Page 153 of When Love Takes Root

Her breath changed.

The salon moved around us, but the back corner gave us a little pocket of privacy. Not enough for what I wanted. Enough for me to take the napkin from her hand and brush my fingers along hers before stepping back.

She watched me. “You keep doing that.”

“What?”

“Touching me like you’re trying not to touch me.”

I looked at her mouth, then back at her eyes. “Because I’m at your job.”

“And if we weren’t at my job?”

“That’s a different conversation.”

Her cheeks warmed, but she didn’t look away.

“Josiah.”

“Yes?”

Her eyes softened. “Thank you for respecting me in here.”

That went deeper than she knew.

“Always.”

She nodded, then glanced toward the front when someone called her name. Before she walked away, she leaned close enough for her voice to reach only me.

“And thank you for not acting like this morning made me less worthy of that respect.”

My chest tightened.

I wanted to pull her into me. I wanted to tell her that nothing about wanting me had made her smaller in my eyes. Trusting me had made her feel even more precious. But her client called again, and I’d already said enough in rooms where people could overhear.

So I took her hand, turned it palm-up, and kissed the center of it once.

Her lips parted.

I let her go.

Juice appeared from behind the dryer bank with a microfiber cloth in his hand, but he wasn’t grinning when he looked at me. Not at first. His eyes moved toward Celeste, who stood near the front desk with the inspection paper close and that small, relieved smile lingering on her face like it had finally found somewhere safe to rest.

“You good?”

I wiped my hands on a towel. “Yeah.”

He gave me a look. “You know lying in a salon is dangerous. Too many women in here with discernment and edge control.”

That pulled a short laugh out of me. “I’m good.”

Juice’s voice carried less joke. “You are. That’s what I’m saying. You look good. Not fine. Don’t get excited. I mean you look like something in you unclenched.”

I looked away from him.

He saw that too.

Juice stepped beside me, both of us facing the front like the dryers needed supervision. “I remember after Domonique. You didn’t crash out. You didn’t get bitter loud. You just got real polished with your distance. Everybody could call you. Everybody could count on you. But couldn’t nobody really get to you unless you handed them a visitor badge and watched the clock.”