Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 126602 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126602 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
“You like goin’ by Shay for this?” he asked, pointing at the sign hanging there.
I got beside him. “I don’t know. I’m still deciding. I go back and forth.” Turning my head and tilting it back, I met his gaze. “What do you like?”
“I think you already know that.”
My stomach clenched as I was flooded with the memory of my very first conversation with Sean.
He liked Shayla better. He always did. He never called me Shay.
And because I was on the fence about this decision, not preferring one over the other and possibly waiting for that little shove in the direction I needed to take, I had zero issues changing that sign and all my social media handles immediately.
Hair by Shayla sounded more professional anyway.
Or maybe I just knew I would really like the way it would sound coming out of Sean’s mouth.
“I like Hair by Shayla better too, now that I think about it,” I mumbled.
The corner of Sean’s mouth twitched. It was the subtlest movement, but I saw it.
Wow.
Yeah, I was totally changing that name.
Sean stepped inside the room.
Happy with my decision and what I was about to do, I followed behind wearing an ear-to-ear grin.
I was finally getting the chance to play with Sean’s hair. To say I was excited about it was an understatement.
“Have a seat,” I said, and once he did, I draped the cape across him and fastened it at the neck. “Ready?” I smiled at him in the mirror.
Eyes still soft, he nodded.
I got started.
I wet Sean’s hair down with a spray bottle, then I clipped up half of it, had him tilt so his chin touched his chest, and snipped three inches off the back.
Neither one of us said a word.
It was weird.
I was never quiet doing this, but I just kept picturing Sean’s face when I first opened my door, and hearing that unguarded fear in his voice, and I concentrated unlike I had ever concentrated on anything. This suddenly became the most important haircut of my life, because it was so profoundly important to Sean, and I didn’t want to risk anything distracting me from giving him exactly what he’d asked for.
Lip Gallagher himself could’ve walked into this room with Justin Timberlake riding him like a pony, and I wouldn’t have noticed a damn thing, even if they were throwing sheet masks around like Mardi Gras beads.
Setting my scissors and comb aside, I stood behind Sean and checked symmetry, pulling down the pieces of hair framing his face. I checked a couple more strands. They were even. Then I ran my fingers through the back of his hair and looked in the mirror, smiling at him.
“How’s that?” I asked. “It’ll dry and shorten a little, so it’ll come up to about where you were wanting it.”
Sean nodded. “It’s good.”
“Excellent.” I brushed the cape off, then, removing it, I shook off the hair. “Now, the beard. We gotta do that in the bathroom,” I said.
Sean stood from the chair, bent down, and checked his hair in the mirror. If I didn’t know him, or if it were anyone else, I would’ve said that was for vanity reasons, but I knew it wasn’t. Sean wasn’t looking for him.
The chair I used for shampooing was a thrift store purchase I’d found a few months back. It was that squeaky restaurant plastic, and a hideous shade of brown, but it reclined, stood at the height I needed, and it wasn’t too much for me to lug in and out of my bathroom.
Until I could afford a shampoo bowl setup, this would have to do.
I pulled the chair into the bathroom and got it in place in front of the sink. Then I motioned for Sean to take a seat.
He plopped down and stretched out his legs until the toes of his booted feet touched the wall.
“Okay, straight razor, or my Venus?” I held up Sean’s choices. “Obviously, the Venus would have a fresh blade. But I’m going to warn you, it has a strip of lotion that’ll leave your face smelling pretty.”
Brow tight, Sean’s tipped his head at the straight razor.
“No pretty face for you, huh?” I set the blades down and pressed on his shoulder while I angled the chair back, putting Sean’s head closer to the sink.
Then I folded a hand towel and stuck it under his head for comfort.
After trimming down his beard to get rid of most of the length, then taking clippers to it, I wet down his cheeks, jaw, and chin with the spray bottle from the bedroom, wiped off any water dripping down to his shirt, and pulled my bottle of conditioner out of the shower caddy.
“I think conditioner does a better job than shaving cream,” I explained, squirting a little on my fingertips and then smoothing it over Sean’s jaw.