Forever Together (22 page)

He cleared his throat and looked around the
salon. “No, ma’am. It’s a special delivery.”

He started walking toward Kate. She dropped
the perming solution on the floor, causing more than one female in
the room to smile encouragingly at her. She didn’t need
encouragement, she needed a back door. A quick exit would solve all
of their problems, only Dan looked like a man on a mission. And the
mission was her.

But he didn’t trust her. He didn’t even like
her except for one night of
mind-blowing
sex. And one night was enough. If she came
back for
seconds,
she’d be mad, or
desperate, or somewhere in between that didn’t bear thinking
about.

She bent down and picked up the perming
solution, whacked her head on the underside of a table and sent
combs and brushes hurtling across the floor.

Mrs. Donaldson wiggled her
eighty-three-year-old body out of her chair and stared at the chaos
around her.

Jessie, considerate to the bone, took Mrs.
Donaldson’s arm. “Come with me, Evelyn. You’ll be able to see more
from my chair.”

Kate’s face turned beet red.

Dan picked up a couple of brushes and put
them on a table. “I’m sorry about…” He looked over his shoulder and
frowned at his audience. “Don’t you ladies have something better to
do?”

“Not right at this moment, young man.” Mrs.
Donaldson might be hard of hearing, but she was managing fine
today. “Now get on with whatever’s brought you into The Beauty Box.
My perm needs attention. If Kate doesn’t get back to it
soon,
I’m going to look like I’ve been
plugged into a power socket and left to roast.”

He sighed and turned to Kate. “I’m sorry
for
not believing you. These are
for you.”

He thrust the bouquet toward her. She didn’t
know what to say or what to do. She’d never been given flowers
before, not real ones. She took them out of his hand, ignored the
spark when their skin touched and tried to look as though nothing
out of the ordinary had happened.

“Thanks. They’re lovely.”

Dan didn’t look as though he knew what to do
with his hands now that he wasn’t holding the flowers. He tried
crossing his arms, then dropped them to his sides. He frowned at
the flowers, then raised his eyes to Kate’s.

“Are we good?”

She had no idea what Dan meant, although the
rest of the ladies in the salon didn’t have the same problem. She
could feel their enthusiasm for the moment pushing her along.
Willing her to say the words that would make the most sense to
them.

So she nodded. A quick now or never kind of
nod that wouldn’t earn her points in the relationship game. But she
wasn’t in a relationship with Dan. They were in a nothingness level
of limbo that wouldn’t be going anywhere.

Dan’s cell phone beeped and he looked down at
the number. “I’ve got to go. I’ll meet you here at five o’clock and
take you out to dinner.”

“But I…”

“Ssh…” Jessie hissed across the salon.

Kate started to speak, then looked at Jessie.
She’d kept her finger planted against her lips in case Kate didn’t
get the general idea.

“Okay. I’ll see you then.”

Dan leaned forward, kissed her on the cheek
and left before Jessie could say another word. The doorbell tinkled
and a collective sigh worked its way around the salon.

“Oh, my.” Loretta fanned her hot face.
“I’m having
a hormonal flush.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” Jessie said. “If I
were
forty years younger I’d be
chasing after our Deputy Chief of Police faster than he could run.
The man’s got ‘hottie’ written all over him.”

Kate’s lips twitched. She bit her lip, tried
not to give in to the giggle wiggling through her body. Dan would
be thrilled to know that Jessie thought he was a hottie. It would
either give him a nightmare or earn Jessie a bouquet of her own. In
Dan’s
case,
she had a feeling the
flowers would win out.

“So what are you going to do with him?” Mrs.
Donaldson asked. “A man like our Deputy doesn’t give everyone
flowers. In
fact,
I can’t remember
when he last dated.”

“Two years ago.” Jessie’s voice bounced
around the salon. “That pretty little thing from Great Falls came
visiting her family. Didn’t last more than a couple of
dates
though.”

Kate stared at Jessie.

Jessie smiled back. “I always thought I’d
make a good detective. But in my day a woman didn’t have a career
after she got married. I loved Percy, but the man wasn’t one to go
against tradition. Although my daddy did teach me how to shoot a
gun.”

“That kind of skill might have come in handy
over at Charlie’s Bar and
Grill.
”
Loretta said as everyone returned to their chairs and settled in
for the rest of their appointments. “I heard they blocked off half
the neighborhood after Charlie called in the robbery.”

And just like that the conversation inside
The Beauty Box turned from Dan to Charlie. And Kate couldn’t have
been more grateful.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“Here comes trouble,” Tess muttered.

The bell above the door of Angel Wings Café
tinkled and Kate looked over her shoulder. Logan Allen, the
reporter that had interviewed her for the Bozeman Chronicle, walked
in the door.

“Afternoon, ladies.” He nodded at Tess and
headed across to the counter.

Annie, Tess’ part-time baker and
all-round
expert at anything to do with food,
took Logan’s order.

“I swear that man reminds me of one of those
Wild West snake charmers,” Tess said. “I wouldn’t trust him as far
as I could throw him.”

“He wrote a good article about Kaylee,” Kate
whispered. “We had a sell-out audience for the fashion show.”

“The show would have sold out with or without
his words of wisdom thrown into the paper.” Tess frowned at Logan’s
back. “Be careful what you say around him.”

“Why don’t you like him?”

“It’s not that I don’t like him, I loathe
him. I’ve met men like him before. They pretend they’re concerned
about what’s going on, then when you least expect it they twist
everything around. Pretty soon no one can remember what’s fact and
what’s fiction.”

It wasn’t like Tess to be so negative about
someone. Kate hadn’t known her for long, but she seemed to be a
positive person. Something big must have happened to make her
distrust Logan so much.

She looked at the counter and nudged Tess’
leg with the toe of her sneaker.

Logan walked across to their table. He had a
take-out coffee in one hand and a brown paper bag in the other. “I
needed a coffee break. How’s everything going?”

Kate flicked Tess a warning glance. “Great. I
liked the article you wrote about the maternity unit at the
hospital.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “They’re doing
some good things for the community. How’s the fundraising for
Kaylee coming along?”

Kate glanced across at Tess. Anyone looking
at her wouldn’t have guessed what was running through her head.
She’d
relaxed her face, titled her
lips into an interested smile. Only she wasn’t interested in
anything Logan had to say.

Kate kept the conversation rolling, hoping
Tess pulled herself out of the weird mood she’d slipped into.
“Molly’s been selling lots of photos from the fashion show and
she’s working on her book about Montana. I’ve seen some of the
photographs and it’s going to be beautiful.”

“Let me know when she’s ready to launch the
book. I’ll put an article in the paper.”

“Thanks, Logan. I’m sure Molly would
appreciate it.”

Logan stared directly at Tess. He wasn’t
fooled for one minute by the bland expression on her face. “What
about you, Tess. Business looks as though it’s booming.”

“We’re doing really well.”

Logan waited for something more, but Tess
wasn’t about to give him anything more. Her lips curled into a
pleasant smile and she went back to sipping her coffee.

Logan frowned. “I’ll be off then. See you
next time.” He turned to leave, then stopped and looked at Kate. “I
heard Dan Carter talking with your dad outside the hospital. He was
saying something about a missing check. Have you lost the money
raised from the fashion show?”

Kate choked on her coffee.

Tess passed her a napkin and moved Kate’s cup
away from her elbow before she made a bigger fool of herself.
“There’s no missing money, Logan Allen. I suggest you go over to
Charlie’s Bar and Grill if you’re looking for a story.”

Logan’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know what
your problem is, Tess, but one day I’m going to find out.”

A flush of pink filled Tess’ cheeks. “I don’t
have a problem.”

Logan shook his head and glanced at Kate. “It
was nice meeting you again. Let me know when Molly’s ready for that
article.”

Before Kate could say anything he left the
café.

“Are you okay?” Tess asked.

Kate nodded. She looked around the café and
leaned in close to Tess. “The check has gone missing. Dan and I
looked everywhere, but we can’t find it.”

“Have you called Emily to cancel it?”

“Dan was doing that today.”

Tess sat silently at the table. “There’s
something else, isn’t there?”

Kate took a deep breath. “Dan thought I’d
stolen it.”

“What?”

“Ssh,” Kate glanced at the people eating at
the nearest table. They were deep in conversation and hadn’t heard
what she’d said.

“Why would he think that? You’re Kaylee’s
sister for cripes’ sake, not some two-bit thief who’d steal money
from their own family.”

Kate pushed her coffee away and frowned at
the table. “I got into trouble ten years ago and ended up in a
special program. When Dan couldn’t find the check he put two and
two together and came up with five.”

“I’m not even going to ask if you took it
because I know you didn’t. So what are you going to do about
Dan?”

“I don’t know. He came into the salon an hour
ago with a bunch of flowers and an apology. I’ve got no idea what’s
going on, but I didn’t take Kaylee’s money. He wants to go out for
dinner.”

“I’d say dinner and flowers are the least he
could do.” Tess glanced at her watch. “I’ve got to close the café
soon. The pre-packaged dinners Annie’s been making are selling like
hotcakes. But keeping the café open until five makes it a long
day.”

“Sounds like you need more staff.”

“Tell me about it. I’m trying to convince
Annie to work full-time. She usually works with Adam over at
Osborne and Sons in the afternoon, but she offered to help me for a
couple of weeks. You wouldn’t be looking for a couple of extra
hours work each day would you?”

“You’d trust me to help you? After
everything
I told you?”

Tess stared straight at Kate. “We all have
things we’d sooner forget in our lives, things we’ve moved on from.
If Annie can’t work until five each
night,
I’ll give you a call and we’ll work something
out.”

“As long as Loretta’s got enough staff at The
Beauty Box, I can help whenever you need me. Thank you.”

Tess stood up and frowned. “You might not
thank me
after
a couple of weeks,
especially if Logan keeps coming in for his afternoon coffee. Watch
what you say around him, Kate. The man’s got an antenna attached to
his head. If he thinks there’s a
story
somewhere he won’t leave you alone.”

“Thanks for the warning.” Kate picked up her
bag and waved goodbye to Tess and Annie. She had a dinner date with
the Deputy Chief of Police and a whole lot of questions she wanted
answers to.

***

Kate sat in the reception area at The Beauty
Box and waited for Dan.

He called her on her cell phone five minutes
later. “I’m on my way now. I should be there in ten minutes.”

“Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise. I’ll see you soon.”

Kate frowned at the phone, wondering what on
earth she was doing sitting in the salon, waiting for the man who
thought she was a thief.

“Was that Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome?”
Loretta asked.

Heat
hit
Kate’s face. “It was Dan.”

Loretta raised her eyebrows. “I take it he’s
still in your bad books?”

“I don’t know.” Kate sighed. The salon was
almost empty. One of the
stylists
were finishing off a blow wave, and Pam, the apprentice
hairdresser, was sweeping the floor, tidying everything for
tomorrow’s appointments. Kate didn’t know how she felt about Dan.
The longer she knew
him,
the more
confused she got.

Loretta sat down beside her. “Can I tell you
something?”

She nodded, not sure whether she wanted to
hear Loretta’s pearls of wisdom. She knew Anna and Loretta had gone
to school together.
Knew
Loretta
thought the sun, stars, and moon shone from Daniel Carter’s face.
Anything she was about to share would be tainted with
a past
that Dan had given up long ago.

“Dan doesn’t open up to many people. You’ve
all been through a lot. I don’t know what’s happened, but give him
a chance to apologize properly before you cross him off your
Christmas list.”

“I don’t know if I’ll be here at Christmas,”
Kate said half seriously. She’d been thinking about staying, about
making a new life for herself. But everything was happening so fast
with Dan that she didn’t know if staying was the right thing to
do.

Loretta patted her leg. “Don’t give up on
him. He likes you.”

It didn’t matter whether Dan liked her or
not. He’d been too quick to jump to the wrong conclusion. Too quick
to blame her for something she hadn’t done.

The doorbell tinkled and Dan walked in.
“
Sorry
I’m late. I got held up at
the burglary.”