The Prince Charming List (15 page)

“What am I going to do?”

“You can take comfort in knowing that her eyes are so beautiful, no one is going to notice her hair…or buy her a really cute baseball cap.”

“Pink,” Whitney announced.

Kaylie groaned again.

“You’re all done.” I unclipped the cape and helped Whitney down. “You can pick out a sucker for sitting so well.”

Kaylie’s face suddenly turned white. “I forgot my purse. I don’t have any money with me. I can’t pay you.”

“That’s okay. No big deal.” I felt like I was talking the poor girl off a ledge. “Don’t rush back. The salon is open all week, just stop by whenever you can.”

“Thanks—”

“Heather.”

“You’re Heather? Annie mentioned you.”

“You know Annie?” It didn’t surprise me. Annie was like the Pied Piper of teenage girls.

“I’m in her youth group…sometimes.” Kaylie pulled her hair across her face again. I didn’t think she was even aware she was doing it.

“I help her out once in a while, so I’ll probably see you again.”

Kaylie ducked her head and didn’t answer. “Whit, it’s time to go.”

Whitney raced up to us and wrapped her arms around my knees. “I’m pretty.”

“You are.” Even with the freshly shorn baby lamb look she had going.

“You look like you’ve been scalped,” Kaylie muttered. “Let’s find you a hat so people don’t stare at you.”

She sounded resigned. As if she knew what it felt like to have people stare. I’m glad she knew Annie. If anyone could bring Kaylie Darnell out of her shell, it was Annie.

Amanda poked her head in the salon mid-afternoon, waving to get my attention. “It’s Moroccan Monday today. You
have
to have supper at the café.”

How could I pass up Moroccan Monday at Sally’s? “I’ll be there.”
Incognito
.

Amanda gave me a thumbs-up and strolled past the window.

God, Sally is upset enough about the Bucky Burger. Don’t let her regulars bail out on her now. And forgive me for being such a busybody. I’ll quit. I promise.

After I’d cleaned out the comb drawer, swept the floor and rearranged the bottles of shampoo and conditioner on the shelves (twice), I couldn’t delay the inevitable anymore.

Sally’s was quiet when I slipped in, but every seat at the counter was occupied.

“Hi, Amanda—”

“Shh!” The half-dozen men sitting at the counter all made a hissing noise that sounded like air escaping from a tire.

I froze.

Amanda waved me closer with the book she was holding. “Don’t mind them. Sit down, Heather. We’re just finishing up.”

I inched over to the counter and perched on the edge of one of the stools, just in case I had to make a quick getaway. Sally came out of the kitchen and made her way over to me.

“It’s the book club,” she whispered.

“Book club?”

“Caffeine and the Classics. Amanda started it. She’s been reading a chapter of
Treasure Island
every afternoon. It’s been a big hit so far. If you’re in the club, you get a bottomless cup of coffee and a free biscotti.”

Which made me wonder if it was the book or the free coffee that appealed to Sally’s customers. But either way, the men were back. It didn’t matter what bait Amanda had used to lure them in. I was in awe. As a team, Sally Repinski and Amanda Clark could end up owning the Bucky Burger franchise. At the very least, they’d give them a run for their money.

“Thanks for hiring her, Sally.”

“I should be thanking you, kiddo. She’s got a lot of ideas. I’m not sure Prichett is ready for all of them, but we’ll ease ’em in a few at a time. If Bucky Burger sinks us, at least it’ll be a fun ride to the bottom.”

The door opened and another customer walked in, earning the same loud
shush
that I’d been greeted with. The man slunk to a booth by the window and Sally saluted me with the coffeepot. “I’ll be right back. He’s new—must be here for Moroccan Monday.”

Amanda finished reading and closed the book. “That’s it for today, fellas. How about one more round of java before I break out the lamb kebabs?”

There was a chorus of baritone grunts and half a dozen handmade pottery mugs were lifted in the air.

I had entered the Twilight Zone and its name was Sally’s Café.

“Here try these.” Sally thumped a plate down in front of me.

“Is it really lamb?” I looked down at the plate of kebabs and couldn’t get past the visual of little white lambs frolicking in the grass.

“No, it’s beef. Lamb sounds more authentic. No one’s going to know the difference. And if I throw in a free piece of pie with every kebab platter, believe me, no one’s going to care.”

“I
hope you don’t have plans for Saturday night, because I’ve got plans for you.” Jared grabbed my hand and wove his fingers through mine.

“Plans?” That sounded wonderfully mysterious.

And I was ready to have plans. We hadn’t been able to spend much time together. He’d been hard at work on Junebug every day and into the evenings so I’d finally gathered the courage to stop by the studio to say hello after I closed up the salon on Wednesday.

The expression in his eyes when he saw me made me kick myself for not coming by sooner. Even after our conversation on Sunday night, this was still uncharted territory I was venturing into. Ordinarily I blazed a trail into new situations but this was different. There was someone else I had to consider. Jared. I wasn’t the world’s greatest expert on dating, but I’d watched enough of my friends either a) have their hearts broken or b) break someone else’s heart, so I knew it wasn’t something to be taken lightly.

“I don’t…” Have plans, I was going to say. But then I remembered I did. Annie and Stephen’s date night. “I’m babysitting Annie’s twins on Saturday night so she and Stephen can celebrate their anniversary.”

Jared frowned. “Can’t she find someone else? Today’s only Wednesday, it’s not like you’d be backing out at the last minute.”

“Maybe you and I could do something Friday night instead.”
You’re pathetic, Heather.

Jared shook his head. “I could only set it up for Saturday night.”

I was dying of curiosity now. Maybe if I explained the situation to Annie, she could find someone to take my place. Maybe if
two
girls from the youth group would be willing to stay with the twins for a few hours, Annie wouldn’t worry about them. Hot on the heels of that reasoning came the voice of my conscience, telling me I was kitchen mold.

“I’m sorry.” Understatement! “Annie and Stephen haven’t had a night out since the twins were born and I promised I’d be there.”

“Haven’t they got a whole congregation who can help them out?” Jared asked. “How did you get volunteered?”

The tone in his voice scraped against my nerves. I shifted and pulled my fingers away from his. “Um, because
I
was the one who volunteered me? They’re friends of mine and I don’t mind helping out.”

“You don’t mind helping out a lot of people, do you, Heather?” Jared stood up and walked over to the window.

“Is there something wrong with that?”

“I don’t think it’s wrong to look out for yourself once in a while, that’s all. If you keep giving, people keep taking. It’s a natural law.”

Now there was a topic for a daytime talk show. And that law sounded
unnatural
to me. At least from what I’d always been taught.

“I won’t cancel on them. They deserve a night out.”

Jared’s shoulder lifted slightly—the signal that ended our conversation. The minute of silence that followed felt like an hour. Frustrated, I grabbed my purse and walked past him on my way to the door. Slowly. Just in case he wanted to reschedule.

He didn’t.

By the time Saturday came around, it was obvious Jared and I had entered a contest to determine which one of us could out-stubborn the other. I just wasn’t sure who was winning. I used my executive power to close the Cut and Curl early that day so I had time to fix Annie’s hair.

The second I got out of my car I could hear Joanna’s wail. It had permeated the walls of their apartment and stretched all the way to the sidewalk at a decibel level I’d only experienced in the front row of a Skillet concert.

“I don’t think Stephen and I should go tonight.” Annie greeted me at the door, still in her pajamas and holding Joanna, whose little body stiffened and rose out of the blanket like an unhappy jack-in-the-box. “Joanna has been fussy all day…I haven’t even had time to shower or get dressed yet.”

Panic set in. I’d been expecting happy babies. Sleeping babies. Not babies who’d been so demanding they’d sucked the wind out of the buoyant sails of the S.S. Annie!

I caught a faint whiff of sour milk and saw the faint shimmer of moisture in her eyes. There was no way I was going to run for cover. If Annie could do this all day, I could put in a three-hour shift. I took a deep breath and forced a smile. “Of course you’re going. Let me hold Joanna while you shower. There’ll still be time to do your hair before Stephen gets home from work.”

Annie wavered for a second but I gave her a playful nudge. “Come on, Cinderella. It’s time to go to the ball.”

A faint sparkle came back in her eyes. She eased Joanna into my arms and darted into the bathroom.

Lord, I’m going to need your help! Please have your heavenly choir up there strike up a lullaby.

The heavenly choir must have had another engagement because Joanna continued to cry so hard she woke her brother up. He was upset at having his nap interrupted and decided to change Joanna’s soprano into a duet. I jiggled them around the tiny living room so by the time Annie emerged from her room, wearing real clothes again, I’d calmed them down enough to convince her we’d be fine for a few hours.

I dried Annie’s hair and coaxed it into a French knot. Not quite the elaborate style I’d been hoping to create, but it was all I could manage in the time it took for the twins to feverishly drain the contents of their bottles.

When Stephen came home from work, I met him at the door while Annie was busy looking up the phone number of the restaurant they’d chosen.

“Don’t even take time to comb your hair,” I whispered. “Joanna is cranky and Annie is this close to changing her mind about going out.”

Stephen’s eyes flashed once in sympathy for the evening ahead of me before he retreated. “Tell her I’m waiting for her in the car.”

He may have been concerned about me, but he wasn’t going to let it ruin an evening alone with his wife.

I was definitely adding that to my list.

After Annie and Stephen’s car disappeared down the street, I propped the babies in their infant seats. In less than fifteen minutes I went through my entire repertoire of nursery rhymes, silly faces and breakfast cereal jingles. Nathaniel’s eyelids drooped and there was a sweet half smile on his face that told me he appreciated my off-key attempt at karaoke. Joanna, however, refused to be won over. She must have sensed there’d been a change in command because her ear-piercing cries had faded into a heart-wrenching combination of gasps and hiccups.

I picked her up and walked her around the room, cheerfully pointed out the interesting use of color in the trio of Thomas Kinkade prints above the couch. She obviously didn’t appreciate the arts, because the gasps increased in intensity.

“Joanna.” Her tears reduced me to a level I’d promised myself I would never be reduced to—putting on the pleading, singsong voice that adults thought children responded to. I knew it wouldn’t work, but at the moment I was willing to try anything. “Please don’t cry. Mommy and Daddy will be back in a few hours. Don’t you want to play with Auntie Heather for a while?”

No.
I swear she said it. I put her back in the infant seat, picked up a rattle shaped like a dinosaur and made it dance. Nathaniel kicked his feet in glee. Joanna scrunched her eyes closed and drew in a deep, ragged breath. Oh, no. She was increasing lung capacity—

The doorbell rang.

I jogged to the front door—backward—so I could keep an eye on the twins. “Coming!”

“Did you know you’re currently exceeding the acceptable level for noise pollution?” Dex peered over my shoulder. “What did you do to her?”

Why couldn’t it have been someone who liked children? Someone like…no, I wasn’t even going to let myself
think
his name.

I scowled at Dex. “I didn’t do anything. Annie said she’s been fussy all day. This is the night they went out for their anniversary.”

“I know. That’s why I stopped over.”

“To prove I’m a failure at babysitting?”

“You keep my secrets, I keep yours.” He stepped around me and went straight for Joanna. “Hey, Stinky.”

Oh, that was going to win her over. I rolled my eyes at his back. Now I had three kids to keep an eye on.

Joanna stopped crying. She even gave him a tearful smile. And a slushy-sounding hiccup.

“That’s my girl. I bet you’re cutting a tooth.” Dex picked her up and offered his finger, which Joanna clamped down on like a pit bull on a postal worker’s leg.

I hoped his hands were clean.

“Is she drooling a lot?”

Suddenly exhausted, I slumped into Stephen’s recliner. “It’s kind of hard to tell with all the other bodily fluids she’s been creating.”

Yuck. Did I actually say that out loud? But Dex didn’t bolt toward the door. “It’d be early for a tooth, but you never know. Kids are as different as fingerprints.”

I looked at him suspiciously. “I thought you didn’t like kids.”

“When did I say that?”

“You didn’t. I just…assumed. When we were here for lunch that day, you looked like you were holding a live grenade.”

“Never assume.”

I gave him a teasing salute because he sounded so serious. “Yes, sir.”

Dex loped the perimeter of the room with Joanna while I slid to the floor to entertain Nathaniel. When I stopped shaking the dinosaur rattle, I could hear Dex singing softly to Joanna. The hiccups had subsided and her eyes were almost closed.

“You’re good.” I had to give credit where credit was due.

“I have five younger sisters and brothers.”

“You do?” Why that surprised me, I’m not sure.

“Seventeen, sixteen, thirteen, twelve and nine. Three sisters and two brothers. Mom worked when they were young, so I took care of them during the summer.” He paused. “And the rest of the year, too, I guess.”

“You must be pretty close, then.” I tried to imagine taking care of a troop that size. “I’ll bet they miss you.”

He didn’t answer. No surprise there. Didn’t he know his reluctance to talk about his family only spiked my natural curiosity to find out why? I picked up Nathaniel and followed him into the kitchen. “Aren’t you going into the mission field?”

“Short term. Two years.”

That didn’t sound so short-term to me.

“Doing what?” Getting Dex to string together more than a few sentences at a time was a challenge I wasn’t sure I was up to.

“Whatever they need me to do. I have to raise my own support, but I’m hoping to leave by the beginning of September.”

Hopefully they weren’t expecting someone who could fix faucets.

“Are these chocolate chip cookies?” he asked.

It was ridiculously easy to divert my attention with food.

I made a note to finish our conversation after a quick chocolate fix.

“I brought them over.” Somehow I’d known that an evening of babysitting would demand sugar. “Go ahead and have one.”
Or five.
I watched in amazement as Dex swooped in low and snagged a handful without disturbing Joanna.

Nathaniel sighed and I traced my finger over the plump curve of his cheek. Babies were really cute when they were sleeping. “Do you think we should put them to bed now?”

“Nate’s ready. Joanna’s not quite down for the count yet.”

Joanna looked to be as sound asleep as Nathaniel. “And you know this…how?”

“Patience you must learn,” Dex intoned.

“Say good-night to the Jedi master, Nathaniel.” Which only proved that, in spite of the mocking scorn I’d injected into my voice, I knew exactly who he was imitating. Which made me a walking
Star Wars
trivia-bot, too. Which meant I had something in common with Dex. Now I had to rent a foreign film over the weekend to make up for it.

After putting Nathaniel in his crib, I found Dex and Joanna stretched out on the floor in front of the television, tuned into the Weather Channel. Humid and in the high 80’s for the rest of the weekend. I felt sorry for all the women with naturally curly hair.

I sat on the chair and pushed my hands through my bangs. “No wonder Annie has Philippians 4:13 stenciled on the wall over the changing table.”

“It doesn’t get any easier.”

“You don’t have the gift of encouragement, do you?”

“I have the gift of reality.”

Sure you do, Yoda.

I dropped to the floor a few feet away from Dex and wondered if the Weather Channel was the fluke of a dying remote control or if he’d turned to it on purpose. Just as the weather person pronounced that San Francisco was going to be hot and Chicago was going to be breezy and pleasant, Dex rose slowly to his feet.

Joanna was officially asleep.

I wasn’t sure if he knew you were supposed to put a baby to sleep on its back so I trailed behind him into the twins’ bedroom, just to make sure he did things right. He did. In fact, he did a fancy maneuver with Joanna that I was going to have to copy if I ever babysat again. Instead of awkwardly repositioning her in order to lay her down, he kind of let her slide down his arm like a magician would shake a card out of his sleeve.