Cajun Magic 01 - Voodoo on the Bayou (16 page)

She hesitated, halting below the jungle-printed sign. Did she really want to have her hair done by someone with jungles on her mind? What would they do? Blow it up with an elephant gun?

She raised a hand to her ponytail. What’s the worst that could happen? Her hair couldn’t look any less attractive than it did already.
Could it?

She let out a noise of frustration. She was entirely too consumed by her appearance. Her mind should be on the true task at hand.

What was she doing, anyway, reacting like this to the threat of a beautiful woman who’d once had Craig’s attention? As if a new hairstyle could improve her chances with the man. Was she out of her mind? Out of her league, yes, but did she have to lose her marbles as well?

She spun back to unlock her car door.

“Oh, don’t leave. We get so few visitors in this town, I’d do your hair for free just for the practice.” The sweet Southern drawl called out from the glass doorway of the salon.

Elaine turned in embarrassment toward a young woman with big, bleached blond hair. “I changed my mind.”

“Well, change it again,
cher
.” The woman’s voice was pleading and welcoming, all wrapped up in a friendly smile.

Elaine hesitated. “I really don’t think…”

“That’s just it. You’re not supposed to think when you go to the hair salon. You’re supposed to relax and leave the thinking to the pros.”

Accustomed to using her brain all day long, she still couldn’t string two coherent thoughts together to make a sensible protest. Fine. Why not let someone else do the thinking for once?

On second thought, the blonde’s bleached tresses and thick makeup didn’t instill confidence. What had she been thinking to poof her hair out so big? Having battled natural curl all her life, Elaine couldn’t imagine anyone actually wanting such big hair. The woman’s short leopard print skirt and black tube top hardly seemed appropriate for daytime attire.

No, this was a really bad idea.

The beautician stepped out and hooked her arm through Elaine’s, giving her no choice but to follow. “Come on, I promise not to do anything drastic. A cut and maybe some highlights. That’s all.”

The pungent scent of perm solution and hairspray assailed her senses the moment she set foot in the salon.

“Mirna Mae, look what I got,” the blonde yelled across the room.

A thin, older woman of indeterminate age stood behind a black vinyl chair, brushing the tangles out of Miz Mozelle’s brassy, strawberry blond hair. Mirna Mae raised her arms in a touchdown motion. “
Woo hoo!
Way to go, Josie. Got yerself a live one.”

“What’s yer name,
cher
?” Josie propelled her toward a chair.

“Elaine.”

“Aren’t you the scientist been goin’ fishin’ with Craig Thibodeaux?”

She nodded, not at all excited about discussing Craig with yet another woman, especially after Lisa’s visit. She just wanted her hair done. No questions asked.

Josie sighed. “Girl, what I wouldn’t give to be in yer shoes.”

“If I were twenty years younger, I’d take a crack at him myself.” Mirna Mae, clad in a skintight leopard print jumpsuit, and her wrinkles camouflaged in five coats of base makeup, called out. She was ushering Miz Mozelle to a sink in the back.

Like a fish thrown in a tank full of alligators, Elaine was pulled into the salon and plunked into a swivel chair. On third thought, maybe her hair was fine the way it was. She leaned forward to get up, but a hand pressed her firmly back against the black vinyl.

Trapped, her heart kicked up its pace into pre-panic-mode, similar to the way she felt around water. Or
had
felt, anyway. She hadn’t been nearly as bothered by her phobia last night. But here in a salon filled with other women, she knew she was in way over her head. Beauty shops were for girly girls, the ones that spent hours at the mirror fussing with makeup or hair. Such machinations were a complete mystery to her.

Josie turned her to face the mirror and pulled the ponytail out of her hair. With deft fingers, she fluffed the long strands out and around Elaine’s shoulders. “You’ve got a lot of lovely natural curl.”

Elaine gaped at Josie’s reflection in the mirror. “Kinky, curly, unruly mop would better describe it. My hair is hopeless. I should just shave it off.”

The bottled-blonde’s eyes widened. “Are you kidding? I have a dozen clients who’d give their left breast for hair like yours. Right, Mirna Mae?”

“Both breasts.” Mirna Mae shut off the water and slung a towel over Miz Mozelle’s hair. “Wouldn’t you give both breasts to have Elaine’s hair, Mozie?”

Mozelle sat up in the shampoo chair and nodded across at Elaine. “In a New Orleans minute.”

Elaine heaved a sighed. She knew they were just being nice. “Is there any hope of taming the beast?”

Josie smiled. “What? Your hair or Craig Thibodeaux?”

Warmth spread up Elaine’s cheeks into her hairline. “My hair, of course. I have no interest in Mr. Thibodeaux.”

“In that case, yes. The hair is doable.” Josie fit a plastic cape around Elaine’s neck and velcroed it snugly against her skin. “The man is an entirely different matter.”

“You got that right,” Mirna Mae agreed.

“Come on.” Josie grabbed Elaine’s elbow and urged her out of the chair. “It’s off to the shampoo bowl for you.”

Mirna Mae switched on a blow dryer aiming it at Mozelle’s hair. The noise drowned out any chance of small talk.
Thank goodness
.

With the spray of water sprinkling her forehead and the cool porcelain sink against the back of her neck, Elaine relaxed. Josie didn’t bring up the subject of Craig during the entire shampooing process. Maybe she wouldn’t discuss him for the rest of the makeover.

Fat chance
.

The blond beautician draped a towel over her hair and patted it dry. “I usta have the biggest crush on Craig Thibodeaux when I was thirteen.” She smiled dreamily and her tone held a hint of nostalgia. “With that coal-black hair and ice-blue eyes, he was a god a girl could easily sacrifice her virginity to.”

“Did you?”
Crap
. Elaine could have slit her own throat as soon as the words popped out of her mouth. What had she been thinking to utter such a personal question? Perhaps the flash of jealousy scorching her veins had a little to do with her outburst.

“Oh, heavens no.” Josie led Elaine back to the swivel chair and pulled the towel from her hair. “He was my big brother’s best friend. Larry threatened to tell Mom if I so much as flirted with him.” She sighed. “But that didn’t stop me from dreamin’.”

Yeah, Elaine’d had a few of those dreams herself. Some of which weren’t only dreams.
Think ice. Think ice.
She concentrated on quelling the warmth rising in her belly and face. Revealing her current relationship with Craig to this woman was no way to win friends in this part of the state, as evidenced by Lisa’s nasty visit.

Josie checked the labels on several cans on the counter and lifted one marked “conditioner”. With a flick of her wrist, she sprayed a liberal dose into Elaine’s hair. “You know what’s crazy?”

She shook her head rather than answer. She could think of any number of crazy things that had occurred lately.

“After all those years of tellin’ me to back off Craig, the last couple days Larry’s been pushin’ me to go out with him. Makes me wonder what he’s up to.”

Elaine felt her fingernails flex against the arms of the chair. She knew she had no hold on Craig. But this was the second woman in the past two hours to talk about going after Craig. Craig, the man she’d slept with for the past two nights.

“I don’t know what’s got into that boy.” Josie set the can on the table, ran her fingers through Elaine’s hair, and picked up a pair of scissors. “Maybe he figures I’m all grown up now and Craig’s a mighty fine catch, after all. What do you thank, Mirna Mae? Should I go for him?” Josie never looked up, just kept on cutting.

Elaine held her breath. Whether or not the beautician went after Craig shouldn’t bother her in the least. Hadn’t she told Craig his lack of commitment wasn’t a problem for her?

But suddenly it felt like a problem. A
big
problem.

Josie sighed and stepped in front of Elaine to cut the top of her hair. “A guy like that could break a girl’s heart in a wink of one of his baby blues.”

Tell me about it.
Elaine feared she was halfway there already.

“You should go for him,” Mirna Mae said, spraying a layer of hairspray across Mozelle’s growing web of tangles and curls.

Miz Mozelle shoved an elbow into Mirna Mae’s side. “Iffn’ she don’t care for the boy anymore, don’t go puttin’ ideas into her head.”

“Do that again, and I’ll shave you bald.” Mirna Mae rubbed her side and glared at Miz Mozelle.

“Even if I wanted to go after him, Craig’s way out of my league.” The blond beautician set down the scissors and pulled a brush through Elaine’s hair.

Fish Boy was out of Josie’s league? Elaine couldn’t stop herself. “How so?”

Josie plunked a fist on her hip, studying Elaine critically in the mirror. “I’m a small-town girl. What could he possibly see in me when he has high-powered city women fallin’ all over themselves to catch his eye?”

Elaine looked around the shop and out through the window. What high-powered women? “Around here?”

Miz Mozelle answered before Josie. “Sure.” She seemed eager to change the subject. “Josie, you’re young and date a lot. What do girls do nowadays to snag a man’s attention?”

“Why, Miz Mozelle?” A sly smile slid across Josie’s face. “You thankin’ of going on the prowl?”

“Maybe I am, maybe I’m not, but that’s not here nor there.” She motioned her head toward them and said, “Elaine’s got a hankerin’ for one of the local boys and hasn’t had much practice in man-catchin’. Seein’ as you’ve had plenty—practice, that is—you’d be the best coach to teach her.”

“Oh really? Which boy?” Josie’s hand paused en route to the wire brush caddy.

Elaine wished she could sink through the floor. How embarrassing to have your social limitations aired in front of complete strangers. And she couldn’t tell Josie she had the hots for Craig, not after all the blonde had said of her dreams about the man. “I’d…rather not say.”

With a comb, Josie smoothed her wet hair, swiftly parted the waves into sections, and then twisted the long strands, pinning them out of the way. She combed the bottom layer of hair as straight as the curly tresses would allow, and lifted a strand, pulling it tight. She picked up the scissors again and waved them in the air. “Since you won’t fess up on who, I won’t be able to give you specific pointers. But dere are a few techniques sure to attract any red-blooded, heterosexual male.” With a crisp, clean stroke, Josie snipped off three inches of hair.

When the curls fell to the floor, Elaine barely noticed. She listened with interest to what the younger woman had to say.

“You got all the right equipment.” Josie snipped her way across the bottom layer. Then she unclipped a section, letting it fall over the shorter strands. “You just need to package it properly and display it to your best advantage. I learned that in beauty school. Somethin’ to do with marketing.”

Great
. That advice was really useful. Elaine still didn’t have a clue. “How?”

Josie removed another clip and cut her way through more curls. “We’re doin’ it right now. A new ‘do’ will go a long way toward instillin’ confidence and sex appeal.”

“Surely, looking good isn’t enough to sustain a relationship.”

“No, but you can hardly get one started if he doesn’t even see you. And if you don’t have some kind of sex appeal, you’re not going to hold his attention for long. Maybe only long enough for a quickie in the sack.”

Damn
. The people in this place sure had a way of zapping to the core.

Josie’s words struck entirely too close to home. Was Elaine merely a two-night stand with the local Cajun sex god? Her heart dropped like a lead weight into her stomach. She glanced down at the shapeless smock she wore, picturing the khaki slacks and plain white shirt under it. “I don’t think I have what it takes.”

“
Dit mon la verite’!
” Mozelle shouted from beneath Mirna Mae’s attack with the back-comb. “Listen to what Josie’s got to say. She knows what she’s talkin’ about.”

Miz Mozelle’s adamancy was infectious. And she was right. Elaine could sit there and list all her faults or she could come up with a way to compensate. What did she have to lose?

She glanced up apologetically and smiled. “You’re the expert, what should I do?”

“You need a little makeup, a figure-huggin’ outfit, and a great hairdo, of course. Then you need a few pointers on how to act to get and keep a man’s attention. Let’s start with – Knowing your Man. Here’s where you gotta do a little homework.”

“Homework?”

“Yeah, you need to know a little about your man. What’s his favorite sport and food? What does he do for a living? Occupation tells a lot about a man, his dreams and aspirations.”

Elaine nodded, soaking it all in. So far, everything Josie said was common sense.

“Take Craig, for instance. I know a lot about him already on account he usta hang out at the house during the summers. If I wanted to go after him, which I’m still thankin’ about, I already know the basics. He’s a lawyer, his favorite food is shrimp gumbo, he likes football, and the N’Awlins Saints are his favorite team.”

One word jumped out of Josie’s chatter, clunking against everything Elaine thought she knew about Craig. “He’s a
what
?”

“A lawyer.” Josie frowned at Elaine in the mirror. “Didn’t you know that?”

“I thought he worked for his uncle at the marina.” Her head spun with this new bit of information.

“That’s just him helpin’ out. He usta spend his summer vacations with his Uncle Joe. Larry says he came to Bayou Miste to meet with Mr. Jason Littington on business.”

Craig wasn’t a fish boy? Elaine’s brain grappled with the revelation. “So, you’re saying he’s only in town on business?”

“Yeah.”

“Where does he normally live?”