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1
Sage Grady finished with her last appointment of the day and spent a half-hour cleaning up after herself. With the floor at her station pristine, and her tools sanitized and ready for tomorrow’s haircuts, Sage left the upscale salon and sank into the driver’s seat of her car.
A sigh likewise sank through her, and Sage started the car to get some air moving. It wasn’t really too hot yet, as it was still February in Hilton Head, but it wasn’t cold either. She just liked having some movement, so she didn’t have to inhale the stale, stiff air that had been trapped in the car for the past eight hours.
She wasn’t heading back to the apartment tonight, because her Supper Club was meeting to work out their schedule for the rest of the year. With holidays and vacations and people moving in and out, their schedule had been up, down, and around too. Most of them had switched months for one reason or another, and therefore, Cass had texted last week to say they’d just be meeting at a restaurant to go over their schedule for the rest of the year.
It, of course, could still change, and they’d all go with it. Sage felt like she was the one who could step in and accommodate anyone else’s changes, for she didn’t do anything.
She walked her dog in the morning. She cut hair all day. She went home. Sometimes, when she was feeling particularly rowdy, she’d then change into a swimming suit and go down to the beach or lounge by the pool.
Yeah, Sage was a real party animal.
Her life felt as stale and stiff as the air she wanted to move around, and not for the first time, she missed her hobby farm in Texas. No two days were the same on a farm, and at least she’d had some variety in her life.
She couldn’t even imagine life without her five best friends in it, but they’d all moved on without her. Even Bessie was engaged now, and that left Sage as the eleventh wheel whenever they all wanted to get together for a party, a beach day, or a holiday meal.
She’d been told to bring Thelma, her sister, over and over, and that was fine. Of course she’d bring Thelma as her “date,” but while she loved and lived with her sister, she was a poor substitute for a man.
Sage finally put the car in reverse and backed out of the spot where she’d parked behind the salon that morning. She had a few minutes to run into the grocery store and get a few things she and Thelma needed, but she drove on by. “Can’t leave milk in the car during dinner,” she reasoned.
She arrived at Bakersfield, the chosen restaurant for that evening, with twenty minutes to spare. After she’d parked in the shade several rows away from the entrance, she pulled out her phone to check it.
Nothing exciting, as usual. A couple of texts from her sister was all, and even her Supper Club thread had been quiet all day. Cass or Bea would probably make them all say something they didn’t want to say, and Sage ended up leaning her head back against the rest and closing her eyes.
In quiet moments like these, she let her thoughts roam freely, go wherever they wanted to go. She often thought about starting her own salon, though that idea never stuck around for long. She had a good setup at The Salon Mionic, and she made good money there. Enough to get her and Thelma out of the apartment they rented, but neither of them had wanted to pack up everything they owned very badly.
They were oceanside, and they had all the amenities of great apartment living. True, the space was small. She had to go down several doors to get to the laundromat, which she shared with everyone on her side of the building. But they had sand volleyball courts—not that she played. A pool—which she sat beside but had never been in. A game room she’d walked through once.
She and Thelma mostly worked, then came home. One of them made dinner, and they watched TV at night. Thelma liked to take her walk in the evening, though Sage really didn’t know how she could breathe such hot air in the summer. She got up at five-thirty to take Gypsy out, and after the short rough patch with Ed had been smoothed, she’d resumed walking with him.
His dog never tripped her again, and Sage’s thoughts moved to the most taboo of topics—Tyler Parker.
She’d been out with Ty exactly once. She’d cut his hair a few times too, but after the concert in the park during Heritage Days, she hadn’t seen him again. Here and there, briefly, if their friend groups happened to overlap. He was friends with all of the men that had captured the hearts of her Supper Club friends, but he claimed to be too busy for holiday parties or sit-down meals for twelve.
She honestly wasn’t sure if they would’ve been good together or not. One date certainly wasn’t long enough to know that, especially as they hadn’t been able to talk for a large percentage of it. Still, she remembered the awkwardness and second-guessing that had happened for her, because it sure hadn’t seemed like they had much in common.
She thought of Bea and Grant, and they didn’t love all of the same things either. Heck, Oliver and Bessie were like night and day, and they’d figured things out. Perhaps Sage just needed to get together with Ty again and see if that fizzing, boiling chemistry between them still existed.
She opened her eyes to check the time, and she realized she was almost late. She grabbed her purse and headed for the entrance of the restaurant.
Inside, she found everyone except Bessie had arrived, and the power blonde who’d opened her own bakery for the first time last year entered only a half-minute later.
“We’re all here,” Bea said as she stepped over to the hostess station.
The woman there nodded, collected six menus, and said, “Follow me.”
Sage generally hung back in times like these. She didn’t want to be the first at the table, because then she’d have to make a decision about where to sit. Number two, in a booth situation—which Bakersfield had—she’d have to climb in and slide all the way over, never to get out again. She’d much rather be on the end.
Her wishes came true, and she sat on the end of the horseshoe-shaped booth as she took her menu. “I’ve never been here before,” she said, taking in the appetizers and salads first. The conversation went round about who had, and it turned out only Cass had been here before.
Of course. The prices on this menu weren’t cheap, and Cass seemed to have more money than any of them. Whether that was true or not, Sage didn’t know. She didn’t keep books for her friends.
“The burrata is amazing,” Cass said. “So is the calamari.”
“Look at that salad,” Bea said, leaning closer to Sage. “It has balsamicandranch dressing.” Her blue eyes rounded with wonder. “I think I’m going to get that.”
“It looks like a souped-up wedge,” Sage said, reading the menu. Candied pecans, bacon, avocado, blue cheese, craisins. “I’m getting that too.” Her mouth watered, and anything she ate here would be a far cry better than the granola bar she’d eaten between clients at mid-day.
