Mistletoe Bay (14 page)

It had been a real shame that the sink upstairs in the bathroom hadn't won its battle. It had cost her over two hundred dollars for a plumber to come out on a Sunday and remove the stuck golf ball.

“We have the Higgins children here.” Ms. Bailey sounded like that explained everything. Cathy Bailey was a very nice, motherly type in her fifties. Her husband owned the local ice cream parlor and she seemed to know everyone in town.

“I'm sorry, who are the Higgins children?” Maybe there was a celebrity living in town she didn't know about. Higgins, wasn't he the man from
My Fair Lady
?

“Oh, I'm sorry, you're relatively new to the area. Lonny and Leland Higgins are identical twins and lobster fishermen.” Ms. Bailey nodded in the direction of identical twin girls playing with Tucker. The girls weren't dressed the same, and they even had different haircuts, so it wasn't hard to tell them apart. “Those are Leland's and Lisa's daughters, Lori and Lena.”

“They're cute.” In a tomboyish way. Both girls looked like they could handle themselves in a preschool brawl and would be trying out for the high school football team in a couple years. Tucker would have his hands full if he tried manipulating those two.

Ms. Bailey raised a brow but didn't comment. “Lonny's son Liam is over there sitting in the ‘time out' corner, and his other son, Lawford, is over there smashing Play-Doh into mush.”

The Higgins kids all appeared to be self-confident and assured, and hearing all those names beginning with the letter
L
was giving her a headache. “Let me guess, Lonny's married to a Laura or a Linda?”

“No, Robin.”

Jenni looked at Cathy Bailey to see if she was joking. She wasn't, but there was a gleam of laughter in her kind eyes. “That must have caused quite a commotion in the family bible.”

“Lonny had been disowned by the family and written out of the will, until Robin produced the first male offspring in thirty-eight years and named him Lawford after some great, great, something or another. All was forgiven, and even Lonny's grandmother Louise came around once little Liam was born.”

“I wonder what would have happened if they'd produced girls?” She would bet the entire Higgins clan sat around the dinner table at night and did tongue twisters.

“To hear Lonny tell it, they would have kept having little Higginses until there was a boy.” Cathy looked over to the corner where two-year-old Liam was still sitting quietly in the chair, but he was pulling off his clothes, one article at a time.

“I don't know, Jenni. Maybe we should take the boys home.” Dorothy was biting her thumbnail, a sure sign she was upset or worried.

Jenni chuckled at Liam. Maybe Tucker wouldn't be the worst one in school after all. She watched as another teacher went over to Liam and calmly helped him get his clothes back on. “I think they have everything under control here.” The kids seemed well supervised and entertained. At least there wasn't a blaring television acting as a babysitter. There was a small portable one toward the back of the room, but it wasn't turned on. Dorothy had gotten into the habit of having the television on day and night for the boys.

“That's Kate Audun taking care of Liam. She's well qualified to teach the afternoon preschool class and she works closely with the teachers at the local elementary school so the kids are prepared for kindergarten come next year.” Cathy nodded in the direction of the very back of the expansive room. “That's our nursery back in that section. Barb Byler and Sally Newman usually handle the little ones. We also employ a couple of the local teenage girls after school and during the summer.”

Jenni could see a couple of cribs set up. A very young woman was feeding a baby dressed in pink a bottle and rocking her. Another woman was feeding a little boy in a high chair. “They look like they have their hands full.” She smiled at the memory of rocking her boys when they had been just tiny babies. Where did all the time go?

“We manage. Some days are easy, and some days . . .”

Jenni laughed. She knew what Cathy meant. Some days it just wasn't worth getting out of bed. “Okay, we'll get out of your hair now.”

“You and Dorothy are always welcome here, any time of the day. Some of our mothers, like Doc Sydney, stop in all the time.”

“Doc Sydney brings her baby here?” Now she was impressed. She'd liked Doc Sydney the few times she'd had the boys in to see her.

“That's Inga being fed her bottle.” Cathy smiled. “The little boy in the process of spitting out his carrots is Doc Sydney's nephew, Andrew Creighton. Andrew's mom, Gwen, owns and operates the Catch of the Day restaurant in town. Have you eaten there?”

“Not yet.” The restaurant looked inviting, but it wasn't the kind of place she would take the boys. If their meal didn't come with a toy, the boys weren't interested.

“You must. It's simply wonderful. Try the stuffed flounder; it's out of this world.”

“Really?” Dorothy looked intrigued. “That good?”

“That good.” Cathy nodded toward Corey, who was running across the room, straight for them.

“Mom, Mom!”

“What is it, Corey?” She knelt down. “Try not to yell, okay?”

“Okay.” Corey gave an exaggerated whisper. “I have a new friend. His name is Josh. We can stay, right?”

“Right.” She brushed a lock of red hair off his forehead. Corey was looking more and more like his father every day. It was enough to break her heart all over again. “Grandmom and I will be back around five to pick up all three of you. Remember, Chase is coming here after school.”

“I can show him around, right?”

“Right.” She gave him a quick hug. “I'm sure he'll appreciate that. Why don't you give your grandmom a kiss goodbye and then go tell Tucker we're leaving.”

Corey planted a loud kiss on Dorothy's cheek and then sprinted back across the room. He said something to Tucker, who proceeded to give her and his grandmother a quick wave and then went right back to discussing something with one of the Higgins twin girls.

“So much for him missing us.” She had to chuckle. Tucker was being Tucker.

“Shouldn't we go over there and say goodbye?” Dorothy was still dragging her feet.

“No, we have plans.”

“We do?” Dorothy looked confused. “What plans?”

She cupped Dorothy's arm and started to lead her from the church. “I made us an appointment.”

“For what?” Dorothy kept trying to glance over her shoulder.

“At Estelle's Beauty Salon. You are getting your hair and nails done—my treat.” She finally got Dorothy out of the day care center and into her car. “I'm getting my nails done and just a trim to get rid of some of these dead ends.”

Dorothy perked right up. “We can do that?”

She had to laugh at the excitement in Dorothy's voice. It had been so long since they hadn't had to plan every minute of the day or shuffle the boys around that Dorothy had forgotten how to live. “Yes, we can do that, and a lot more. If you behave yourself, I think we can stop somewhere for lunch too. I'm tired of bologna or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”

Jenni had two teenage girls coming after school today for an interview. The business was doing so well that she had to start thinking about hiring someone.

Dorothy tilted the rearview mirror her way as they drove down Main Street. “Do you think we'll have time for me to get it colored? I swear, I'm noticing more gray hair every day.”

“Sure.” It didn't take Dorothy long to forget the boys. Jenni pulled into a parking spot, directly in front of Estelle's. “I heard this place is pretty good.” Since moving to Mistletoe Bay, they had been hitting the hair salons at the mall in Bangor for quick trims while shopping. “One of the mothers in Chase's class recommended it to me during Back to School Night.”

“It looks nice.” Dorothy got out of the car and studied the front of the shop.

The white building with black trim looked to be over a hundred years old. The huge plateglass window had Estelle's name in flowing black and pink script. Pink curtains blocked people standing on the sidewalk from seeing in. She was glad they wouldn't be on display for the entire town to see as they got their eyebrows waxed or their hair highlighted. “Come on, slowpoke, it's time to be spoiled for an hour or so.”

Dorothy hurried into the shop after Jenni and crashed into her back as she came to a screeching halt.

The pink was blinding. Who in the world would paint walls that color, let alone the chairs and countertops? Jenni felt like she was standing in a Pepto-Bismol bottle. Good Lord, how did anyone stand being in the place?

“Hi, you must be Jenni and Dot.” A woman who could have played Mrs. Claus on a holiday float came to meet them. “I'm Estelle. Welcome.”

Estelle was wearing pink spandex pants, white sneakers with pink polka dots, and a pink sweater with a white poodle, rhinestones, bows, and a bell on the front. To top off this striking outfit, she had a pink frilly gossamer apron that covered her from the bow on the poodle's head to midthigh. The woman actually tinkled when she walked. It was hard to tell, but Estelle's curly mop of white hair might have had a tint of pink to it. Then again, maybe it was the reflection of the shiny pink bow she had in it, or the walls might have been bleeding into everything around them.

“Thank you.” Randy's mom had said that Estelle was a little unorthodox, but an excellent stylist who demanded nothing but perfection from her employees. There was unorthodox, and then there was preposterous. The jury was out on where Estelle fell. “I'm Jennifer Wright, and this is my mother-in-law, Dorothy.” She emphasized Dorothy's name. No one called her Dot, at least no one who lived to tell about it.

“We were wondering when you two would be stopping in.” Estelle's fingers played with the ends of Jenni's hair. “Please tell me you aren't cutting your hair. It's gorgeous. A little trim won't hurt, but don't take off any more than two or three inches. You have a face that can carry off the long, straight look.”

“Um, thanks.” Most beauty salons did whatever the customer asked, and it really didn't matter if you walked out of their door looking like Bozo on a bad hair day as long as you paid your bill.

“Lauren will do your trim and nails.” Estelle nodded to a woman a couple years younger than Jenni who was finishing up with a customer. “And may I be so bold as to suggest, discreetly, of course, that you consider having Lauren give you a quick wax job.” With a fingertip, Estelle traced her own brown brows. “They are a tad woolly.”

“Woolly?” she gasped in horror. Her brows were woolly. She quickly walked over to the nearest mirror and looked. They weren't woolly, maybe a bit thick, but she didn't have a unibrow or anything.

“Jenni, dear,” purred Estelle, who had joined her at the mirror, “they aren't that bad. Maybe we should just do a little plucking here and there.”

“Estelle, you're scaring her.” Lauren, the younger woman who was going to do the plucking or the waxing joined them. “Don't pay her no mind, Jenni.” Lauren led her over to a chair in front of a large sink and draped a pink fabric cape around her neck. “Now, tell me what you want.”

“Just a trim, a couple inches at the most.” Jenni glanced at Dorothy standing in the middle of the shop looking unsure if she wanted to go or stay. “And maybe something done with my brows.” Since Estelle mentioned them, there had to be something wrong with them besides a few stray hairs.

“Who's going to do my hair?” Dorothy asked Estelle nervously while glancing around at the other two hairdressers. One was giving an older woman a perm, and the other was doing the nails of a birdlike woman who couldn't have weighed more than a hundred pounds. The bright orange polish made her fingers look like claws.

“Well, I am, Dot.” Estelle walked a circle around Dorothy while poking at her hair. “You have wonderfully thick hair, Dot. Why haven't you dyed it?”

Dorothy cringed. “I'm just starting to get a few grays now.” Dorothy tried to smooth her hair back down. “I was thinking of maybe dying it today. You know, nothing drastic, just covering up some of the gray.”

Jenni and Lauren both raised their brows at that. Dorothy didn't have a few gray hairs, she had streaks. Jenni blessed Estelle's heart when she didn't contradict her. Her mother-in-law was in good hands.

“May I suggest going one shade lighter than your natural color, and letting me put a few strawberry blond highlights throughout?” Estelle said. “I swear it will make you look ten years younger.” Estelle led Jenni's mother-in-law toward what had to be Estelle's station. The mirror was framed in a pink boa.

She couldn't hear Dorothy's reply, but she saw her smile and then frown as she looked in the mirror and traced one of her brows. It looked like Dorothy would be getting her woolly brows waxed too.

“Estelle, how come you never did anything to make me look ten years younger?” asked the woman getting a perm.

Jenni tried not to smile while Lauren rolled her eyes. The only thing that would make that woman look younger was maybe losing a hundred pounds.

With a perfectly straight face, Estelle replied, “Why, Priscilla Patterson, don't you know you can't improve on perfection?”

Jenni bit her lip and leaned back. Estelle either had the biggest heart in town, or she was on some heavy-duty medication. All she knew was she was glad it wouldn't be Estelle waxing her brows.

Twenty minutes, and three inches of hair on the floor, later, Jenni sat in front of the mirror as Lauren blow-dried her hair. She didn't have to tell anyone about herself or Dorothy; it seemed everyone in town knew everything already. It seemed they all even knew about Corey getting lost. Norma, the woman getting her nails done, had a nephew on the football team.