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“Anytime,” she said and I could hear her smile through the phone and it made me smile, too, despite myself. “I’ll see you soon.”
That salon was only a short trip away. I straightened my nice blouse and walked toward the chain, praying they’d give me a chance. I’d gotten my license to do hair in South Carolina before we’d moved here, but I hadn’t yet secured a job.
Luckily, we’d had money we’d received from the government after Andy’s passing, but it wouldn’t last forever and it in no way replaced him. There wasn’t enough money in the world for that.
But still, we needed it and at least it had helped us purchase our new home here in South Carolina.
That didn’t change the fact that I needed a job and pronto. Because I had a feeling a certain teenager would be asking for a car soon. And I wanted more than anything to get her one. I wanted her to have all the things that children with two parents had. I didn’t want her wanting for anything. Because she deserved everything.
So I decided my first course of action was to get into a mainstream salon. I wouldn’t make as much as I did private, but I needed to establish a new clientele. I’d rented a private booth back in Nashville, but I knew that wasn’t in the cards for me here. I had to start somewhere and my hope was in a year to be able to rent a private booth again and to take my gobs and gobs of clients with me.
My morning didn’t go as planned or the way I’d hoped, though. At the first salon I hit up, the manager was busy, so I just ended up leaving my résumé and praying they called me. I then walked three blocks down to another salon, but they were closed on Mondays, but I did find their website, so I’d email them my résumé when I got home. If I didn’t get hired by one of those two places, I’d have to try heading to Columbia for work. It would be farther to travel back and forth each day, but I’d do what I had to.
I told myself it was fine. That we were okay. The first couple of months of mortgage payments were paid. Andy’s old truck was paid off. We were good for a bit and if worse came to worst, I could try renting a private booth and putting some of my work on the Facebook marketplace with some decent prices and maybe I could gain some clients like that.
I was trying to talk myself into not worrying, but I couldn’t seem to stop the thoughts. Maybe it had been a mistake moving here. I’d made a good living in Nashville. And Parker had been happy there, although she didn’t seem to be upset we’d moved here. I think knowing that she was probably going to college here was the biggest catalyst for her mood about our move.
God, I prayed I’d made the right decision. Being a single mom was the worst sometimes. I really missed being able to consult my other half when it came to Parker and her needs and feelings and of course our finances. If I fucked up now, it was all on me.
I texted Miranda I was on the way to her place and got back in my truck, heading that way. She and Holden only lived a six-minute drive from my house, which was nice and sometimes not so nice when Miranda would just pop by.
Bless her heart.
I tried to wipe the worry off my face as I pulled into Holden and Miranda’s driveway. I didn’t want her feeling like she had to babysit me any more than she already did. But if for one second I looked like I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, I had a feeling she’d be staying the night at my house tonight.
So I pinched my pale cheeks until they turned pink and forced a smile on the way up the walk to their door.
Shuffling back and forth awkwardly on the stoop of their adorable house, I rang the doorbell.
Holden opened the door in nothing but a pair of loose basketball shorts and I tried not to notice how he was still in very good shape as he ushered me in and showed me to their living room where Miranda was waiting on the couch with two cups of coffee in front of her on the table. The man may have had one leg, but he was ripped and beyond gorgeous.
What? My husband was dead. I wasn’t.
I wasn’t seated for more than two seconds before she asked how my job hunt went.
“It was good,” I started, telling a little white lie behind my coffee cup. “I went by one place and left my résumé and another was closed, but I found their website, so I can email them.”
She nodded, looking pensive like she wasn’t buying my bullshit, and I was sure she wasn’t because even I wasn’t buying it. “You’ll find something, Emily. You’re a good hairstylist. Work will come. Let’s just get y’all settled first.”
She was right. There was always work for hairdressers, especially good ones, and I was amazing at my job.
“And how are you managing with Parker being a junior this year? And at a new school? She’s growing up. That has to be hard.”
I knew what Miranda was doing. She was trying to get me to let it all out. But no, thanks. That just wasn’t me.
So I just shrugged and took another sip of my coffee before saying, “I’m just so proud of her. She’s such an awesome kid. I know she’ll make good choices.”
And I believed that one hundred percent. So that hadn’t been a lie at all, this time. But that didn’t mean I didn’t worry about other kids and how mean they could be or that I believed she wouldn’t make mistakes. She was fifteen going on sixteen, after all. I didn’t have unrealistic expectations or standards set for Parker. But I didn’t tell Miranda all of that.
I could tell by the look on Miranda’s face that she knew I was skirting around the actual answer I wanted to give. I may not have known a lot about Miranda Steel, but I knew for sure she was no dummy. She was on to me. Had been from day one.
I’d only had the pleasure to meet her one time before we’d actually moved here. Holden had brought her for a visit about a year ago when he’d had some business in town and they’d stayed with us. She’d watched me with pensive eyes, then, too.
“Hmm,” she mumbled, biting her lip in thought. “You know what I think?”
My head shook back and forth slowly, of its own accord. I didn’t want to know what she thought at all. I could tell this conversation was headed somewhere I didn’t want it to. She looked like she had grand ideas.
“I think we should go out. Have a girls’ night. Maybe go dancing.” She completely ignored my slow head shake. “I could use an evening out of the house. Some dancing and cutting up.” Her eyes looked intense and wild, and I stared at her, terrified.
