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19
Any other day, Audrie would be thrilled to find her sister at the salon. But as she spotted Hope’s car in the parking lot, she thought about moving on. She could hang out at home until her next appointment in forty-five minutes.
The request to meet at the salon instead of the ranch had been a last-minute thing. Audrie had fought back tears as she’d tapped the words on the screen, then waited for a response. Then she’d hightailed it off the ranch and toward the salon, which she was now approaching.
But instead of continuing home, Audrie pulled into the parking lot and took the space next to Hope’s. Maybe her sister’s company would be good for her.
There was another car in the parking lot, too, indicating her sister was with a client. That meant Audrie would be forced to make small talk and not discuss what had happened on set. The last thing she wanted to do was admit to her sister that she’d put herself in yet another situation where she’d fallen for the wrong guy.
Ms. Bosley, who worked at the one-room library next to the post office, was seated in Hope’s chair. Both of them looked up, big smiles on their faces, as Audrie walked in.
“If it isn’t the hair stylist to the stars,” Ms. Bosley said.
Audrie forced a smile to her face. That smile might fool Ms. Bosley, but it wouldn’t fool her sister.
“Is that what I’m known as these days?” Audrie joked.
“Everyone’s talking about you,” Ms. Bosley said. “If you weren’t already cutting every head of hair in town, people would be lining up around the block to get their hair done by you.”
Yeah, that was the problem. With her business, it could never grow beyond what it already was. But she couldn’t exactly make a living as a hairstylist to the stars, as Ms. Bosley put it. Not here in the middle of nowhere, anyway.
“Did you finish up early?” Hope resumed spraying Ms. Bosley’s hair. That meant she was finishing up with this customer.
“You could say that.” Audrie headed over to her station and tucked her purse into the cabinet beneath her counter. She then grabbed her apron and tied it around her before plopping down in her chair. “They finally found someone to do hair. She’s there now.”
Hope frowned and glanced back over her shoulder at the clock. “But isn’t this the last day of shooting? Why switch now? They could just start Monday morning with the next crop of stars.”
“That was probably the plan.” Audrie shrugged. “I figured the new stylist may as well start now, and I can come back here and take care of my customers. I have someone coming in a little while.”
Hope was still spraying, but her eyes were on her sister. They knew each other better than anyone. It would be tough to hide from Hope why she really left the set.
“I hear there’s a very handsome fella helping out over there on that film set,” Ms. Bosley said. “Retired cowboy.”
“That’s the consultant, right?” Hope asked.
“His name is Landon, and he’s telling them how cowboys do things,” Ms. Bosley said.
“Huh,” Audrie said.
The word came out before she could stop it. Cowboy consultant. Right. He was a partner in his brother’s business. He could have at least been honest about it.
That was her big problem with it all. While he was dismissing Audrie as some schoolgirl with an unrequited crush, he didn’t happen to mention that he’d done that for the money. She risked damaging his business. The very least he could have done was tell her they just had to play it cool until Jessica left. But no, he’d let her wonder why he’d behaved that way.
“If you ask me, there’s no need for a cowboy consultant at Snowy Canyon Ranch,” Ms. Bosley said. “Why, Christian Snow is the best guy to ask how to wrangle horses and cows. You’ve got your own expert living right there.”
Audrie supposed she should be relieved that Ms. Bosley hadn’t caught her reaction to the cowboy consultant being mentioned. She’d even changed the subject to Christian. Audrie should jump on that opportunity and steer the topic in Christian’s direction.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have the energy to do that right now. She wanted to collapse on her bed, pull her sheets up over her head, and stay there until she got over Landon Dixon for good.
“You’re all finished up,” Hope said, spinning Ms. Bosley around to look in the mirror.
Ms. Bosley immediately launched into a conversation about her grandson as she wrote out a personal check for her haircut. Yes, they still had customers who paid by personal check. Nearly half of them, actually. Audrie had set up one of those social media payment accounts so people could pay her on their phones, but only three customers took advantage of that. The rest paid either by check or plastic.
Only as Ms. Bosley walked out the door did it hit Audrie that she’d have to face her sister alone. She was not prepared to have this conversation.
“Okay, so what happened?” Hope asked as soon as the door was safely closed behind Ms. Bosley.
Hope had grabbed a broom and was sweeping up as they always did as soon as a customer left. Audrie felt like she should busy herself doing something, but she couldn’t seem to move from that chair. She just hoped she could get up when her customer came in.
