Beautiful Outlaw(15)
Without giving me a chance to respond, she grabs my hand, for the hundredth time today, and rushes us out of the store. Walking right into the salon, she smiles at the receptionist. “This is Shay; she wants the works. I just want a mani and pedi.”
The woman looks over her shoulder and sees an empty chair. “Just a sec. Valerie had a cancelation, so she can help you.”
The words barely leave her mouth, before a pretty brunette walks up and motions for me to follow her. “Come with me, please.”
My legs feel boneless as I follow her to the chair. As soon as I sit down, she reaches for my hair. “What are you thinking?”
“I want a cut and color.”
She continues to run her fingers through my long locks. “How would you like it to look?”
Not giving myself a chance to question my decision, I smile. “I want to look like me again.”
Too Damn Good
Bowie
Walking into Nina’s, I see her sitting on the couch reading a book with a half-naked man on the cover. “Hey, Mamá.”
She smiles, when she looks up from her reading. “Hijo, what are you doing here so soon? The way you left so quick after dropping off Shay, I figured it would be a while before I saw your handsome face.”
I walk over to her and place a quick kiss on her cheek, before settling in beside her on the couch. “I have to ride to Alabama on some club business. I’ll probably be gone for a week or two, so I figured I better check in on your houseguest.”
She gives me a look; one that says she doesn’t like me doing this shit. If I’m on the road, she knows I’m always one stop from heading to prison. Even worse, one bullet from being six feet under. “Shay’s not here.”
“Where’s she at?”
“She started her new job today.”
What the fuck? She hasn’t even been here more than a week and she’s already got a job? “Where’s she working?”
“She’s a receptionist at one of the salons in the mall,” She says proudly. “Rachel took her to the mall, the morning after you dropped her off. They went into the salon, and one of the girls said something to her about it being the receptionist’s last day. Her replacement had backed out at the last minute, and no one else had been hired yet. Shay applied for the position and got the job the same day.”
“She didn’t need to do that shit,” I grumble out, not liking the idea of her working.
Her eyes narrow, reminding me that I’m in her home not the clubhouse. In other words, watch my mouth. Trying again, with less profanity, I say, “She didn’t need to get a job.”
“Yes, she did. That girl’s not one for sitting around letting someone take care of her,” Nina says with a nod. “She begged me to let her give me some money for staying here. I wouldn’t let her, of course.”
“I already got her covered. Didn’t you tell her?”
Nina throws back her head and laughs, a laugh full of joy. “Oh, I sure did. That’s when she marched out the door. She came back over two hours later, both arms full of groceries.”
“How the hell did she get to the store?”
“She walked,” She replies, with a shake of her head.
What the fuck is wrong with that woman? “The store is over two miles away.”
“Yes, it is. She had no idea where she was going either, only passed by it when Rachel took her to the mall. She ended up getting lost, and it took her even longer than it should have.”
Shit, this is not good. The woman that got off that bus is not the kind of woman that worked as a receptionist; she definitely wasn’t the kind of woman that carried groceries for two miles. “I need to get her something to drive.”
“That’s gonna be kind of hard.” Nina mumbles, leaning into the arm of the couch.
“Why is that? I figured she could just drive my old truck; it’s out back of the house. I’ll have to have a look at it when I get back. It hasn’t been driven in a while, so I don’t want her in it until I know it’s safe.”
“The truck would be fine. Except, she doesn’t know how to drive.”
My chin goes slack at that. How in the hell does someone her age not know how to drive? “Did she tell you that?”
Nina nods, looking almost sad. “She said her mom got sick right before she turned sixteen, some sort of kidney disease, so the whole driver’s license thing was put on hold.”
“What about after that? Why didn’t her husband teach her?”
“I didn’t even know she had a husband,” She looks away, staring towards the window. “She doesn’t talk much about her past, and when she does, she keeps it basic. She told me that she respects me too much to lie, but that she couldn’t tell me the truth either.”