Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Gracen’s brow dipped. “What?”
“You know, they buffer between you guys with conversation. I like listening in more than I do joining in, you know what I mean?”
“I gues—”
“Point is,” Margot interjected, cocking an auburn eyebrow high and narrowing her attention in on Gracen, she quickly added, “I was starting to think I might be working alone.”
Jesus Christ.
Gracen scoffed at the idea. “We’ve had a full day, talked to clients. It wasn’t that quiet, Margot. Come on. Be serious.”
“I am. Why do you think I’m asking again?”
God.
They really were that obvious.
At Gracen’s silence, Margot shrugged her shoulders. “I’m just saying, okay?”
No, it wasn’t okay.
Without a doubt, if Gracen just snapped at Margot to leave it alone, the curly redhead would. She didn’t overstep her boundaries when it came to the business side of things. She made good money without having to worry about all the other bills that came along with owning a business, but still had the set-up, control, and self-sufficiency at the Haus that she was practically her own boss. Each of the women handled their own clients, taking appointments for them, and seeing the workday through. They didn’t technically answer to each other unless it was owner-determined.
All in all, she had it easy there. Margot wouldn’t fuck that up, but at the same time, two years of working together with Gracen and Delaney led the three into an easy friendship.
As a friend, Margot sensed something wrong. It also happened to be between her employers. A tricky situation, certainly.
Gracen tried to keep that in mind as she pulled in a deep breath meant to quell her irritation. Grating on her nerves since the fight with Delaney that morning, it had only gotten worse the longer the two worked in silence at their respective stations separated by just twenty feet on gleaming hardwood floors and sunshine spilling in through the tall windows.
Apparently, they shouldn’t have agreed to talk about it later. The wait only served to give Gracen time to stew in her thoughts and feelings about the entire engagement situation, and Delaney’s prior knowledge. Or rather, all she could think about was how it left her staring in the mirror asking the same questions she had all those years ago when Sonny Masterson left her heartbroken while a dial tone spelled out the end of more than just their phone call.
Why me?
Why not me?
What’s not good enough about me?
It really wasn’t Delaney’s fault that those old insecurities and unanswered questions haunted Gracen throughout the day. She hadn’t ended their long-term relationship with little else but a coldly delivered it’s over. In fact, Delaney was there to pick up Gracen’s shattered pieces.
Maybe that was it.
The loyalty.
Or lack of it.
Delaney knew good and well how Sonny left Gracen, and how it fucked with her head for ... Honestly, it seemed like that side of things wasn’t over yet, right? Gracen couldn’t stop thinking about it, after all.
“Anyway,” Margot said, snapping Gracen out of her internal battle that sucked her inside a whirlwind of hell. Glancing sideways, Gracen found the redhead with a puckered mouth and wide-eyed expression that said she was holding something back.
“What?” Gracen snapped.
“You don’t have to say it for something to be wrong. That’s all.” Margot pointed at something beyond the windows overlooking the parking lot in front of the salon that extended to the road, and the river on the other side. “There’s Delaney. Just give me some head’s up if it’s going to affect my situation here, all right? Give me that respect at least.”
Gracen didn’t react to the familiar rumble of the Jeep’s engine belonging to Delaney cutting off in her parking spot closest to the front doors. She did muster up what she hoped was a confident smile for Margot.
“No worries,” she told Margot. “Nothing’s affecting what we’ve got going on here at the Haus.”
Margot nodded over exaggeratedly as the bell over the front doors jingled. “Right, you say that now.”
“It’s true!”
“What is?” Delaney asked at Gracen’s back.
Margot had already disappeared up the stairwell with only the echo of her footsteps left to answer Delaney’s question.
“Nothing,” Gracen said as she went back to her station.
“You sure?”
“Positive, Delaney. We’ve got clients coming in.”
The station and chair she used needed cleaned, and that gave Gracen a distraction to use while she dropped combs and scissors into the glass jar of Barbicide waiting to disinfect her tools. Soon, the high school would let their students out for the day, and the remainder of the Haus schedule for the day would filter in to be the buffer to fill the silence between Gracen and Delaney.
Not that it would help with Gracen’s growing bitterness. The festering pit in her stomach had turned into a fist squeezing her insides to death.
No, that felt like it was here to stay.
*
The three hours after Valley High let students out for the day tended to be smooth sailing for the Haus and its clients. Teenagers, mostly girls with a few boys thrown in the mix—some with friends, others with adults who were either paying or signing legal waivers upstairs for Margot—flooded the three levels of the salon from the black chairs and benches under the windows on the bottom floor to the gallery over the piercing studio where they waited for their names to be called.