Billionaires Don't Like Nice Girls (A BWWM Romance) (2 page)

“Stereotypes, Sylvie,” Phae warned. “Watch it.”

Sylvie wasn’t put off by the reprimand. “I think I should braid it, then you won’t have to mess with it hardly at all. Ooh, yes, braids. Don’t have time now, of course. How about this weekend?”

“I told you and told you, it hurts my head.”

“What a baby. There’s a price to pay for beauty.”

“And I’m too broke to pay it.”

Her cousin sighed, put out with Phae’s lack of commitment. “Well, I’ll do something with it so you don’t frighten off business. How about a twist? That would be gorgeous and look so classy.”

“I’m at work, not the grand opera.”

“You’re a difficult customer, Phae, and you know it. I’ll figure out something.” Sylvie smiled and batted her long eyelashes. “So I’m sitting at home last night waiting for Alan to call and tell me when he’d pick me up. He said he would and I believed him, like the idiot I am. I should have gone out with Neesa, but I didn’t. I waited all night and the jerk never called or answered my texts. I mean, he’s a chiropractor. Shouldn’t a doctor be honorable and trustworthy?”

Since Sylvie had stopped separating Phae’s hair, Phae assumed an answer was required. “Yes?” She hoped that was the right answer. Phae didn’t like Alan, never had, and wished Sylvie would blow him off. She knew better than to say it, though.

“Right,” Sylvie said. “I don’t get men … what they’re thinking, I mean. They say these things and don’t realize it’s important. Or maybe they get together and brag about how many women they’ve got waiting for calls every night. But that’s not what I wanted to tell you. While I was waiting, Neesa called and told me that ever since the Clip and Dip did the Janson wedding … you know how that worried me, and I was right because Neesa said that she overheard the Janson twins talking about how great their hair looked at the wedding and … I tell you, we’re going to lose business over this thing and I don’t know what we’re going to …”

Phae closed her eyes and tried to ignore Sylvie’s worrying. She tried to be sensitive because of Sylvie’s tough upbringing, her father abandoning her family when Sylvie was so young.

Still, it was hard to keep a level head when Sylvie was always terrified they were on the verge of financial disaster. Sylvie’s worries sometimes made Phae question her decision to take Sylvie on as a partner. Still, she had a way with hair. She cut hair with an abandon and easy skill that Phae envied.

Phae worked in a meticulous manner, or at least she tried. Somehow, though, her styles didn’t come out as well as she’d thought they should. Good thing she had so much family in Zeke’s Bend to take pity on her and bring her their business or she probably really would have gone broke.

“Are you asleep? Are you listening to me?” Sylvie asked.

Phae opened her eyes. “I didn’t sleep well last night. And yes, I heard. We’re two days away from homelessness. Got it.”

Sylvie smoothed her palms over Phae’s hair. “Okay, we’re done. I just need some product to control the frizzy fly-aways.”

Phae swiveled and jumped out of the chair. The last thing she needed was helmet head. “Think of those fly-aways as tendrils. My first appointment will be here any second and I’ve still got to fold the towels. Thanks for fixing me up.”

Sylvie shrugged. “You’re hopeless, cousin. So who’s on tap first this morning?”

“Miss Eugenia.”

Sylvie startled Phae by laughing. “Oh, that’s too good! I can’t wait until she gets here. She’ll give us the real scoop. First thing this morning Neesa called me and told me the news. Last night—”

The jingling of bells interrupted her story as Miss Eugenia entered the shop. Phae looked sharply at Sylvie to squelch her story. Phae knew where this one was going … straight in the direction of Miss Eugenia’s backyard garden.

Phae had spent most of the night lying awake, mentally re-running her encounter with the burglar.

Phae smiled at the tiny, white-haired lady. “Good morning, Miss Eugenia. What a lovely blue blouse you have on today. Come have a seat. I’m ready for you.”

Miss Eugenia didn’t return Phae’s smile, but she did seat herself. “It’s not a good morning, dear, though that’s not your fault.”

“I heard all about it, Miss Eugenia. How are you holding up?” Sylvie asked with far too much twinkle in her eyes.

“My dear, I’m at my wit’s end.” She sighed loudly. “But it’s Kent that I’m most worried about. The poor boy. Look what I’ve done to him. I feel terrible, Lord is my witness, I truly do.”

“But Miss Eugenia,” Sylvie said, “it’s not your fault. It’s that Captain Nice Guy. Sure, he’s done a lot of good things, but this time he messed up.”

I didn’t mess up, Phae thought. What were they talking about? And what happened to Miss Eugenia’s nephew, Kent?

Miss Eugenia frowned harder, doubling the wrinkles on her brow. “Captain who?”

“You know,” Sylvie said while settling herself into the other hydraulic chair. “That pretend superhero guy who’s been going around town doing all those good deeds. The newspaper has started calling him Captain Nice Guy. Ha-ha!”

“Oh him. He’s been around a long time,” Miss Eugenia said. “I’d forgotten that’s what they’ve been calling him lately. I’m very old. You’ll know what it’s like one day. Last night, the police called him the perpetrator.”

Perpetrator? What did she mean by that?

All three women looked toward the door as the tinkling bells proclaimed another patron. Neesa, another cousin and unofficial best friend to both Sylvie and Phae, strolled into the shop.

Neesa, Sylvie and Phae were all cousins of an age, twenty-six-ish, and had grown up together in Zeke’s Bend with the rest of the massive Jones family. The small, quaint town of 5,000 had been founded by one of the Jones’ ancestors.

In the mid-1800s, Zeke Jones had been a trapper and trader and settled at a bend in the Elk River during the off season to sell his goods to river travelers. Zeke got married eventually, had a family, more people moved in to the area, and eventually, it became a town.

Phae loved Zeke’s Bend, having returned there from Chicago when life in the city didn’t work out after college. Coming home had seemed like failure at first, but now, she realized this was always where she’d been meant to be: surrounded by friends and family.

“Neesa!” Sylvie jumped out of the chair. “Sit down. Miss Eugenia is telling us all about what happened last night.”

Neesa gave Miss Eugenia a sympathetic smile while seating herself. “How is Kent doing this morning?”

The older lady’s eyes glistened with unshed tears. “The doctor said he’ll recover, but it will take some time. You should see him. It’s terrible. I blame myself. He would have been okay if I hadn’t been such a ninny about that garden. And you know how I worry about his health. He never complains, mind you. Insists he’s the very picture of health, brave thing. But I can see he’s actually a very sickly boy.”

Sylvie and Neesa nodded seriously while Phae clenched her hands tightly behind her back. Something awful must have happened. Did the burglar escape and attack Kent? How could that have happened? She’d tied the robber securely.

“Don’t blame yourself,” Sylvie said. “If that Captain Nice Guy hadn’t been out minding other people’s business, everything would have been all right.”

Neesa murmured her assent.

Miss Eugenia shook her head as vigorously as her eighty-two years allowed. “No, I can’t blame him. He’s helped many people around here and I can’t find it in myself to condemn him. He obviously thought he was doing a good deed. No, it’s all my fault. My dear Kent was beaten to unconsciousness because I overreacted.”

Phae kept her voice as calm as she could. “Maybe you could clarify this for me, Miss Eugenia. Exactly what happened? Did someone attack your nephew?”

Tears glistened once again in the elderly lady’s eyes. “I’m sorry dear. I didn’t realize you didn’t know. This Captain Nice Guy attacked my dear Kent last night. He smashed him over the head then tied him up like an animal to my old laundry line pole. It was dreadful. Then he called the police and told them my poor Kent was a criminal … Phae, you look … Sylvie, get a chair and some smelling salts. Fast! I think she’s going to faint.”

PHAE TRIED TO KEEP HER balance while Sylvie yanked a chair over and shoved Phae into it.

“Smelling salts, Sylvie! Quickly!” Miss Eugenia demanded.

Sylvie lightly slapped Phae’s cheeks. “It’s not 1880. We don’t have smelling salts laying around.”

Neesa looked closely into Phae’s face. “She looks ashen around the mouth. She hasn’t fainted, though. I don’t think all that slapping is necessary, Sylvie.”

Phae heard nothing. She told herself that none of the story could be true. She refused to consider the idea that she could make such a mistake. And yet, the man skulking around Miss Eugenia’s house hadn’t been a burglar. Unbelievable. The nearly unconscious man she’d tied to the post had been the sickly nephew, Kent.

But what was this about bashing him on the head? She’d done no such thing.

Neesa’s voice penetrated Phae’s mental haze. “Look, her eyes are coming back into focus. Seriously, Sylvie, quit slapping her. How is she supposed to talk with you smacking her around like that?”

“I think it’s helping,” Sylvie said.

Phae grabbed Sylvie’s hands and pushed them away. “Stop it! My cheeks are on fire.”

“Oh my goodness,” Miss Eugenia said. “You gave us quite a scare. Poor, sweet girl. I didn’t mean to distress you so badly. I didn’t realize you cared so much for my poor Kent. You’ve never met, have you? I’ve told you so much about him over the years that you probably feel like you know him, though. Forgive me. Poor, sweet girl. A sensitive soul.”

Phae wondered if maybe she should be doing a little slapping herself. “No, honestly, I’m fine. I didn’t eat any breakfast. I’m fine now.”

Neesa frowned. “Sylvie, run back into her apartment and get her something to eat.”

Phae began to protest but Sylvie had already raced away, gone through the back door. Phae returned her attention to the elderly lady.

“So,” she said to Miss Eugenia, “someone hit your nephew on the head?”

“Oh yes. Bashed him right on the forehead. Poor Kent could have been killed.”

Phae tried to settle this version of events with what had actually happened. It didn’t add up. She contemplated her next question.

Sylvie returned with a cold hot dog on a piece of white bread. She thrust it into Phae’s hands. “Eat it. It’s repulsive, but it’s all I could find in that wasteland you call a fridge.”

In order to keep up her cover story, Phae took a big bite.

Sylvie grimaced. “That is so gross.”

“Get over it,” Phae grumbled, her mouth still full. It wasn’t so bad. Sylvie was a food snob.

“Let the poor woman eat,” Neesa said.

Phae nodded. “I wanna know about the nephew.”

Sylvie pulled a chair beside Phae. “Captain Nice Guy snuck into Miss Eugenia’s back yard last night, apparently to replant the garden that those hooligans ran their bikes through a couple days ago. He didn’t finish, though, and left all these unplanted flowers behind. Anyway, Miss Eugenia had been worried about those hooligans destroying her garden and so she called her nephew to come stay with her and protect her for a few days …”

“Actually,” Miss Eugenia interrupted, “he was coming anyway to spend some time with me. And I didn’t ask him to come. He was concerned about me and my safety, so he flew in from Phoenix a few days early.”

Sylvie winked at Phae. “Right. Anyway, Captain Nice Guy must not be as well-informed as we’ve thought. He didn’t know Kent was there. So, last night, Kent told the police that he couldn’t sleep and that he heard a noise in the back yard. He went outside to investigate and found a cat and figured that was what had made the noise. On his way back into the house—”

Miss Eugenia broke in. “And that’s when Captain Nice Guy smashed poor Kent on the head and tied him to my laundry pole. It’s all my fault. I should have had those poles taken out years ago. Poor Kent. You should see him. He looks simply dreadful.”

Phae grimaced. She hadn’t hit anyone. Was Kent lying? “He said that the captain hit him? For sure?”

“Yes.”

Sylvie turned her back on Miss Eugenia and grinned slyly at Phae. “That’s one side of the story. I heard that Kent told the police that he’d started to go back into the house when someone said something like, ‘Hey you!’ He nearly had a heart attack as I hear it. He turned around fast and BAM! He smashed his head on the cross bar of the laundry line pole.”

Neesa hid a grin behind her hand when Miss Eugenia sniffed loudly. Phae was simply relieved that Kent had told the truth after all.

Sylvie continued her version of events. “Kent said the next thing he realized, he was tied to the pole and this guy was kind of laughing at him, saying it served him right, and that the police would be there soon to take care of him.” Sylvie couldn’t contain herself any longer and burst out laughing.

Neesa joined her.

“Oh, hush, you two,” Miss Eugenia scolded with an offended look. “Kent invented all that to protect the real villain, that Captain man. Kent can’t know what actually happened. He’s befuddled from the blow. It nearly killed him, I tell you, though he won’t admit it. You simply would not believe the trouble I had making him stay in bed today. I blame myself, though, no one else. Not even the captain. He was trying to help, I’m sure. But he should be more careful about who he whacks on the head and ties up. He should be thankful that Kent covered for him by making up that other story.”