by Klaire, Jody
Rebecca chuckled. Good, it was working.
“How about Amélie?” I could do that one. Rebecca had watched her enough. I strode about like she did, bouncing on my toes, a little sway, wipe the sweat from the eyebrow with a finger, sway again.
Rebecca sniggered. “You spent way too much time watching her, Pip.”
Berne dipped her brow.
Better move on quickly... I threw in my best Serena Williams fist pump with a little bounce. I was always delighted for her when she won, simply because I could get control of the TV back.
“I can do a whole range of doubles players too.” I nodded to Berne and Stephanie. Both looked torn between laughing and wandering off in a daze. “You want to see my Sam—”
“Pip, stop.” Rebecca held onto my shoulders with a grin. “I’m better, I feel better, thank you.”
I smiled. “You sure?”
Rebecca looked to Berne. “When dad... when he didn’t want to know, Pip did impersonations all the time.” She kissed me on the cheek. “Never failed to make me smile.”
Both Stephanie and Berne beamed at me like I was a kitten again.
I cleared my throat, my thigh protesting from my Rafa display. “So what’s the plan?”
Berne sighed. “We sleep, Stephanie will take us all shopping, we meet Babs’s family.”
Rebecca chewed her lip.
I’d need more than impressions to make her feel better. “Won’t they need to be informed first?”
Stephanie smiled. “Who do you think told the porters?”
Rebecca ran her hand over her hair. “Surveillance?”
Berne chuckled. “Non.” She tapped at Rebecca’s pocket where she kept her mobile. “You leave something on?”
Rebecca pulled out her phone and sighed. “Rumbled.” She held up her hands as I went to move. “I don’t need an Ali impression.”
I sighed. I was wasted on them.
Chapter 12
Berne and Stephanie took us to a hairdressers just outside Monaco city centre. I thought that it would be a local place—You know, for those who were just rich not super-rich but no, no, Sergio’s salon was one of a massive international chain. I’d seen them in London. Sergio, whoever he was, was the hairdresser to most models and celebrities.
Fantastic. That was really going to help Rebecca’s mood. She hadn’t said a word at breakfast and was pale even for her milk-bottle white. She stood at the doorway to Sergio’s like she was ready to bolt.
“Just a salon, that is all,” Stephanie whispered, taking her hand and leading her inside.
I took Berne’s hand, not sure what to say but I didn’t like the worry in her eyes. “You’ve seen Babs heartbroken before, haven’t you?”
“Oui.” Berne shrugged. “Either women were swayed by all this... too much.” She kissed me on the temple. “Or they could not cope with it.”
“Rebecca will, you’ll see.” I sounded like I was confident. “She loves her.”
“Bonjour!” Stephanie’s face split into a grin.
A man at the back of the salon turned and beamed at her. He looked like he played rugby: Big, bulky, designer stubble and spiky hair.
I glanced at Rebecca who shrugged. “Maybe he’s a gendarme or something?”
That would fit.
“Bebe?” The man said, striding over, Stephanie tucked under his arm. “You have not been here in too long.” He eyed her hair.
Berne waved it off. “I need only to keep it out of my eyes on a site.”
He tutted. “You can look gorgeous and work.”
“She does,” I said. Berne could be covered in muck, soaked, in battered clothes and still look like she could wow any camera.
The man turned to me. “This is so?” He smiled a warm smile. Wow, he had great dental work. “You must be the legendary Pepe, non?”
Legendary? I cleared my throat. “They exaggerate... a lot.”
“So you did not seduce Bebe on a work site?” He raised his eyebrow like he knew full well what the truth was.
I cleared my throat. “It wasn’t quite like that.”
Rebecca stared at me.
“It wasn’t. They give me far too much credit. We were kissing and Viper caught us, that was all.” I had a feeling he didn’t mean that but I was ignoring it.
Rebecca chuckled her smutty chuckle.
“I do not hear of this.” A grin split across his face. “Non, I hear of when you worked on that development.” He hummed. “For the gîtes near Bebe’s home?”
Rebecca stopped laughing.
Berne chuckled a husky chuckle; Stephanie giggled and I,
I found the shampoo display interesting. “Don’t know what you mean.”
“Pippa Saunders!” Rebecca had her hands on her hips. “I let you loose on French soil and you scandalise yourself.” Her teasing tone said it all. Yeah, she’d become used to discovering that I’d been a lot... freer... as a nineteen-year-old.
“She had a vest on, she was all dusty.” I shrugged, managing to glance at Rebecca. “So she seduced me.”
Rebecca cocked her head. “Yeah, you didn’t stand a chance.” She turned to the man. “So, who are you, and how many more tales can you give me as ammunition?”
He chuckled. His eyes twinkled. “I’m Sergio and you must be Babs’s girl.”
He held out his hand.
Rebecca blinked a few times.
“Helps if you shake it,” I whispered, bumping her hip.
“Right,” she mumbled. “It’s just no one has ever called me that before.”
I took Sergio’s hand and he kissed it. I blushed. I was a sucker for French people.
“So we make you look even more gorgeous, come.” He took my hand and led us upstairs. I glanced back to check but, yup, the customers were watching us with curiosity... Then it hit me like a shovel.
“You’re Sergio?” I gawped at him like the numbskull I was. “As in...” I pointed to the name on the wall.
“Oui, for my crimes.” He winked at me and sat me in the chair. Berne, Stephanie and Rebecca took up seats beside me.
“But you’re so...” How did I say this without him shaving my head in retaliation? “Rugged.” Ooh, good recovery.
“Rugged?” He gave me a debonair grin. “I like you.” His laugh was a gravelly, deep sound. It suited the strong jaw, the rough and ready feel to him.
I glanced at Stephanie who nodded. “He is very handsome,” she said, squeezing his arm. “He knows this also.”
Sergio nodded. “Oui, how else could I dazzle the women, non?”
Explained the looks from the clientele. They all wanted their hair cut by him. That made me beam. Rebecca smiled back at me. Not bad for two paupers.
“Pepe, you are not meant to look so happy.” Berne raised a bored eyebrow at me. “I need to fight him for you?”
“Depends,” I said, winking at Stephanie. “How does he look in a vest?”
Look at me teasing. I could tease.
Berne cocked her head. “You do not think I look better without?”
Oh wow. The image rolled into my mind, my body hummed in response and I was quite sure that I sighed.
Berne’s chuckle said enough: That’s why I didn’t tease, she just teased right back.
“That shade of pink looks great on you, Pip,” Rebecca said with a snigger.
“Dynamo,” I shot back.
Rebecca grinned.
“See, you’re just as much as a sucker as I am.” I nodded to Sergio. “So are you making us look like models?”
“I make you look much better than this.” He smiled then eyed Rebecca’s hair. “But the crazy lemon needs to go.”
Rebecca frowned.
I chuckled. Crazy lemon. Yeah, she was that and then some.
Chapter 13
Two hours later, I was alone in a room with a mirror too tall for me to see into; I’d been attacked with more beauty products than I knew existed, and it felt like someone had tried hacking through my scalp, search
ed for my brain and failed, so they’d kept trying, over and over.
I stared around the room, bored. It was one of those modern posh places with minimal furniture and white walls. With only the tiny mirror, it reminded me of an interrogation room—not that I knew what they looked like but still, Sergio could stride in with rubber gloves and demand to know where my chocolate stash was.
Still bored, I swung my legs. Why did hairdressers always make the chairs too high for you to touch the floor? I was a red hat short of a gnome. I spotted the surgical tray of hairdressing stuff and glanced at the door. Ah well... I picked up a pair of scissors. “Hand me the thinning scissors, stat. This mullet needs some shape.” I made the beeping sounds, snipping at the imaginary mullet.
“Pepe, you make me fall in love,” Stephanie purred from somewhere behind me.
I shrieked, threw the scissors, tried to dive for them but flailed my leg out, kicked the table in front and sent it clattering over. Right.
Stephanie burst into laughter as she appeared beside me with her hair swishing like a commercial.
“I was um... practising?”
She raised an eyebrow and slunk onto one hip, hands on her belt. There was her inner gendarme then. “This is true?”
I nodded. “Yes. The table attacked me.”
“If this is so, it is better you assaulted it back, oui?” She winked at me and picked up the table and its contents.
I still couldn’t touch the floor so watched her as she tided the table. Sergio had done something with her hair, but what? Whatever it was defined her high cheek bones... and, I stared more than sane people did, I was sure of it.
“Have you ever thought about being a model?” I sighed. Now I was staring and sounded flirty.
She smiled, squeezed my shoulder and leaned against the wall. “Non. I have no desire to freeze, be weighed, told I am not standing the right way and to give the photographer something... more.” She pulled a pose, jutting out her chin with a pout that would have made old Vivienne the-Viper-fish-lips proud.
I laughed, then blushed, then laughed again. It had to be a condition of some sort. “You sound like you know from experience?”
She winked at me.
“Did you really love Emilie?” I didn’t know how many times I’d thought it but I just couldn’t understand how Stephanie was so heartbroken.
“I fell in love with the idea of her,” she whispered, staring down at her glossy nails. “She was this strong woman, older... which is always sexy, non?”
Emilie didn’t look remotely attractive. Even without the scowl and the no blinking, she was still... mean.
“She was always so much in control.” She picked at her trousers. “When I was younger, I was drawn to this. I lost my brother... I thought she offered stability, love.”
“So she was nice then?” I couldn’t imagine it. She made Viper look happy.
“Charming more so. She was very kind, she spends much time on romance.” Stephanie sighed. “Or so I think. I did not fit in with her family, with her friends, I feel... like I am only for show.”
“What made you leave?” Had it really been Emilie saying she loved Berne?
“She demanded I break my friendship with Erique. I refuse.” Heartache flowed through her clear eyes. It hurt to see it. “I was not the only woman who she spends her time with. At first, she took much care to hide it and I did not think she would want anyone else.” She chewed on her lip. “Then she is less guarded. The more I draw away, the more she is open about these women and the more she demands I am isolated.”
“There were a lot of women?” What was Emilie doing, bribing them? Who’d voluntarily be wooed by her?
“Over the years, oui. She has money, a family name.” Stephanie stared at her nails. “It wounds me... here.” She tapped her chest. “She is hard to...”
“Stand up to?” She sounded like a bully.
“Oui. So I am adrift from my friends and realise that she owns everything I have.” She sighed. “I used to think I was lucky to be her lover.”
“How is that lucky?” I frowned.
“Because I grew up where I did.” She cleared her throat. “When I first join the gendarme, I sleep on Erique’s floor...” She smiled. “He is a wonderful man, like his sister, so good in heart.”
“Did you ever think about Erique?” The pair of them would have been one gorgeous couple.
“Non, I know too much of him.” She smiled, tapping her nose. “His heart does not like to settle.”
“But Emilie thought you did like him?” I folded my arms. “I don’t know why Berne, why Babs, talk to her at all.”
“She is not nice to me mais...” She shrugged. “They were not her lovers, non?” She stared at her feet. “I am happy not to fall in love for a while.”
“Unless you fall in love with the right person?” I smiled at her.
She glanced at the doorway with a half-smile and placed her finger over her lips. “Only you... and Emilie know this.”
“I hear Emilie?” Sergio said with a tut as he strode in. “You speak of her again? Non.” He tutted again. “I tell you to leave many years ago.” I could see him in the mirror, just. He was focused on my hair, deep in contemplation. “I tell you she tries to make Bebe love her.”
I sucked in a breath. “If she tries it again, I’ll poke her in the eye.”
Stephanie smiled. “You will not need to. Bebe has been only interested in you since you meet.” She met my eyes. “It would only take one or two glasses of wine and she would speak of you.”
Sergio continued to stare out my hair, his hand hovering over one strand and I winced. I didn’t know what Berne had said under the influence of said wine.
“Yes, well, Emilie can’t have her.” I folded my arms. “She can’t have you either and she’s mean.”
“Oui, she is never warm, never caring,” Sergio muttered and shut one eye, focus still on my hair.
It was a solo hair, what was the issue? Okay, so it liked to stand up in the morning like I’d stuck a feather in my head. It was an individual. Anything strong enough to withstand a hard hat and still jut out had my respect.
“It does not matter, she will still take the business. I will still have to sell my car and hope that I can find another job.” She shrugged as if trying to hide the wobble in her voice. “I will start again.”
“You’re stuck with us until you have somewhere to live that is warm and safe.” I wagged my finger at her.
“You don’t have to do this.” She squeezed my hand. “I will find some way to make it work.”
“I know I don’t have to but I’m going to and you’ll have to accept it.” I nodded. Rebecca had been a wreck when her father had kicked her out. She could well have been on the street but I wasn’t going to see that happen. I wasn’t going to let it happen to Stephanie either.
“Bebe chose the right woman to adore,” Stephanie whispered with a smile.
“Oui,” Sergio grunted. “Now we need to help you do the same.” He turned to her. “How about that gorgeous lawyer I introduce you to the other day?” He raised his eyebrows. “She was full of the twinkle for you, non?”
Stephanie sighed. “I am not in the right place for this.” She shook her head. “Besides, she talks to my chest the whole time.”
“Maybe she just liked your necklace?” I asked. I knew it kept catching my eye.
Stephanie chuckled. “She gazed lower.”
“Ah.” Couldn’t really say much to that.
“What about that yachtswoman...?” He clicked his fingers, focus still on my hair. “What was her name?”
“Bill.” Stephanie shook her head when I looked at her. “I cannot fall in love with a woman called Bill.”
“It wasn’t Billie?” I couldn’t help but chuckle at the disgusted upturn of her lips. “Billie is a girl’s name sometimes.”
“Non,” Stephanie said. “She calls herself Bill, a nickname, because she has so many of them.” She rolled her eyes.
“Why? Having to pay up doesn’t sound like something to be proud of?” I glanced at Sergio who stuck his tongue out, and moved my hair... a centimetre.
“She is American.” Stephanie raised an eyebrow at Sergio as he snipped at the very tip of that one hair. “It means money, I think.”
“Either way, I’m with you.” I fought the urge to nod. Sergio looked like he was performing surgery. “Bill doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.”
“Merci,” she said, squeezing my knee.
Snip.
Sergio stood back with a big grin. “There, you look parfait.” He brushed down my shoulders and presented me to Stephanie who nodded.
“Like I say, she makes me fall in love.” She fanned herself with a wink. “I hope Bebe does not mind.”
I felt my cheeks burning up and cleared my throat. “Come on, show me what you’ve done with Rebecca.”
Sergio took my arm as Stephanie strolled along beside us. I had no idea what I looked like. The only proper mirrors I’d seen were at the front of the shop—Where the average millionaires sat. He pushed open a door and Rebecca was texting in her chair and, by the naughty grin, it was Babs.
I cocked my head. Her hair was back to its natural red but with gentle blonde highlights and a cut that brought out her twinkly eyes. She looked fantastic. “Wow.”
Stephanie nodded. “She is quite the model, non?” She smiled at Sergio who scoured Rebecca’s head. Maybe he hunted down the sticky-uppy hairs for sport?
“You think it looks good?” Rebecca looked up, her mouth fell open and she gawped at me.
“What?” I swallowed. It didn’t feel like Sergio had shaved my head.
Rebecca groaned.
“Are you alright?” Maybe she had stomach ache? I hurried over to help her but she stared up at me. “What?”
“Pip, wow... I mean... wow...” She gazed up at me. “Wow.”
I smiled. “Back at you. You have lovely eyes.”
Rebecca cleared her throat. “You look so hot.”
