Wave Good-Bye (17 page)

“This one looks perfect for you. I think you should consider it.” He clicked on “Salon Manager Wanted.”

“But I’m not a manager.”

“Before you say that, read the qualifications. You’ve done scheduling, right? You deal with employees, correct? Payroll? Advertising? Customers? You’ve had five years or more in the business?”

“Y-Yes. I guess I have. You’re right.”

He stood up and smoothed his tie. “You can handle it from here. Just promise me you won’t leave town. I’ll deal with your ex.”

I got up from the sofa and turned to face him, feeling more hopeful than I had in days. “How can I thank you? I really appreciate this.”

He leaned close, so close I thought he might kiss me. Instead he whispered, “You just did.”

After he left, I updated my résumé, such as it was, on my Dell and hit the “send” button, winging my way toward the ad for the manager’s job. Really, it seemed way too easy, compared to the old days when I went through gallons of Liquid Paper trying to get one perfect copy of my job history. I also sent my résumé to the other places offering a chair for rent. Marsh was right; hitting the “send” button was a lot easier than printing out a résumé and addressing an envelope. So easy that I had no idea where my information was going. None at all. I quit paying attention. Instead, I just sat there and hit “send” over and over again.

As long as the salon was within a reasonable driving distance, I’d make it work.

Filled with nervous energy, and mad as hops at Hank, I couldn’t sit still. I called Mom, but got her voice mail. I wanted to hear what she learned from the insurance adjuster, so I left a message. I also put in a call to Alice Rose, that perfect paragon of womanhood. She didn’t answer, either. I thought I’d better chat with her, tell her what had happened—if she didn’t know already—and then talk about how we could support Mom through this crisis.

I thought about calling Althea, Stella, and Rachel. I wasn’t sure what Mom had told them, though, and I didn’t want to alarm them unduly.

Instead, I changed into a pair of old jeans, stripped the
sheets off my bed, gathered the towels Marty had used, and started singing, “I’m going to wash that man right out of my hair,” at the top of my lungs. Filling a bucket with water and Mr. Clean, the only man I could depend on these days, I started scrubbing the bathroom floor—with gusto. Pretty soon I was drenched in sweat.

That’s when my phone rang.

“May I speak to Grace Ann Terhune?” a cautious voice asked.

“Speaking.”

“You replied to an online employment ad?”

“Yes.” I did a fist pump that caught Sam’s attention. He’s like that. He notices everything.

“Are you available for an interview? Today?” the caller sounded timid.

“Sure. Give me half an hour to get cleaned up. See, I’ve been doing housework.”

“Certainly. Would an hour be better?”

I paused. What if this was a person from one of the salons twenty-five minutes away? I’d grown so accustomed to getting anywhere I wanted to go in less than fifteen minutes. Perhaps I’d better back up on the timeframe. “An hour. Right. Where should I go? I mean, what’s the street address? I sent résumés to several places,” I explained.

“It’s Two fifty-five Reynolds Street.”

OMG, that was the street address for Snippets.

“Who is this?” I abandoned any pretense at manners.

“My name is Eve. Eve Sebastiani Goodman.”

“Ha, ha, ha. Nice joke, Vonda. Knock it off.”

“Vonda?”

An uncomfortable silence followed.

Eve cleared her throat. “We need a manager at this salon. Badly. We’ve put a lot of money into our lease and building out the salon. I realize given the
circumstances…some people might feel uncomfortable working at this location, but we’re stuck with it.”

“And you couldn’t transfer another manager?” I plopped down on my sofa. This was too bizarre for words!

“Yes. Yes, I could. However, as you well know, the locals are comfortable with you. Bringing you in makes perfect sense. In fact, it might be the only way we can get the business back up and running.”

“How do you know I’m not going to scam you like you scammed our salon? Hmm?” My temperature was rising as I thought about the damage Lisa had done. Was Eve in favor of such high jinks?

“I deeply regret what Lisa did to your business. In fact, I owe you and your mother an apology, which is why I happened to be here in St. Elizabeth when…when Lisa died. You don’t know me, but if you did, you would know I would never, ever resort to tricking or cheating another business person. My father worked too hard and too long to get established for me to blacken his good name. You might not realize this, but back then, being an Italian off the boat was tough. Our family certainly survived its share of dirty tricks, and so Lisa’s actions are appalling.

“Grace Ann, we really should meet. At the very least, let me apologize to you in person. But I think you’re perfect for the job of manager. Why aren’t you working for your mother?”

“We have a small issue with mold. Shouldn’t take long to resolve it.” I sounded more confident than I felt.

“Even if you come to work here for a short time, I’d pay you well. Whether you come for an interview or not, I want to let you go through the names on our computer. If the client was yours initially, we won’t send any e-mails to them for a period of six months. How’s that? Would that be fair? And if you do decide to come work here, you can
handle your old clients, which might make it easier for you to keep them until you’ve dealt with the mold problem.”

I sat up straight. That was a heck of a concession. Why was she making it?

“You must want me awfully bad.”

“I do.”

There was nothing coy or sly in her voice. She certainly sounded sincere.

We agreed to meet at Subway, which was also on Reynolds. That way, if her offer didn’t appeal to me, or if I didn’t appeal to her, we would be on neutral territory.

After we hung up, I finished my mopping, showered, and dressed. I carefully applied my makeup, and put my black jeans and pink tee back on. I didn’t want to appear too eager, but I didn’t want to seem all stuffy and out-of-date, either. At the last moment, I added the dangling jet-black bead earrings Althea had made for me. The effect was studied insouciance.

I liked it.

Chapter Twenty-eight

I COULD HAVE PICKED OUT EVE SEBASTIANI GOODman from across the municipal parking lot. The girl had been blessed with a great head of hair. Long, blond, it tumbled onto her shoulders in picture-perfect loose curls.

Although God had been good to her in the hair department, he’d been a bit stingy when he handed out comeliness. Her eyes were small and set too narrow, a trait she compensated for by careful application of eye liner. Also, her lips were thin. A passerby might think, “She’s gorgeous,” until she turned around. Her features weren’t symmetrical enough to be attractive. And I wasn’t sure that plastic surgery could help because it can’t make your eyes bigger or set them wider apart. Oh, sure, they can plump up your lips with fillers, but that can go terribly wrong.

Beyond all that, she was taller than I, and thin. Rail thin in fact. I remembered from what I’d read that she and I were the same age, but the drawn lines on her face made her look older.

This flitted through my mind in less time than it took me to walk across the parking lot and join her on the bench outside the front door of the Subway restaurant.

“Let’s grab a couple of sandwiches,” she said as she stood to shake my hand. I couldn’t help but notice the huge honking diamond on her ring finger. The sparkle nearly blinded me.

“Is that okay?” she asked. “I know it isn’t elegant, but it is convenient.”

“Fine by me.”

“I’m buying,” she said.

I don’t know how she walked in those high heels, but she did. We selected our food—mine was turkey on honey wheat bread with lots of veggies while she chose the teriyaki chicken—and she paid. Ignoring the chill in the air, we took seats outside in the sunshine, unwrapped our food, and dug in. She didn’t eat like a prissy princess. I admit I was a bit surprised that someone with all her money would stoop so low as to eat at Subway, but what did I know about the very, very rich? Not much.

About halfway through our meal, she talked with her mouth full. “Gosh, this is good. I don’t care if it’s fast food or what. I love their multigrain bread. And this teriyaki sauce on the chicken is just to die for!”

I couldn’t help but laugh, because she had attacked her food with such eagerness. There was nothing stuck-up about her. Nothing. “You must have been hungry.”

“Yes, I was up at five, and when you eat that early, breakfast is a faint memory by the time lunch rolls around. Lately, I’ve been extra hungry.”

“Why so early? You’re the boss. Don’t you set your own hours?” I took in her lovely silk blouse with its billowing poet sleeves, the tight jeans, and the spectacular stiletto high heels. Everything about Eve was first class. No wonder Wynn had fallen for her. With the exception of natural good looks, she was a lucky, lucky girl.

She smiled a genuinely sweet smile. “I wish! I have suppliers in China, and their workday is different. But today, I was up early to talk to two prominent UK designers, Toni and Guy. I want them to come here and do training for all our staff.”

“Toni and Guy!” I yelped. “They’re my favorites.”

“Mine, too.”

We stared at each other, shocked by our mutual admiration of two other stylists.

“I wish we’d met under different circumstances,” she said, her voice choking with emotion. “Wynn talks about you often. He…he thinks the world of you. Did you know he’s agreed to go into counseling? Sex addiction.”

“I haven’t talked to Wynn for three years.”

After studying a baked barbecue chip for a long time, she bit into it. “I don’t know any other way to say all this, so I’ll dive right in: You have every reason to hate everything to do with Snippets. I can understand that. I can’t undo the past, Grace Ann. But I can offer you a position here and now. Who knows? You might learn a new skill or two. I can put my company’s resources at your disposal. We could go into it with the understanding that you’ll probably only be with us a short time.” The salary she proposed made my head spin.

“Plus, hospitalization, and you have hiring and firing privileges. I’ll get Carol Brockman to set everything up. She’s our accountant here.”

I was speechless. So much so that she took it for rejection.

“Okay, if you want to play hard to get. Here’s the deal. I’ll even offer a signing bonus.” She tossed out a figure equal to one month’s pay. I wasn’t sure how much the deductible might be on Mom’s insurance, but surely this could make a sizeable dent in it.

“Why? Why do you want me so badly?” I pushed the last bits of my sandwich to one side and stared at her, hard.

She shrugged. “I was raised to believe that what goes around, comes around. Lisa’s death is proof of that. There were many nasty tricks she pulled, including trying to run you out of business. When I found out and confronted her, she gave me a song and dance about how you snubbed her in high school. I had very little use for the woman.”

“And she was involved with Wynn,” I said. I wasn’t going to let it slide.

“Yes, she pursued my husband hot and heavy. Eventually, he gave in. He isn’t blameless. As far as that goes, she deserved everything she got.” Waving a weary hand, Eve said, “Look. Wynn is no saint. He has his problems, but she went out of her way to entice him, and he’s never been very strong. You were lucky, Grace Ann. He walked away from you early in your relationship. I’m pregnant. No one knows it yet but Wynn. That’s why he was breaking it off with Lisa. I am not going to divorce my husband. Especially not now. I want my baby to have a father.”

Chapter Twenty-nine

“LET’S GO LOOK AT THE SALON, SHALL WE?” EVE cleaned up after herself, carefully putting her trash in the big bin.

We were only four blocks away from the salon, but with deference to her five-inch heels, I offered her a ride in my Fiesta. If the low-class wheels weren’t up to her standards, she never let on. As we drove, she asked me how I liked living in St. Elizabeth, what my favorite local attraction was, and so on. The turning leaves excited her, and twice she called my attention to maple trees resplendent in shades of orange and red. When we got to the salon, she even thanked me for the ride.