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Really, he should go now. She wasn’t going to be the one to say something like that. Instead, she found herself stepping back, pulling the door open with her, and turning around to check out her salon. This was the first time he’d been here. She found herself hoping it impressed.
“I like the retro theme,” he said.
Audrie nodded, smiling. “I’ve always loved the fifties, and a lot of my customers are older. They get a kick out of it. Customers are always bringing things to me. Like this rug.”
Stepping back, she gestured toward the welcome mat he’d just crossed. The mat was functional, keeping customers from tracking mud and dirt onto her black and white checkered floor, but it also had a green and blue design straight out of the fifties.
She turned and locked the screen door before turning and coming in. She always pulled open the main door, leaving only the screen door, so customers would know the salon was open as they were driving by.
“Have a seat.” She gestured toward the chairs that lined each side of the salon.
“How many stylists do you have?” He didn’t sit, instead standing in the center of the salon, slowly spinning to take it all in.
“Just me and my sister for now.” She laughed. “I guess I have hopes that eventually we’ll grow, but it’s a small town, so unless we can get people in neighboring areas here, this is as big as it gets.”
By then, he’d turned in a full circle. He stopped, facing her, those warm brown eyes focused on her face.
“It was unacceptable, whatever Jessica did,” he said. “I’m not going to excuse her behavior, but in just a week and a half, she’ll be gone, and until then, we have to keep her on set.”
“A week and a half.” Audrie knew that was the timeline, but after what happened today, it felt like a lifetime.
“Then she’ll be flying home and moving onto whatever her next job will be,” he said.
For a long moment, Audrie just stared at him. “I thought I was just filling in for a couple of days until they flew someone out.”
“We’ve had a difficult time finding someone.”
One thing she noticed was he always included himself in discussions of running things on the set. It was always “we.” She figured that had everything to do with the fact his brother was actually the one in charge. She wondered if he’d take as much ownership of things if he was just working as a cowboy consultant for a random production.
“Jessica has a reputation, as I’m sure you can imagine,” he said. “It’s why we were stuck without a hairstylist in the first place. The woman doing makeup has complained about her insisting on being on her phone and acting put out whenever she needs to close her eyes or look up.”
“I can imagine.” Audrie smiled. “I’ve just asked her to lower her head, which makes it easier for her to look at her phone, and gotten attitude.”
“You shouldn’t have to put up with that,” he said. “What would be great is if we could just have you do everyone’s hair but Jessica’s. Unfortunately, she doesn’t seem to know what looks good. She touched up her own hair this morning, and it looked awful.”
That was a little hard to believe. “I’m sure she fixes her own hair when she’s not on set.”
“It’s different when it’s for the camera, as you’ve learned this week. The lights pick up strange things. Plus, I think you’ve already noticed she seems to lack the ability to see herself objectively. We need a professional in there to keep her hair in line.”
It hit Audrie then that he might not be sitting because she wasn’t. She stepped over to her chair and sat, crossing her legs and looking up at him.
“According to your actress, I don’t know what I’m doing,” Audrie said. “And maybe she’s right. I’ve been cutting hair for almost a decade now. I started even before that, practicing on friends and dolls. But cutting hair is not the same as styling it for the big screen.”
He came over and took the chair next to where she sat her customers who were getting more intensive treatments like coloring and straightening. She even had a few clients who got perms.
“I’m not an expert,” he said. “But I’ve been on some movie sets before this week, and you do just as good a job, if not better, than anyone else I’ve seen. The thing is, Jessica was lashing out, and it had nothing to do with your talent and everything to do with her own insecurities.”
Those words took her back to conversations she had with her mom when she was younger and girls at school were being mean to her. They were “insecure” or “jealous.” It could never be that Audrie really was the things those girls accused her of being.
Jessica might be insecure—wasn’t everyone, to some extent? But she also thought she was better than Audrie, and by all measures, she was. She had excelled in a field that was considered the ultimate American dream. She’d had moderate success as a child star and had later made a name for herself in supporting roles and cable movies like the one she was shooting now.
Proving Jessica’s value were the constant comments from locals asking to meet her. The few clients she’d seen this week had begged Audrie to introduce them to Jessica. Nobody was begging anyone for an introduction to Audrie.
“Her issues have to do with her relationship with Peter,” Landon said. “She’s lashing out at you because she can’t take it out on Tracie, and she can’t make Peter jealous by flirting with me because I only have eyes for you.”
For the last couple of minutes, Audrie had avoided looking at Landon. But those words pulled her gaze back to his face. He was staring at her, the sincerity in his eyes nearly taking her breath.
Until he’d said those words, she hadn’t realized just how much she longed to hear them. To hear or see any indication that what she was feeling wasn’t one-sided. But now that the words were out, she had a new problem. What did they do about it?
