Eight Seconds
Lylian
THE BELL ABOVE the door chimes, and I glance over to see a guy walking in dressed in a dark grey plaid shirt, jeans and cowboy boots. Working on the strip in Las Vegas, seeing a cowboy walking into our hair and beauty parlor doesn’t happen often, but that’s not what has my eyes glued to him and my blood thrumming through my body. It’s watching him take off his Stetson and seeing his brown eyes - the color of dark whiskey - for the first time as they latch onto my gaze.
“I . . ah . . . welcome to Edge Hair and Beauty, how can I help you?” I ask as I wipe my sweaty hands down the front of my black pencil skirt.
“Well, hello darlin’.” As his voice reaches my ears, goosebumps cover my body. “I just need this tidied up,” he says as he runs his hand through his thick dark brown hair.
I slowly nod my head as my eyes follow the movement of his hand. I have a sudden urge to walk over and run my hands through his hair.
“Ah . . . yeah . . . sure.” I nervously swallow then gesture towards the closest workstation, where a black lotus phoenix styling chair sits in front of a white marble bench with a large mirror above it.
“Do you have a style in mind?” I ask as I wrap a towel around the back of his neck before fastening the barber cape at the back of his neck.
“Nope, not really. My hairdresser back home usually just does whatever the latest style is.”
“You must have a lot of faith in her.”“It’s more the case that she is family, so she thinks she has free range to use me as a guinea pig. But yeah, I do trust her.”
“Ah, yes,” I say with a small laugh. “My parents were unlucky once or twice when I was in beauty school. Poor mom copped it worse than dad.”
“Hmmm, should you be telling me this right before you’re about to cut my hair?” he asks, his full lips lightly tipping up in the corners.
“Probably not,” I agree. “So, I’m thinking we should go with a textured top and faded sides.” I point to a magazine sitting in front of him. “If you look in there, there are pictures of what I mean on page four.”
He picks the book up and flicks through to the page I said. “I’m happy with that.”
“It’ll be a little shorter to what I guess you usually have, but you have the right shaped jaw.”
“And what type of jaw is that?”
“A sexy one,” I blurt out and smack my hand over my mouth.
My forest green eyes meet his whiskey-colored eyes in the mirror, and I just want the floor beneath me to open and swallow me. Like I should have swallowed the words that spilled from my mouth.
A sexy smile pulls at his lips as his eyes dance around. He’s clearly trying to hide his laughter while I’m just trying to hide.
“Don’t worry, darlin’, I like that you think I’m sexy.”
“I said your jaw is,” I only half protest because I can’t even lie to myself and say that he isn’t sexy.
“Same difference. Now, how about that haircut.”
I pull my eyes away from his and begin to cut his hair. Twenty minutes later I’m finished, and I can’t keep my eyes off him. I thought he looked sexy before, but now he’s any woman’s hot dream.
His dark brown hair is now a little longer on top. Just long enough to be able to run your fingers through it, which is what I’m currently doing, while I use the excuse of putting some wax in it. Now that his hair is that bit shorter, it makes his dark whiskey eyes pop and as I thought his defined jaw stands out, even with the two days growth covering it.
As he stands up from the seat, he bends down and places a kiss on my cheek. His lips only briefly brush against my cheek. It’s so soft and brief that if I wasn’t a good foot shorter than him, I’d think it was an accident.
But it wasn’t an accident.
He kissed me, and he meant it.
And my body loved it.
Luckily, he lives in Kansas City and I’ll never see him again. I swore away from cowboys three years ago. I don’t need one with a sweet smile tempting me to break all my rules.
*
Rowan
BEFORE I CHANGE my mind and turn around to walk back to the hairdresser--where the sexy little blonde-haired girl works--I open the café door. After briefly scanning the small area, I find Kaitlyn sitting in a booth towards the back of the room.
“Hey, little Sis,” I say, as I slide into the booth opposite her.
She drops her phone on the table and jumps up before coming around to my side and throwing her arms around me. “It’ been too long since I saw you last.”
“I know, sorry. I’ve just been busy with the ranch.”
“How is dad going?” Kaitlyn mumbles before she goes and sits back down.
“He’s good. He misses you.”
“I know.” She drops her chin to her chest.
“You know he-”
Her head shoots up and she looks directly at me. “Please, I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to spend time with my brother.”
I hold my hands up in front of me in surrender. “I won’t say another word,” I tell her truthfully. Kaitlyn and I have always been close, and I won’t let our parent’s history put cracks in our relationship.
“How long are you here for?”
“For a week. I’m only here until after the championship.”
“That’s not long enough for us to catch up properly.”
“Why don’t you take some time off and fly back to Kansas City with me?”
She shakes her head and lowers her eyes to the table. “No, I couldn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because I wasn’t nice to dad last time I saw him.”
“Look at me, Kaitlyn.” I wait until she raises her head and her eyes meet mine. “He doesn’t care. He just wants to see his daughter.”
“I do care thought. If you knew half of the things I said to him, you wouldn’t be sitting here now and talking to me.”
“I ain’t arguing about it anymore,” I say as I pick up a menu from the middle of the table. “What are you having? The bagels look good.”
She’s right, I don’t know half of what was said between her and dad last time, but I also know dad would do nearly anything to see Kaitlyn again.
So will I.
Which is why when I leave Las Vegas, Kaitlyn will be coming with me.