the Internet, I want to go all out.”
“You got it. There’s a new technique I’ve been dying to try out.”
Nova pulled out her makeup kit and went to work. She had never thought she would ever go into beauty for a living. She had dreams of college, of a professional job where she wore a suit to an office every day, but life didn’t work out that way for her. She never even got to finish high school because she had to run away. She spent too long in a bad marriage before a brutal beating brought her back here where she got a job answering phones and sweeping up hair. If it weren’t for her boss suggesting that she attend cosmetology school, she would still be in the same place she was, going nowhere fast, not sure how she was going to make a better life for her baby.
She was good at beauty—for the first time in her life, really good at something—and her skills were going to take her places.
“There.” She studied her work with satisfaction. “You want to see?” she asked, spinning her grandmother back around. “What do you think?”
“I look like a hooker. I love it!” Mansi flipped her gray hair that
was freshly cut and softly curled.
Nova laughed hard, feeling it deep in her belly. She didn’t remember smiling before she came back to this island and her grandmother. This was the only place in the world she had ever felt safe, ever felt calm, and now she was planning to leave it.
“Let’s take a selfie,” her grandmother said, surprising her.
Nova frowned at her. “What do you know about selfies?”
“I know a lot of things. I keep up. I’m much smarter than you, girly.”
“I can’t argue with that. Stand up. We have to find our right angle.”
“Maybe I can help with that,” she heard a familiar male voice say. She didn’t have to look up to know that it was Tanner. And it was him, wearing work boots and a button-down shirt.
“Stretch!” Mansi grinned widely. “Come take a picture of us. We’re going to be on the Internet.”
What was he doing here?
The last time she had seen him was at Teo’s practice. He had made her join them for man day, buying them all giant hamburgers and ice cream floats. Teo had been overjoyed to have the attention of so many adults. Nova felt differently. She had been counting down the minutes until she could get away from Tanner. It was hard to think clearly when he was around.
“Give me your phone,” Tanner said, looking her directly in the eye, in that way that only he could manage, in the way that made heat creep up her spine.
“It won’t be a selfie if you take it, dummy.”
“Give me the damn phone, Nova.”
She held it out to him and he took it from her hand, and his lengthy fingers brushed hers, lingered just a moment too long, shooting heat up her arm and causing her breath to catch.
“Get my good side, Mr. Giant. I’ll smack you if you don’t,” Nova told him.
“In order for me to get your good side, you’ll have to turn around.” He delivered the line with a little smirk, and Nova wasn’t sure if she wanted to punch him or compliment him on his comeback.
“That was a good one, Stretch,” Mansi said, laughing.
“You’re supposed to be on my side,” Nova complained.
“I will be when you deliver a comeback to match that one.”
“Smile for the camera, ladies.”
Tanner took a bunch of pictures, showing them to Mansi for approval.
Smart man.
“This one,” she finally said after ten minutes of posing. “This one will go up on the Internet and cause all the men to fall in love with me.”
“Men are already in love with you, Miss Mansi.” Tanner winked at her. “You’re very beautiful.”
“Give me a kiss, Tall Drink of Water.” Mansi grabbed Tanner by the collar and planted one right on his lips.
“Oh, Mansi.” He played along, grinning. “I might become addicted to those.”
“No more for you, Daddy Long Legs. You’ll muss my makeup.” She turned to Nova and pulled her into a hug. “You’re a good girl. I’ll see you later tonight. Right now I’m going to the senior center to see if I can scrounge up some male company.”
“Mansi!”
“Don’t wait up.” She wiggled her brows at them before she walked out.
“That old woman.” Nova shook her head and went to clean up her station. “I think she is going to put me in an early grave.”
“She’s hot. I think she’s is going to give you major competition for the most beautiful woman in town.”
He had called her beautiful. She had heard that word bandied about when it came to her, but she mostly brushed it off. There were a lot of things that made a person beautiful. She wasn’t sure she possessed many of them, but she liked it when she heard the word from him.
“Why are you here?” She turned around to face him. He was standing a few feet away from her. His arms were crossed over his massive chest. The air was thick with something she couldn’t exactly explain. Maybe it was filled with the memory of what happened the last time they were alone in this salon. It was the thing they had never spoken of after it happened, but it was something that crossed her mind from time to time and she hated herself for wondering if it had ever crossed his mind, too.
“Why do you think I’m here, Nova? I’m a stubborn man, but even I have to admit that you are the best. I need a haircut.”
“Can’t trust the barber in town?” She motioned to her chair.
“You saw my last haircut,” he said as he sat.
“He hacked it up.” She ran her fingers through his hair as he sat. It was thick. There was a curl to it. She could tell he would have ringlets if he let it grow out. The thought of this six-foot-six man with ringlets made her laugh. “You should have come back to me sooner.”
“I think we both know why I didn’t.”
She didn’t respond to that, but of course she knew why he hadn’t. “I need to wash your hair with a moisturizing shampoo. You’re dry.” She led him to the sink. “What are you using to cleanse?”
He looked at her blankly for a moment. “I’m using that combination body wash, shampoo, and conditioner stuff.”
“Are you trying to give me chest pains? That stuff is garbage. You’re not a teenager. You need to use real products.”
“That is real. You know I’m a Ranger. You know that I spent months in places that barely had running water, much less shampoo. I was lucky to have a bar of soap.”
“Well, you’re home now, soldier. You don’t have to worry about it anymore. I’m going to give you some products to take home with you. You better use them or I’m coming after you.”
“Does Wylie use them? He’s a marine. I imagine they he would be even more resistant.”
“He uses the entire line of products. He thinks I don’t know much, but he trusts my judgment when it comes to hair. Lean back.” She turned on the water, making sure it was the right temperature, and looked down at him. His eyes were closed. His face was relaxed. His lips were full and pink.
Pink?
Mansi had kissed him. He still had lipstick on his mouth. “You had better stop kissing my grandmother.” She rubbed her thumb over his lips to remove the pigment. “If you walked out of here looking like that, there would be rumors about you.”
“Nova.” He grabbed her hand.
She had been touching his lips. It didn’t register until this very moment. She was just supposed to be washing his hair, not stroking an intimate place.
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re apologizing for something? What’s today’s date? I need to mark this down for the record.”
Her cheeks grew hot. “I shouldn’t have touched you. Or at least I should have asked your permission.”
“You don’t need to ask permission to touch me. You probably shouldn’t touch me, but I will never be upset if you do. But right now I need you to wash my hair.”
* * *
This was a bad idea. A hellishly bad idea, Tanner thought as Nova washed his hair. Her breasts were dangerously close to his face, brushing his cheek as she vigorously massaged his scalp. It felt heavenly, but it also was torture.
“Relax,” she murmured. “Don’t fight it. It’s supposed to feel good.”
It was feeling too good. That was the problem. He was already wildly attracted to her. It was an exaggeration. The way he felt about her verged on primal. She could be a hundred miles away and just the thought of her aroused him. But now that she was here, so close to him, her breasts brushing his skin, her scent affecting his senses, he felt about ready to jump from his skin.
She rinsed his hair, and as soon as he was sure the suds were out, he grabbed her hand, preventing her from touching him further. “What?”
“Stop. I have to go.”
“What do you mean you have to go? You’re dripping wet.”
“I need to get away from you.”
Hurt flashed against her face, but hurting her was the last thing he wanting to do to her. He pulled her into his lap, so that she could feel the size of his erection.
; “You feel that?” Her eyes went wide as he asked her. “I can’t be this near you without this happening. I don’t want to feel this way, but I do. So I need to leave right now. For both our sakes.”
“No.” She slid his hand up his cheek, and kissed his lips very softly. It immediately brought him back to last time he was here with her. They had kissed then. Not hot passionate kisses, but soft deep ones, which were far more dangerous for him. “Don’t be a damn coward. You’re not leaving here without a haircut.”
“Nova,” he groaned. “You can’t make me stay. I’m much bigger that you. I could flick you off of me like a gnat.”
“But you wouldn’t. You wouldn’t lay a hand on me.”
“Because your brother would kill me.”
“It has nothing to do with him and we both know it.” She kissed the side of his face. “You would never touch me unless I wanted you to.” She slid her hand beneath his T-shirt, stroking up his belly, making him harder in the process. “There’s something inherently good about you, Tanner Brennan.”
The air wheezed from his lungs.
She was telling him that he was good. He had been a bratty kid, a shitty teenager, and a wild young man. He had hurt people and for the past fifteen years or so he had been trying to make up for it, and he wasn’t sure that he ever would.But hearing the words from her was like a balm on a raw scrape. It made him feel better.
Her curvy bottom in his lap didn’t feel too bad either. He could sit like this with her for hours. It was like she was meant to be there. He buried his fingers in her thick dark hair and pulled her face to his. He just rubbed his lips against hers, giving her every opportunity to pull away, but she didn’t. So he kissed her, a real kiss this time. Her mouth was hot. It was the only way he could describe it. He felt heat travel down his neck and throughout the rest of his body. He wished they weren’t in this shop. He wanted to be home. In his bed. Without clothes on. Inside her.
She broke the kiss. Her eyes were closed. Her lips swollen.
“Do you want me to touch you, Nova?”
“No.” She opened her eyes and then stood up. “Keep your big paws off me. And put that thing away.” She glanced at the erection tenting his pants. “Let’s get this hair cut.”
