Page 2 of Second Time Around

Lexie shook her head. “His name doesn’t sound familiar. Why?”

“It’s not important. I was just wondering.”

“If he calls here…”

“Let me know, but don’t put him through to my personal line.”

“I would never do that.”

“I know, but he can be pretty persistent,” Jenna said, borrowing Crystal’s word. Personally, she would have described him as an arrogant ass, but her coworkers didn’t need to know that.

Her next client walked through the door, and she switched back into work mode. “Hello, Shelly. It’s great to see you. Follow me.”

The rest of her day went well as she performed her “magic” on a variety of clients with a variety of hair issues and personal problems. Not only was she a hairdresser, but she’d become a pseudo-psychologist as well. It went with the territory, and she didn’t mind listening to other people’s problems. She’d rather do that than focus on her own. Not that she had that many problems. Currently, there was just one big one—Beck Montgomery.

She still didn’t know how he’d gotten her phone number, and it was driving her crazy. She shouldn’t have been thinking of him at all since it had been twelve years since she’d seen him. Twelve years, really? She suddenly felt old, although she’d just turned thirty. Despite the amount of time that had passed, she still remembered that horrible night like it was yesterday…

“Can you cut it shorter?” Shelly said, interrupting her train of thought.

“Are you sure?” When a client requested a drastic change, Jenna sometimes talked them out of it. In this case, Shelly had just broken off an engagement, and she was obviously still upset by it. “I just don’t want you to regret it later.”

“Oh, I have regrets, all right, but not about this.”

“Okay. I’ll take off another inch, and we’ll see how you like it.”

Sometimes there was no talking the client out of it. In the end, Shelly was happy with her shorn hair, and all was well.

Later that evening, Jenna was relaxing on the couch with her romance novel and a glass of wine when the phone rang. She panicked, thinking Beck might have decided to call instead of text. When she picked up the phone and saw it was her mom, Lori, she breathed a sigh of relief.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Hi, honey. How are you?”

“The same as when you called two days ago.”

Her mom laughed. “I just like to check in.”

“I wish I had something exciting to report, but I don’t unless you count chopping off six inches of someone’s hair exciting.”

“Six inches!”

“She broke up with her fiancé.”

“Ah. That explains it, then.”

Then Jenna remembered her other news. “Speaking of break-ups, you’ll never guess who’s been texting me.”

Lori responded by clearing her throat, and Jenna suddenly got a bad feeling that her mom already knew the answer. “Would it happen to be Beckett?” she asked, her voice wobbling.

Jenna sat up straighter and tightened her grip on the phone. “How did you know that?”

“Just a lucky guess?”

“Mom!”

“Okay, okay. It’s my fault.”

“You gave him my number!”