Risa bit her lip. “Yes and yes. Can we talk for a sec?”
“Of course, honey!” Beth Ann tugged the door to her small salon back open and gestured for Risa to enter. “Come on in. I can put out a bowl of water for your piggy. Does he like cheese and crackers? Celery? I’ve got a few things in the mini fridge.”
“Celery,” Risa said, slipping inside into the cool air-conditioning. The day wasn’t hot yet, but it was definitely going to be a muggy one. “No one here this morning?”
“I have a ten A.M.,” Beth Ann said, flipping the lock on the door and then turning around her closed sign before heading to the back of the salon. Risa heard the blonde rooting about in the fridge, then watched her pull out a small bowl and pour a water bottle into it. “Which gives us plenty of time to chat. Have a seat.” She gestured at the salon chair. “Want me to do your nails? Eyebrows?”
“Yes to both?” Risa said with a faint smile, dropping Gregory’s leash. The pig immediately ran for the bowl and began to drink in noisy gulps. Risa took the empty chair at Beth Ann’s nail station and sat.
“Both, hmm?” Beth Ann gave her a knowing look. “This billionaire must be cute. He single?”
“I sure hope so,” Risa said, and grimaced. “Considering I slept with him last night.”
Beth Ann gave her a wide-eyed look. “You did?”
Risa explained as much as she could about the situation—how she’d had such a crush on him for so very long. How he’d been lonely and staring at her with his hot eyes. How he’d been a little drunk and vulnerable and she’d more or less jumped him. “And I don’t regret it. Shouldn’t I regret it?”
“Not if he’s hot,” Beth Ann said in a practical voice, plugging in the wax heater and then setting a timer. “Does he like Gregory?”
“Not really,” Risa said. At her friend’s dismayed look, she rushed on, “He says he’s too busy to take care of a pig. He didn’t know it was a pig, either. He thought it was a dog. I was sitting right there when he tried to call a shelter to come and pick him up. You know that would have killed Pearl.” She twisted her hands in her lap, and then admitted the rest. “This morning, he offered me thirty grand if I’d go live with him for the next few weeks and show him how to take care of Gregory.”#p#分页标题#e#
Beth Ann said nothing for a long moment, and then leaned over to stir the heating wax. “Mmmhmmm.”
Risa couldn’t tell if that was a good mhmm or a bad mhmm. So she continued, “And I think I’m going to do it. I don’t have to be in Dallas right away, not really. And it’d be good to show him how to love and care for Gregory. I know that if he has some time with him, he’ll get attached. It’s impossible not to love Gregory. And someone’s got to do the job. Did you know he tried to feed the poor thing tuna casserole this morning?”
“Mmmhmmm.” Beth Ann walked to the shelf of nail polishes and picked up a bottle of pale pink, then began to shake it.
“So what do you think?”
The blonde paused in her nail-polish shaking. “You’re asking my opinion? Why?”
Risa twisted her hands. “You don’t think this is dangerously close to . . . you know . . . hooking?”
Beth Ann laughed. “Did he offer you thirty grand to sleep with him?”
“Well, no. But I’m going to sleep with him anyhow.”
“Then it’s not hooking,” she said bluntly. “It’s a case of him being really hot and needing a service you provide. Don’t look at it like hooking. Look at it like, I don’t know. Pig nannying.”
Risa gave a skeptical snort. “That’s a damn expensive nanny.”
“Hey, if you want a specialist, sometimes you have to fork out a little more than you’d expect.” Beth Ann’s eyes twinkled with amusement. “It sounds good to me, honey. Thirty grand would set you on your feet when you go to Dallas. In the meantime, you can have your cake and eat it, too.”
With that, Risa began to feel better. She smiled at her friend. “So you don’t think I’m selling myself too cheap?”
“Of course not.” With a mischievous grin, Beth Ann picked up a nail file and then Risa’s hand. “You tell that handsome, rich man that you know the best hairdresser in town, and she’s willing to be bought, too.”
Risa laughed.
* * *
The drive to Houston was more uneventful than Risa had expected.
Gregory wasn’t a good traveler—though the pig was good natured and easygoing most of the time, he didn’t like being inside a car. He squealed with fright and huddled at Risa’s feet for the entire drive, and the driver cast her annoyed looks in the rearview mirror time and time again as she tried in vain to calm the pig down. Travis hadn’t said a thing, though.