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She winked at Evie then turned off her car before they got caught up in another song. “Al’right, Evie-B, time for school.”
There was no protest from the little girl as her mother walked around to the backseat and helped her out of the car. After strapping on her backpack, Evie reached for Nora’s hand and practically led the way to the pre-school. Nora still remembered her daughter’s excitement her first day of class. It had been all she could do not to burst into tears as she watched her little one take her seat with the other students. At the end of the day, Evie relayed every single detail to her mother with such enthusiasm. Nora assumed the novelty of it all would wear thin over the coming weeks—but it was almost Christmas, and Evelyn was just as anxious to get to class as she had been months ago.
“Aunt Darlene’s pickin’ you up today, so I’ll see you after I get off work, okay?”
“Okay, mommy.” No sooner had they reached the front gate, which opened into the school yard, than Evie began to tug away from Nora. “I see Olivia!” she cried, speaking of her best friend. She was always easy to spot. Her mother never let the girl leave the house without a big bow in her hair.
“Evie-B, I know you’re not gonna run off without sayin’ bye to your mommy.”
Evie giggled knowingly before turning toward Nora. She threw her arms around her mother’s hips and tilted her head back in anticipation of the kiss she knew was coming. Before Nora leaned down to dole out her affection, she straightened the headband which kept Evie’s long tresses out of her face and then took hold of her cheeks.
“You be good.”
“I’m always good, mommy,” she chirped innocently.
A half smile curled the corner of Nora’s mouth as she admired her daughter’s face. Honestly, while Evie had her moments, she was a sweetheart with a kind disposition. Somehow, Nora had lucked out with her kid, and there wasn’t a second that went by when she wasn’t grateful for it.
“Love you,” she murmured, leaning down to touch her lips to Evie’s.
“I love you, too, mommy. Can I go now?”
“Yes,” Nora hummed on a laugh. “Have a good day.”
She watched Evie as she skipped toward Olivia and then glanced around for a couple familiar faces. When she spotted Evie’s teacher, she waved and then turned back for her car. She had half a mind to make one last stop before the salon. It had been a couple days since she’d treated herself to a coffee at Rock-N-Joe, and she never needed an excuse to drop in on her friend, Billie. Except, one glance at the clock and she knew coffee would have to wait. She didn’t always book clients first thing in the morning, but she did always make an exception for Barb.
Barb Lancaster was the owner of Sweet Tease Salon, located near the heart of Shelbyville’s Town Square. She’d opened up shop more than a decade ago, and there wasn’t a woman in seven square miles that dared get her hair done anywhere else. At forty-five, she was everything Nora wanted to be when she grew up. Fun, sassy, respected, and as big hearted as she was smart. She often said she wasn’t the richest woman in town, but she’d bet every dollar in her bank account she was one of the happiest.
Nora was twenty-four when she packed her bags and left North Carolina to move back home. She still sang about the heartache she felt leaving the apartment she’d shared with Lawson. He’d left first, deployed on another tour, but there was a loneliness he’d left behind; a loneliness she couldn’t bear anymore; a loneliness that pushed her out of the life she thoughtshe’d live and back to the life she’d left. There wasn’t much to be happy about back then, and certainly nothing to look forward to. Nora had never been so low.
She might not have had a college degree, but Nora was good at cutting hair. Next to writing and playing bluegrass music, it was one of her favorite things to do. She didn’t know a woman alive who could honestly say she didn’t feel like a million bucks after a good wash and a cut. Much like when she had a guitar in her hands, with a client in her seat and pair of scissors in between her fingers, Nora strove to make a person feel seen, heard, and understood. Lyrics and haircuts had more in common than the average person knew.
She’d managed to find someplace to cut while she was in North Carolina—but she knew moving back to Tennessee would be different. Shelby was a small town. Not to mention, until she could get on her feet, she’d planned on staying with her aunt and uncle, and it wouldn’t have worked for her place of employment to be out of town.
Barb wasn’t hiring when Nora walked into Sweet Tease inquiring about a chair, but that didn’t stop her from thinking it over right there on the spot. The way Barb tells it, it was a combination of two things that landed Nora an interview. The look of longing in her green eyes, and her head full of thick, beautiful, chestnut brown hair. Crazy as she thought the owner was, Barb’s idea of an interview was to have Nora cut and style her hair. She gave no instruction—just told her to do what she thought would look good. Nora still remembered how nervous she’d felt. That was, until she ran her fingers through Barb’s strawberry-blonde hair.
Nora walked out of the salon with a job that day, and she’d been cutting Barb’s hair since. But her spot at Sweet Tease was more than a job, and Barb was more than her employer. She’d been a ray of sunshine in Nora’s stormiest season. No matterwhat life threw at her, Barb was in Nora’s corner. She was just one of those people.
Over the years, and especially after Evie was born, Nora recognized that moving back to Shelby was one of her better life decisions. It was home, filled with family and friends she could count on when she needed them most. Her life wasn’t perfect, but it was full, and that was enough.
It was a couple minutes after eight when Nora was hurrying toward the store front of the salon. Early as it was, she wasn’t the first to arrive. Arizona was sitting in her chair, one leg folded over the other, a magazine opened up on her knee, and a travel tumbler of coffee in her hand—no doubt halfway empty already. She looked up from the article she was reading and smiled at Nora.
“Hey there, gorgeous.”
Like always, Arizona’s greeting reminded Nora-Jean why she cherished her coworkers so much. Especially Arizona. She was one of the most genuine people Nora had ever had the pleasure of knowing. It’s why she fit in around Shelby, even as a transplant.
She’d been grafted into the fold by way of her husband, Gavin. Arizona was born and raised in the middle of no-where Kentucky and had the accent to prove it. She met Gavin on a girl’s trip to Nashville. They caught each other’s eye at a music festival, had a few drinks, and their whirlwind romance hadn’t begun to cool fifteen years and two boys later.
During the week, Jasper and Percy had Arizona up and about with the sun, so she was usually the first one in the shop. She never complained about being the opener. With her three guys at home, and her days full of chatter with clients, she appreciated the few moments of alone time. It was the only chance she got to sit in her chair with a magazine, a cup of coffee, and the morning’s silence.
She was the kind of beautiful that made you want to look twice. Head full of long, thick, silky blonde hair, eyes as big and blue as the sky, skin so flawless she didn’t bother with makeup, and the prettiest smile. If Gavin wasn’t the respected foreman he was, more men would get caught craning their necks for that second look—but Gavin, nice as he was, wasn’t a small man. Furthermore, he could hide a body on a construction site and no one would be the wiser. Arizona was his and didn’t have eyes for anyone else. Still, he made sure everyone else kept their eyes to themselves.
Arizona was a knockout, but the best part about her was her heart. When she called another woman gorgeous, you believed her.
“Mornin’, AZ,” greeted Nora with a smile of her own.
“I knew for sure Barb would be the next person through that door,” she drawled.
“Yeah, she’s in my chair this mornin’, so I couldn’t drag my feet.”
