'Tis the Season: Under the Christmas Tree / Midnight Confessions / Backward Glance

No. “Absolutely. Or I’m leaving the puppies all to you without helping.”

“Just come tomorrow after work. Swing by home and feed your cat first so you don’t have to be in a hurry to leave.” He gave her a very polite kiss on the cheek that just oozed with suggestiveness. “I’ll see you then.”

Four (#ulink_7a4f9925-f7ef-5c2d-935f-0b1350b5b74f)

Christmastime in a beauty shop was always frantic and the Clip and Curl was no exception. There were less than two weeks till Christmas and Annie’s clientele, the clientele of the whole shop, wanted to look their best for parties, open houses, family visits, neighborhood gatherings. Appointments were one after the other. There was a lot of gossip, a lot of excited chatter. Annie was pretty quiet the next day, but there was plenty of talk in the place to cover the void.

Pam, who was older than Annie by a few years and had been married for ten, was training to be the assistant manager. While Annie was applying foil to strips of hair for highlighting, Pam approached with the appointment book in her hands. “We have three choices. We can turn away some of our best regular customers, stay open till nine a couple of nights or open up the next two Mondays to fit them in.”

“Why don’t people schedule ahead of time?” Annie asked.

“As you taught me, they expect to be accommodated and we can either do that or lose them to another shop.”

“Staying late is hard for me and you have a family. I don’t want to stick you with that duty,” Annie said. Then after thinking about it, she said, “Maybe I should work nights. That would settle that.”

“Settle what?” Pam asked, holding the large appointment book in her crossed arms, against her chest.

“Oh, that guy. The vet. You know.”

“Know what?”

“The guy at the bar, Jack, he said they couldn’t keep the litter of puppies there anymore. The dogs are doing very well, growing, which means they’ll soon be up to their eyeballs in puppy poop. Not a real appetizing prospect for a restaurant. So Jack said that’s it, they have to go. Dr. Jensen took them to his house, which is part of the whole stable-and-vet-clinic operation. And since I made a commitment to help...he’s counting on me coming over after work.”

“To his house?”

“Yeah. He said if I’d help, he’d thaw something for us to eat. We’ve been having a beer and dinner at that bar.”

“Listen, it’s up to you, Annie. It’s your shop. My husband’s on board to get the kids from school and take care of their dinner and homework. You know I need whatever hours...”

“Then you make the decision,” Annie said.

Pam lowered the appointment book and held it against her thigh. “Annie, I don’t need you to stay if the shop is open till nine or open Mondays for a couple of weeks. Two of the girls are willing to work a little extra to help pay for Christmas. But you have to feel comfortable about leaving me in charge. And I don’t want to push you to do that before you’re ready. You’ve run a pretty tight, one-woman show here.”

“Have I?”

Pam nodded. “But I don’t blame you, Annie. This is your shop, your investment, your responsibility. Whenever you think I’m ready, I’m glad to help.”

“Thing is, he kissed me.”

It became very quiet in the shop. Pam’s mouth dropped open.

“Nuts,” Annie said. There were no ears gifted with supersonic hearing like those found in a beauty shop, despite the noise of dryers and running water. She looked around the small shop. It was tiny—three chairs on each side of the room. Two dryers and two deep sinks in back. Behind that was their break room and Annie’s little office.

In the salon now were women in various stages of beautifying, rods, rollers, foils or back-combed tresses blooming from their heads. Beauticians with blow-dryers, curling irons, combs and brushes in their hands, poised over those heads. All silent. All waiting. “Talk among yourselves,” Annie instructed.

“Lotsa luck,” Pam said. “Is this guy, this vet, in any way appealing?”

Annie’s cheeks got a little rosy.

“Is he cute?” Pam asked.

Annie leaned toward Pam and whispered, “You’d wet yourself.”

And Pam’s cheeks got a little pink. “Whew.”

“Well, tell us about him,” someone said.

“Yeah, what kind of guy is he?”

“Should you call the police or wear something with a real low neckline?”

“How old is he? How many times has he been married? Because that’s key. Believe me!”

“Listen, I can’t talk about this,” Annie said. “I’ve known the man barely a week! And only because of these puppies! Honestly, if it weren’t for these puppies, we wouldn’t even know about each other. He’s a large-animal vet. He was just doing the bartender, Jack, a favor by looking at the orphaned litter.”

“Um, Annie, don’t you have large animals? Who’s your vet?”

“Well, he is, but I didn’t know that. I mean, my folks keep an eye on the horses and Erasmus. My bull,” she clarified for those confused stares in the room. “When they said they called Doc Jensen to the farm, I thanked them and paid the bill. I mean, it hardly ever happens that the horses or the bull needs something. I thought he was the same Doc Jensen who’d been looking after our animals since I was in diapers. But it turned out to be his son. Doc Jensen Junior.” She cleared her throat. “He’s thirty-two. And never been married.”

“Whoa,” someone said. Another woman whistled.

“He’s had girlfriends,” Annie said. “Not from around here. But when he came up here to take over his dad’s practice a couple of years ago, he brought a young buxom blonde fiancée with him and it didn’t work out, but—”

“Low neckline,” someone advised.

“Tight jeans. Snug, anyway. I mean this in the nicest way, but if you could think about a little extra makeup, like eyeliner and lip liner,” someone said.

“You don’t need that,” Pam said quietly.

“I was thinking that maybe being unavailable would be a good—”

“No!” three women said at once.

“Why would you do that?” Pam asked.

“He’s just too damn sure of himself,” Annie answered.

“Well, how about this,” Pam said. “Maybe you could try being sure of yourself?”

Annie thought about that for a second. “See, that’s the hard part.”

* * *

Usually Annie was very confident. She knew she was intelligent; she was a small-business owner and it was going well. She was independent and doubted that would ever change, even once she partnered up. And as for her modest upbringing, she had not yet met the person she’d trade places with. Life on the farm was rich in many ways. She might’ve had a moment of shallow jealousy over the skinny, fancy, city girl who could attract not only Nathaniel’s attention, but acquire a big engagement rock, as well, but all that had passed pretty quickly.

There was one area in her life where her confidence was a little shaky, however. She’d barely recovered from Ed. She’d put a lot of faith and trust in a man who’d clearly been using her. If this new guy, the big-shot vet, was really interested in her, he’d have some proving to do. She wasn’t going to be played for a fool. And she certainly wasn’t going to be the only available two-legged female he’d run across lately.

Later that day after work, she fed Ahab, dug around in her refrigerator and fluffed up a nice green salad, fixed a plate of frosted brownies and headed for Nate’s place.