It's About Time (Hunt Family #5) (5 page)

Chapter 6

My boss, Paige, (who also happened to be married to Evan's brother, Cody) came by the salon to drop something off just as I was finishing up with Andy Fields, my last client of the day. She had their two little girls in tow. Ryan, who was in third grade, and Izzy, who was just about to turn three. They were the cutest little family ever, and I smiled and waved at them as they headed to the back of the salon to their mom's office.

"Amanda will set you up for your appointment in four weeks," I said, knowing Andy came in once a month like clockwork. "Oh, wait," I corrected. "She's already gone. I'll go up there with you."

We walked to the front together. I went behind the reception desk while Andy made his way around to the other side. A few clicks, and he was pre-booked for four weeks later. Andy paid cash like he always did, tipping me five bucks on top of his total. I thanked him and came around the counter to hug him and see him out. I always hugged my clients. Usually I hugged them twice—once when they were coming and once when they were going. People can share a lot with you during the timespan of a haircut or color, and a lot of my regular clients had already become like family to me, even in my short career.

Evan came through the door just as Andy was leaving. They greeted each other with nods as they switched places—Evan heading toward me, and Andy heading out the door. My heart skipped a beat at the sight of Evan, and I couldn’t contain a smile at the way he physically affected me.

"What?" he asked.

"I'm just smiling," I said, shrugging.

"That's good," he said. "I like that smile."

I gestured with a flick of my head for him to follow me. "Are you seriously gonna come with me to my mom's?" I asked as I started walking back to my station to clean up and unplug everything.

"No, I just came up here to see Ryan and Izzy," Evan said. He was following me, and I glanced back at him to find that he was smiling as he looked toward the girls who were standing in a hallway waiting for their mom.

"Seriously?" I asked, just as they caught sight of him.

"No," he said, smiling at his nieces before making a face like he was going to tickle them.

They giggled and began running toward him instantly. Evan glanced at me just as the girls started coming our way. "I'm going with you to your mom's," he said. "If that's okay with you."

Right after he said it, he stooped to hug his nieces who were running full force into their uncle. They giggled as he hugged and tickled them.

"What are you little girls doing here?" he asked, standing up. In a practiced maneuver, Izzy lifted her arms and Evan scooped her up to position her on his side, supporting her backside with his arm.

"Izzy, Uncle Evan can't pick you up because of his broken leg," Ryan warned, tugging at her sister's pants.

Izzy dodged her sister's attempts to pull her down, clinging to Evan.

"My leg's fine, peanut," he said messing up Ryan's hair. "I can hold you at the same time if you want me to."

Ryan laughed at that since she was getting so big that she rarely (if ever) got picked up anymore.

"Mama said thew's a hole in the fent," Izzy said. "Daddy has to come put some dup take on it."

"It's called the vvvent," Ryan said, emphasizing the V-sound.

"I figured she was saying vent," Evan said. "I'm stuck on dup take." He leaned in and tickled Izzy, who squirmed and squealed with delight. "Dup take!" He said in a growling voice that made her laugh even harder.

"Dup take!" she repeated, trying to clarify, but still saying it incorrectly.

"What in the world is
dup take
?" Evan asked, laughing. We were all giggling by this point.

"It's that grey take," Ryan said. As the word
'take'
came out of her mouth, a confused expression covered her face as if she knew she was saying something wrong but just wasn't sure what it was.

"You mean tape?" Evan said as he and Ryan shared a laugh.

"Dup take!" Izzy repeated, thinking she was pronouncing it perfectly the whole time.

"What are you doing here?" Paige asked, coming down the hall to find us all standing there.

"Annabel gave me a haircut," Evan said motioning toward me.

I waved as I continued toward my station.

"It looks good," Paige said, crossing over to stand by Evan. I could see out of the corner of my eyes that she reached out to touch his hair with a stylist's interest. "You did a good job," she said when I glanced at her. "It looks fresh on you, Evan."

"She gave me scalp massage, too," he said raising his eyebrows.

"The
standard
scalp massage," I clarified like the gigantic dork I was.

"What's a scalp bassage?" Izzy asked, leaning over to get Evan to look at her.

"It just means she scratched my head when she washed my hair."

"I hope you're planning on tipping her," Paige said.

"Oh, he did," I said, patting the back pocket of my jeans to indicate the fifty-dollar bill that was stashed there. "I forgot to say thank you for that, by the way," I said, looking at Evan. "That's too much."

"All right, you can buy me something to eat, then," he said, seeming entertained by teasing me.

I didn't know what to say, and I felt shy in front of Paige and the girls, so I just smiled and scrunched up my face as I continued dusting hair off of my implements. I hoped Paige would continue talking to him and change the subject.

"Iz said Cody's got to come up here with some dup take," Evan said.

Paige looked like she might say something about his mispronunciation for a second, but then changed her mind. "He's got to do something with the vent in my office," she said. "The whole thing might need to be replaced." She paused and glanced at me. "Becca's still here," she said. "She'll lock up."

I watched her shift her attention to Evan.

"Wait," she said, looking perplexed. She looked back and forth from Evan to me. "I thought you were working on Andy when we came in."

"I was," I said. "I cut Evan's hair before Andy came in."

"Why are
you
here?" Paige asked, with a genuinely confused expression aimed at Evan.

"Annabel's buying me something to eat before we go to her mom's house." He paused and cupped his hand to his mouth so he could whisper. "I'm helping them make their super-secret pumpkin bread," he said.

"Oh my gosh, is it time for the bread?" Paige asked, looking at me.

I nodded. "Please don't forget to bring some up here," she said. "We'll take like four loaves." She looked at Evan. "Are you really going over there?"

He nodded.

"All right," she said, thankfully not making a big deal about it. "Let me give you a hug in case we don't see you again before you go."

"Where woo goin' Unco Evan?" Izzy asked.

"Back to California, remember?"

"I thought woo already went there," she said.

"Memaw and Pop had spaghetti dinner to tell me goodbye, but I didn't go yet. I'm leaving in the morning."

Paige and her girls all looked sad as they hugged Evan and told him goodbye, and I did my best to ignore them and give them their privacy as I finished straightening my station. As soon as they had walked away and were out of earshot, I smiled at Evan. "Ready?" I asked.

Evan followed me to my mom's house. We stopped for a sub sandwich on the way, but he wouldn't let me pay for it with the fifty bucks like he was saying. He insisted on paying for it.

My parents had divorced years earlier, and while Dad had remarried right away, Mom never had. I saw my dad regularly, but I lived with my mom. There was no arranged custody; I just chose where I wanted to live. I stayed with Mom all through middle and high school, and then even after that until I finished hair school and started working at the salon. I had my own place now, but I still saw her just about every day since she kept my dog while I was at work.

Cupcake was my 120lb harlequin Great Dane. She had a lot of white on her chest with just the right amount of black markings. I had gotten used to her, so I would forget sometimes how breathtaking she was. She bounded across the living room, headed toward Evan and me when we came in the front door.

"Oh my goodness, does she seriously have a Great Dane?" Evan asked.

I could tell by his tone that he was excited about it, and I smiled as we stooped to pet Cupcake. "She's mine, aren't you girl?" I asked, scratching behind her ears.

She sat down and began pawing at me like she wanted me to tell her to shake. "She's showing off for you," I said, speaking to Evan even though I was looking at Cupcake. "Shake, girl," I said like it was my idea.

She had never stopped pawing at me, but I caught her paw and shook it, following through on the command. I praised her for obeying even though she was the one who brought it up in the first place. She stood up excitedly and began sniffing Evan and me like crazy.

Everyone reacted differently to Cupcake. Fear was a fairly common reaction due to her size and striking appearance, but Evan wasn't intimidated at all.

"You're a pretty girl, aren't you?" Evan asked, rubbing her face and neck. He looked at me wearing a huge smile. I'd seen pictures in magazines of him wearing that same smile, and I thought about how weird it was that he was at my mom's house looking like that.

I didn't go seek him out in magazines, if that's what you were thinking. I happen to work with his sister and sister-in-law, and being the supportive family they were, they always bought magazines with him in it so they could look at his ads and let the rest of us see how successful he was. They weren't doing it to brag or anything; they were just proud of him and wanted to support what he was doing. I had inadvertently seen just about every ad Evan had ever been in. All this to say, it was really surreal seeing him shoot me that photogenic smile in my own living room.

"Who'd you bring with you?" my mom asked as soon as we walked into her kitchen.

"This is Evan," I said, gesturing to him.

He smiled and bowed slightly at my mom.

"Dan and Christy's boy?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am," Evan said.

My mom was happy to see Evan, and cordially welcomed him into her kitchen, but she made us scarf down our sandwiches so we could get to the business of making bread. She could bake six loaves of pumpkin bread at a time, and she needed to make a hundred and fifty loaves. You can do the math to see exactly how long it took her, but I'll just tell you she had to spread it out over three days. She used to just make fifty, but the demand was too great, and year-by-year, she had gradually raised the number.

She could have gotten away with selling them continually (for all of autumn, at least) but she liked making one big batch every year and having it over and done with. Doing a limited number only built anticipation, anyway. She always said people just thought they were so tasty because they had to wait a whole year to get more.

My mom didn't even ask permission before putting an apron on Evan—she just came up behind him and placed it over his head. He smiled as he ducked into it willingly, and I watched as my mom tied it around his back. It wasn't the most masculine apron she could have chosen, but given his slightly dangerous appearance, everything balanced perfectly.

"I like your ruffle," I said, staring down at my own apron, which was pink, but did not have a ruffle like his.

He shot me a playful grin. "You like that?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

I nodded as I stood beside him, waiting for my mom to give us instructions.

She had us stirring, and sifting, and within an hour, completely covered in flour, sugar, and pumpkin. We stayed at her house until after 10PM helping her bake a few batches of bread and slice and package a few she had baked earlier. She sold some by the loaf and some by the slice, and we helped her wrap and put stickers on quite a few of them while we were there.

We had a ball with Evan. He was funny and down to earth, and seemed to be content with just hanging out with us at my mom's house, which for whatever reason, was hard for me to believe.

It was sprinkling when we left, and Evan and I looked at each other before we left the covering of the porch. The porch lights were off, but there was light filtering onto us from the street lamps. I tugged Cupcake's lead, and she sat beside me obediently.

"Thanks for coming," I said.

"That was really fun," he said. He paused and picked up the slice of pumpkin bread he was holding. "And thanks for the bread," he added. "I'll save it for when I get to California so I can think back."

"Think back on my mom serenading you to oldies?" I asked, giggling.

"Yep, and you, too."

"Hey, some of them you can't help but sing along," I said, pretending to be defensive. "And don't act like you weren't singing, too."

Evan stared at me with a sweet smile for several seconds. I had absolutely no idea what he was thinking. "You're gonna go and make me sad about leaving, aren't you?"