“I think so,” I said. “Let me make a call.”
CHAPTER 8
LEE
There were a bunch of different texts you could send after fucking around with someone in your workplace earlier that afternoon, but the one I got from Chase didn’t make any sense at all.
Is your mom a hairdresser?
I looked at it for a while. Then I put my phone down. Then I looked at it again, and it still said that.
Yes.
“Earth to Lee,” Mom teased. “I asked if you needed me to throw your uniform in the wash? But feel free to get around to it yourself.”
“No, that’d be great,” I said. “I’ll go change.”
I kept my phone with me, and I was half into a pair of sweatpants when I got the reply from Chase.
I need a favor.
My first thought was that he wanted a trim. His hair was kind of messy. But that didn’t seem like the kind of thing Chase wouldask for. Hell, I couldn’t think of anything Chase would willingly ask me for.
Apart from your dick.
I shut that thought down fast.
My thumb hovered over the keyboard, but before I could reply, a new message popped up.
Please. It’s an emergency.
Since I’d never heard that word come out of Chase’s mouth, I believed him. Instead of texting back, I called.
“Hey,” he said, sounding wary.
“Hey. So what’s going on?”
“Uh.” I could hear a kid crying in the background and then muffled sounds as Chase moved away from the noise. “My friend’s kid. She gave herself a haircut. It’s real bad, and we can’t find anywhere that’s open to fix it. She’s only in kindergarten.”
There was a lot his tone was telling me that his words weren’t, like how much he really, really didn’t want to be making this call. And how, if given the choice, he wouldn’t cross the street to piss on me even if I was on fire. In fact, if I was ever on fire in the street, he’d be the one standing there holding the can of gasoline and the matches.
But he was calling anyway. So maybe he was capable of being a decent human being after all, at least where this kid was involved.
Well, half-decent, but it was a start.
“Hang on,” I said. “I’ll go ask her.”
I hitched my sweatpants up and headed back down the hall. Mom was in the laundry room, shoving clothes into the washer.
“Where’s your uniform?” she asked me.
“I’ll get it,” I said. “Hey, you remember Chase from earlier?”
“Sure.”
“He knows a little kid who’s cut her hair and she needs it fixed. He wants to know if you can help out?”
Mom winced. She’d seen some hair disasters in her lifetime, that was for sure. “Well, I can’t make any promises but tell him to bring her around.”
