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Allison met his eyes and nodded "I’ll tell him," she promised

Eleven

The day before Easter was always a busy time at Get Nailed A lot of their clients attended church and wanted to look their best She kneas an iious feast day, but Teri wasn’t much interested in church It wasn’t how she’d been raised Herto make ends meet She could barely keep them fed and clothed, let alone teach theh school at sixteen to attend beauty school and had her license the day she turned eighteen

She was good at her job, but it wasn’t the career she really wanted Teri would’ve liked to spend her time around books Be a librarian or even work in a bookstore or so Her house had stacks of paperbacks in every rooht her eye Most of her extra cash went to books With her lack of a social life outside the salon, they were great coh, and it paid the bills Fortunately, she was talented and kept up with current styles; she also had a decent clientele Her first customer of the day was Justine Gunderson, who came in for a trim

"I heard about what you did," Justine teased her as she sat in Teri’s chair Word had spread throughout the comain and again about ar

Teri studied Justine’s thick, straight hair, which hung down her back--the kind of hair they had in shampoo advertisements, healthy and shiny Teri’s own had been dyed, cut and perinal color Dishwater blond, she guessed At the hts, and she wore it ultra-short and spiked with gel She was thinking of dyeing it black next hen there was a lull in the schedule She’d see if she could get Jane to do it for her

"I’ar’s hair"

People still talked about how she’d appeared at the televised chess match and bullied her way in to see the world-famous chess player For pride’s sake, she’d made it seem easy; in truth it’d taken a lot of effort

Her arrival had caused a scene with those unpleasant security people When they found her scissors, the guards acted as though she was soerous lunatic She’d made such a fuss that Bobby himself had come out to see what she wanted, which was the only reason she’d even had a chance He’d listened to her assessreed to let her do it

With several bodyguard types following, she’d been escorted in to Bobby Polgar’s suite When she entered, all kinds of people were estions about the next chess match with the Russian The moment Teri stepped into the fray, Bobby had lifted his hand and the room went silent He’d stared at her, so she stared back She’d told him to sit down, draped a towel over his shoulders and retrieved her scissors from one of the security people

"Like I said, your hair is what’s distracting you," Teri had told him "You don’t need other people’s advice You knohat you’re doing better than anyone" In retrospect, it was a bold statement and Teri couldn’t quite understand why she even cared about this man and his silly chess o to hiure She was the impulsive type and…well, it’d worked Didn’t matter if she couldn’t explain it

Most everyone wanted to knohat Bobby had said to her This was the confusing part A few minutes after she showed up, Bobby had asked everyone else to leave, and then it was just the two of them She wished she had some fantastic story to tell, but she didn’t She’d simply cut his hair and left The entire time she was in that room, he probably didn’t say a dozen words to her Not until she was back in Cedar Cove did she learn that he’d won the next match and the one after that

"Have you heard froed the cape over Justine’s shoulders and fastened it "Me? Nah I didn’t even tell him my name"

"He didn’t talk to you?"

"Not really Nothing I’d consider a conversation, anyway" In fact, Bobby Polgar hadn’t even bothered to pay her, which was a daet to Seattle But then, to be fair, Teri hadn’t asked for payment

"What’s Bobby like?"

Teri held up a coht about Justine’s question All week people had been asking her that and she was never sure what to tell the he wasn’t all that communicative He’s intense and…" She wanted to say "peculiar" but that didn’t seee"

"They say he’s one of the greatest chess reatest chess arnered from Bobby himself, not to mention his handlers

"So you’re a fan?"

"Not of Bobby, and not of chess, either They don’t teach you much about the theory of chess in beauty school, you know?"

"So what interested you in Bobby?" Justine asked as they walked to the shampoo bowl

"I don’t know," Teri said slowly "I saw hi looking Then he lost that chessand that I could help hi, and I do what I can My mother’s the same way, God bless her" Her uys, another trait Teri was afraid she’d inherited At least Teri didn’t see any reason to h three or four rocky relationships, none of which had lastedto kick herself for being so stupid Teri liked to think of herself as savvy and s

Teri lowered Justine’s head into the shampoo bowl Their eyes met, and Teri offered her a quick smile as she turned on the water

"Thanks, Teri," Justine said, suddenly intent