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“I, uh, well… Yes, I suppose he is.”
“He was—and is—the sexiest man I’ve ever known. If you’re going to spend a lifetime with a man, make sure he does it for you that way, or you’ll have nothing but trouble.”
“You’re not advocating premarital sex, are you, Gram?”
“You wouldn’t buy a car without test-driving it, would you?”
“Gram!”
“Well, would you?”
Cindy wanted to die from laughter and embarrassment. “No, I wouldn’t.”
“Then you shouldn’t shackle yourself to a man without making sure he’s bringing his A game in every possible way, especially in the bedroom. Or the backyard. Or wherever floats your boat. Just don’t get caught by the police if you’re outside.”
“Have you had a stroke I didn’t hear about?”
Adele’s laughter echoed through the shop. “Don’t be a fuddy-duddy, Cynthia.”
“Does Mom know you had a stroke and didn’t tell us?”
“Your mother is well aware that her mother may be an old lady, but she’s still got gas in her tank.” Giving Cindy a saucy look in the mirror, she added, “Your grandfather is also aware.”
“Lalalalalala, I can’t hear you.”
“Take your sexy Jace for a ride and thank me afterward.”
“What are you hearing about the weather forecast?”
That brought more laughter from her incorrigible grandmother.
As Cindy blow-dried her hair, she thought about what Adele had said and had to admit, she had a point. And Cindy certainly wasn’t opposed to getting busy with her new roommate. Her biggest concern since he’d moved in had been awkwardness at home if she took a romantic chance on him and it didn’t work out. But she had options if that happened. She could always move in with her mom and Charlie for a short time until she found a new place to rent.
The legacy of her upbringing was that she always had an exit strategy if she found herself in an uncomfortable situation. No matter where she was or what she was doing, she kept her back to the wall with an eye on the door so she could leave if necessary. Metaphorically speaking, that was. Walking away was almost second nature to her. It was almost too easy, and other men she’d dated had accused her of giving up without a fight.
That was the problem. She had no fight left in her. If there was going to be a fight, she was gone. Once, back in Dallas, an argument had broken out in the shop between two of her coworkers that had had Cindy’s heart racing and her hands shaking in a matter of seconds as the old trauma resurfaced to remind her it was always there. She’d walked out the back door and straight to her car to go home.
Laverne had called later to apologize and tell her the two women involved in the screaming match had been fired. It’d taken Cindy all night to recover from the altercation and start to feel like herself again.
She shut off the hair dryer and ran the brush through her grandmother’s soft white hair. Then she added the curls on top that Adele always asked for and brushed it out again, adding some spray. “What do you think?”
“You’re a magician.”
“Only when I have a beautiful subject to work with.” She kissed her grandmother’s cheek, unsnapped the cape and brushed some stray hair off Adele’s neck.
Adele got up like she was sixty rather than eighty-five and enveloped Cindy in a warm hug, the scent of Dior perfume bringing back a thousand memories of the best times of Cindy’s life. “Thank you, my love.”
“My pleasure, as always, and a reminder that this one is on me. I let you pay last time.”
“You can’t give away your talents for free,” she said, as she did every time Cindy refused payment from her.
“I can give away my talents to you any time I wish to, and that’s that.”
“So fresh to your old granny.”
“My granny is not old.”
“But my granddaughter is fresh.”
