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“How’s Gypsy?” Dave asked, and Sage talked about her dog all day long. All of her clients knew about the black behemoth, as Sage had a picture of him and Thelma on her workstation.
“He’s amazing,” she said. “We’re going to the bark park tonight. There’s a Furry Friends meet-and-greet, and I’m trying to get him to be more social around other dogs.”
“Oh, where’s that?”
Sage got out the clippers and started shaving up the sides of Dave’s head. They continued to talk about their pets, and within twenty minutes, his hair was fresh and ready for another month. She walked him up front, and the two girls there got him rescheduled for another appointment and checked out.
Sage went to clean up her station, her thoughts now on Gypsy. He wasn’t a problem with other dogs at all; he simply had no interest in them. That seemed a little strange to her, so she had been trying to socialize him more. He didn’t seem unhappy about his apartment life, but Sage still sometimes felt guilty.
By the time Ty sat in her chair, Sage had done another haircut and had her second color of the day under the dryer. “Hey,” she said. Once she finished with him and the soon-to-be-cornsilk-blonde in the chair, she could get off her feet and have something to eat for lunch.
“You look busy today,” he said as he leaned in and brushed his lips along her cheek.
“Seems like we’re always busy when you come by,” she said with a smile. He smelled like sunshine and subtle cologne, and Sage sure did like standing beside him. Without thinking too hard about it, she said, “I’m taking Gypsy to the Furry Friends thing tonight at Beach Bell Park. Do you want to bring Sherman and Brother and meet me there?”
He sat in the chair and Sage put the drape around his neck, pulling it tight enough to choke before she snapped it in place. “Oh, and Thelma and I would like your real estate prowess to help us each find somewhere new to live.”
Ty had started to open his mouth, but as their eyes met in the mirror, it snapped closed. Sage grinned at him and ran her fingers through his hair. She normally only did it a couple of times for her male clients, but she couldn’t stop herself with him.
He had hair the color of golden sunshine, with a hint of beachy sand thrown in. It ran like silk through her fingers, and he’d definitely let it grow a little long this time. “Going for the surfer boy look?”
“No,” he said quickly. “Take me back to something respectable, would you?” His eyes cut over to Melinda, the stylist who worked next to Sage. “I can help you with a house. You two aren’t going to be living together?”
Sage pressed her lips together and shook her head. She mentally commanded herself to stop fondling his hair, and she reached for her scissors first. He did keep the top a bit longer, and she wouldn’t use her clippers on it. “Do you want me to style it like I did last time? A little cream and that swoop?”
She thought he looked like a non-silver George Clooney, with a little curl in his hair that barely showed when she swept it to the right. She met his eyes in the mirror again, and she could see her delight on her own face.
“Sure,” he said. He pushed himself upright and cleared his throat. “That sounds good.”
She started snipping, and Sage had cut so much hair in her life, she didn’t even really have to look. “Thelma and I are ready for a change,” she said. “Maybe me more than her, but it’s time.”
“Did you live together before you moved here?”
“Nope.”
“When’s the Furry Friends thing?”
“It’s at six,” Sage said. “They’re doing low-or-no-cost vaccinations and setting up appointments for spays, neutering, and microchipping. It’s just for fun for us, and I thought…” She trailed off, because she wasn’t sure what she thought.
“Gypsy needs to get out and see more dogs,” she said. “I thought it would be good for that.” That was why she and her dog would be going. She had no idea why Ty would bring his pair of canines. Just to see her?
The thought was scoffable.
But Ty did not scoff. “What time are you done here?”
She took a big breath and moved around to the right side. “Oh, probably three-thirty or so. Why?”
He sat in the chair, his eyes closed perfectly, no twitch in his eyelids at all. With the drape, she couldn’t tell if he fidgeted or moved, and he sure seemed to be the picture of calm and collected. “At the risk of sounding like I’m asking you out, because I know you just want to be friends, I was thinking maybe we could take the dogs to dinner before Furry Friends.”
Sage smiled, glad for once that her client couldn’t seem to keep his eyes open as she cut his hair. Not all of her clients did it, but Ty certainly did, and the ones who normally wore glasses did as well.
“Sure,” she said as nonchalantly as she could. “Thelma has an appointment tonight, and there’s a French dip place on the way to the park that had plenty of outdoor seating. Maybe there?”
“I was going to suggest Nightingale’s,” he said, his eyes fluttering open. “It’s amazing. Have you been?”
“Not yet,” she said. “Bessie told me about it, but I can’t keep the names of every restaurant in my head the way you can.” She gave him a flirty smile as his eyes closed again, and Sage honestly didn’t know what she was doing.
She had told him she wanted a friend to go whale watching with her. He had not been overly physical last night or today, for that matter. His words—At the risk of sounding like I’m asking you out, because I know you just want to be friends—moved through her mind as she finished up the top of his hair.
