Big Deal Sweetheart (Sweetheart, Colorado) Read online

  “Shoulders.” Delilah put her hands up to indicate where she wanted it cut.

  Two gasps from her right had Nova staring over to see Linny and the older woman she was giving a cut to staring at them with wide, shocked eyes. Yeah, she felt their pain.

  “Alright, I’m going to start out slow.” She wasn’t going to say it, but she was hoping the girl changed her mind before it came to her cutting it that short. She separated the thick length into three sections, tied them off and then made the cuts. Six inches of gorgeous hair now held in three bundles. “Do you want to keep these?” she asked.

  Delilah took the hair from Nova, running them through her fingers. Sadness clouded her cornflower blue eyes. “Wow, I...I didn’t think. I mean, I hadn’t thought I’d be this upset.”

  Nova let her process before she continued, pretending to monkey around with her tools laid out on the counter. While her Nana had her own stylist supplies, Nova had brought her tools with her, knowing exactly how well they were kept since she made sure they were good. She didn’t like to use others if she could avoid it.

  “Why don’t we talk about color before I cut anymore? You said you want black.” Nova tried to keep from letting her own distaste for whacking off more hair show, or for Delilah’s color choice. Not that she didn’t care for black hair, her own was almost black just like both her parents. Being one sixteenth Native American, she embraced her heritage, which she loved.

  “I like your color,” Delilah whispered, not sounding as sure.

  “How about we do a peekaboo color?” She explained the concept of coloring the underside section of the hair and then sectioned off what she would do, letting her new client see. “This way, if you wore your hair up, you’d see the dark, but if you wore it down, you’d only see the blonde unless you curled it. It’s a fun way to have color without it being overwhelming in your face. Plus, if you decided you wanted to go back to your blonde, it’s a little easier to do the process slowly to the smaller section like this.”

  Nova was really selling the concept as she spoke, running her fingers through the silky strands that felt like a million dollars had been spent on keeping it healthy. She knew clients at her regular salon that would pay a lot to have hair half as healthy as this girl.

  “Alright, but if we are going to do a peek of color like you suggest, let’s do something fun. Like blue,” Delilah suggested, a smile breaking out over her face.

  Nova grinned at their reflections, knowing just what shade she’d use. “I like your style, girl. Give me a couple minutes to mix the color, and I’ll be right back. Do you want something to drink while you wait?”

  “A water would be lovely.”

  The very proper way she spoke was another sign this girl came from money, even if her four figure purse and way she held herself hadn’t. “Coming right up.” Nova went to the back and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge for her and her client. She came back, handing one to Delilah before opening her own. “Cheers, Delilah.”

  They tapped bottles then she took a long sip before she went to mix color in the backroom. Had she known life as she knew it was going to be tossed on its axis only a short time later, she might have made some different choices. However, like her Nana always said, life was full of moments that shape our tomorrows. It’s the todays that toss us on our asses. She only wished she’d worn something a little sexier for the ass landing than a pair of skinny jeans and chunky sweater she had on.

  Two hours later...

  “Okay, I’m going to turn you around. Are you ready to see the new you?” Nova asked, smiling down at the gorgeous girl. She had so many reservations before cutting Delilah’s hair, but now that the finished product was done and styled, she had to admit it was beautiful. She’d come in looking like Alice in Wonderland, now she was...a grown-up version. Much edgier and still beautiful, but the rabbit hole she fell into hadn’t been all that bad.

  Delilah clapped her hands, a little squeal of delight accompanied her “yes”.

  Linny stood at her station along with Darla, the younger girl who worked at the salon too, waiting with eager expressions on their faces, while Nova slowly spun the chair until Delilah faced the mirror.

  “Oh, my goodness. Is that me?” Delilah leaned forward raising her hands to her head.

  Nova fluffed the sides of the tresses forward over each shoulder so the electric blue she’d curled into the blonde was more visible. “Yes, it is. What do you think?”

  “I love it. You’re brilliant. If you lived in—well, if you lived in a big city, you’d be making a lot of money.” Delilah picked up the three ponytails of her hair. “Can I have these?”

  “Absolutely,” Nova agreed.

  She walked Delilah to the counter, shocked when the young girl pulled out a black Amex card with her name on it. Yeah, she was clearly rich as fuck. “I’m sure you have great product to wash with, but since you hadn’t colored your hair before, washing and rinsing in cool water will help the color stay longer. Here’s a card with what I used in case you decide you want to replicate it wherever you go next time.”

  Delilah slipped the little card into her bag, smiling the entire time. “Thank you, Nova. I feel like a new person. I hope my dad likes it.”

  A slight shiver worked down her spine when Delilah’s words left her mouth, but then the girl shrugged before she gave a wave and left without a backward glance.

  “That was a good save, Nova Leigh. If you’d have tried to color that beautiful blonde with black, I would’ve tackled you and hogtied you to a chair while I called Dottie,” Darla said with a laugh.

  “I’d have sat on you while we waited for Dottie to arrive,” Lola agreed.

  Nova wasn’t sure who the hell Dottie was, but she was obviously someone she didn’t want to come into the salon.

  “Dottie is who we call when we think someone needs a talking to. She can literally talk your ear off, and if she caught wind of you doing bad hair? Lord, you’d have been in for a long talking to,” Linny explained.

  Nope, she wasn’t in the mood for any talking to by Dottie or anyone.

  Chapter Two

  Keifer looked up from the computer when he heard the door to the suite open and shut. He’d been waiting on Delilah to return for the past four hours, and although she’d been texting him to let him know she was okay, and he had been able to track her location with the family map, he still liked seeing her in the flesh. He’d been held up in meetings when he’d promised he wouldn’t be, but now he was free for the rest of the evening.

  “How was your morning, Dee?” he called, waiting for her to come into the main part of the two-bedroom suite. He’d set up his makeshift office in the living part so he would be able to see her coming or going, but the hallway gave them both access to the doorway to the bedrooms, so she was able to avoid coming directly to where he was. Instantly his suspicious mind began to whirl. He pushed back from the desk, making his way to the larger of the two bedrooms.

  The door opened as he lifted his hand to knock, shock holding him immobile for long seconds. “What the fuck happened to your hair?” he barked the question.

  As soon as the words left his mouth, he wished he could call them back when he saw tears well in Delilah’s eyes. She had the same beautiful shade of blue that her mother had, and very much like her mother, she stared up at him with hurt and anger in every line of her being. Also like her mother, Delilah shrugged her shoulders back, stood taller and took a deep breath. Her posture and poise were like Rachel had been in the very beginning of their relationship. Lord, there were times he almost missed the Rachel from when they’d first met, times from before she’d become an addict. Or at least the woman she’d pretended to be, not the woman who she’d truly been. He scrubbed a hand down his face, hating the memories, yet loving his daughter.

  “I’m fifteen years old, Father. I believe you said I was old enough to make decisions about things such as my style as long as I didn’t look like a woman of the night. Although,
I would like to point out that the profession in question is one of the oldest in history and has gotten a bad reputation throughout time.” Delilah spoke with the directness he was known for, keeping her eyes glued to his.

  If he wasn’t so pissed, he’d be proud. As it were, he barely kept from shaking her. “Why?”

  “Why have they gotten a bad reputation? I assure you I don’t know, but I’d say it has something to do with the lack of gender equality.”

  Keifer took a step back, slashing his hand through the air. “Enough, Delilah Jean Sparks. I’m talking about your hair. Why did you do that to it?” Her hair was beautiful and so much like her mothers had been. It was one of the things he’d loved about Rachel even at the end.

  “It was time for a change. I’m not a baby anymore,” she whispered.

  “Who did it? There’s laws against that?” He pointed toward her shortened hair with the atrocious blue. Not that he didn’t like blue but not in his baby girl’s hair.

  His phone dinged, an incoming email alert. He looked down, seeing a charge on the American Express card with Delilah’s name on it. The name of the business and his daughter’s new hair clicked into place. “Don’t even think of leaving this suite until I get back,” he growled, turning back toward the couch to grab his coat from where he’d dropped earlier.

  “Yes, sir. I’ll just go and sit on my bed, like a good little girl and wait until you come back with whatever punishment you decide is fitting for me cutting my own hair,” she yelled before turning and slamming the door. A moment later, the door opened again. “And for your information, it’s my hair. If I want to shave it all off, I can,” she yelled and slammed the door again. The sound of the lock engaging was loud in the ensuing silence.

  “You shave your damn head and I’ll enroll you in an all-girls school when we get home,” he warned.

  Before she could come back out and piss him off further, he left after making sure he had the key to get back in. He’d come to Sweetheart, Colorado so that Delilah could meet her mother’s family and so he could move on from her loss as well. It’s been three years since they’d lost her, three long years where he had to adjust to being a single dad to a teenage daughter. “There sure as shit isn’t a manual on how to do things right,” he muttered, bracing for the cold as he stepped outside.

  With his phone out, he googled the salon. In a town as small as the one they were in; it took him less than seven minutes to get there. Not enough time for him to cool down, and definitely not enough time for him to formulate what he’d say, without blowing a gasket. Stepping up to the door, he had to admit the place looked professional. But what kind of stylist would cut and color a fifteen-year-old girl’s hair without a parent’s permission?

  The chime above the door had him wincing as he entered. However, it was the vision of the gorgeous brunette that sent his mind reeling. Keifer stood in the entryway and watched her for a moment before she looked up and met his stare. Her smile fading as soon as she saw him.

  “Hi, can I help you?” she asked.

  “I’m here to find out who butchered my daughter’s hair this morning.” Keifer looked at the woman who made him spill his coffee earlier, then to the other stylist who was showering the floor with water. Shit, if they were any indication for professionalism, his daughter was lucky her hair hadn’t fallen out.

  The coffee spiller wiped her hands on a towel before sauntering over to him, giving him a chance to appreciate her curves.

  “I’m going to assume your daughter was Delilah?”

  Shit, he didn’t remember her voice being as smooth from earlier. Of course, he was a little harassed and running late for his morning conference call that had been rescheduled when he wasn’t supposed to have any, plus he and Delilah had argued since he’d promised no work while on vacation. The tiny little woman snapped her fingers in front of him, bringing him back to the reason why he was in the salon in the first place.

  “Sir, are you alright?” she asked.

  Keifer stared down at almond shaped eyes thinking he could get lost in them. “I’m perfectly fine. My daughter on the other hand is not. Someone chopped off her hair and destroyed her golden locks,” he spat.

  He might be overexaggerating, but dammit, he couldn’t believe half her hair had been wacked off without his consent or knowledge.

  “Alright, let’s calm down and stop with the theatrics. First of all, Delilah is old enough to make up her own mind what she does and doesn’t do with her hair. Second, her hair wasn’t destroyed, but rather given an edgy look that while it might not be what someone of your...taste likes, she loved. And last, but certainly not least, I’ll have you know I talked her out of what she’d come in requesting, which I might add was black hair cut up to here.” She raised her hands to her shoulders.

  He narrowed his eyes, his mind stuck on the first thing she’d said. “Let me fill you in on a few truths, young lady. Delilah is not old enough to do a damn thing. She’s fifteen. And you’re right, I most certainly have better tastes than...that.”

  “Oh my god, Daddy, stop.” Delilah burst through the door.

  His daughter’s outraged cry had him spinning around to see her rushing toward him with her face red from crying. “What are you doing here, Dee?”

  Delilah rolled her eyes, but he could see how upset she was. “I knew you were going to do something stupid and embarrass the both of us, and look, here you are.”

  Keifer didn’t know whether he should laugh or growl at his daughter. “I’m not embarrassing either of us. This woman could lose her license for cutting and coloring a minor’s hair without parental consent.”

  He watched the little girl who reminded him so much of his wife turn away from him, her face blooming a shade of red that had nothing to do with the cold. “Delilah Jean Sparks, what did you do?”

  “Would you two like to talk in the back where you can have a little privacy?”

  Keifer looked over his shoulder at the woman who was by all intents and purposes wrong in this situation, or was she? Shit, he hated being the one who had to apologize.

  “Thank you,” he said with as much respect as he could.

  NOVA TRIED NOT TO STICK her tongue out at the jerk who admittedly appeared to be in the right. Shoot, Delilah was a child, not a young woman. “She’s only fifteen.” She mouthed toward Linny as she walked in front of the father daughter duo. Luckily Linny got control of the waterspout and hadn’t drowned her client while she’d been ogling the gorgeous man who was bent on chewing her out. Thoughts on him doing just that, only not verbally, had her face heating. Thank the lord she was in front of them.

  “Here you go. It’s just Linny and I here today besides our clients, so take your time. If you want me, holler. My name is Nova Leigh.” She smiled brightly, probably too brightly, but damn, the man checked every box on what she wanted, in looks that was.

  “Oh, I’ll want to speak with you shortly, so don’t go anywhere, Miss Leigh,” he assured her.

  Yep, just like that, she remembered why she didn’t like men like him. The wool coat he had on, probably cost more than the entire salon would make the entire week with a full client load. His loafers, which were ridiculous to be wearing in Sweetheart, Colorado in the winter, were also expensive as all get out, so yeah, stupid choice. The slacks and button-down shirt, while minus the tie and suit jacket, which were probably back at his suite, probably cost a pretty penny as well. All those things weren’t a negative, usually, but his attitude made her put him on the no fuck list. Yep, she had a very long list of men she could appreciate looking at, could even fantasize about. Yet when they opened their mouth, they were instantly slapped right on over into the MIWNFL. Or, better known as the men I would not fuck list.

  “Wouldn’t dream of it, sir.” She gave a mock salute, then turned on her sensible heel because while she was smart enough to wear boots to traverse the streets in, she did have good tastes as well. If he was to look at the bottom, he’d see they were red and cost a pr
etty penny as well.

  The door to the shared office the ladies used at the salon shut. Linny smirked with her hands knuckle deep in her client’s hair. Nova did stick her tongue out to the other woman, making her laugh and stick her tongue back out at Nova. “If Mr. Grouch comes back out while I’m in the ladies’ room, assure him I didn’t run off please.”

  “Will do. Should you call your Nana about the underage thing?”

  Worry had a crease forming between the gorgeous woman’s brow, but Nova shook her head. If anyone would be in trouble it would be her, not her Nana. “No, I’ll handle it and him. She had an ID that was very good. I checked, and while she may be underage, I had no way of knowing it with the proof I was given.”

  Of course, the man had a lot of money, which was clear with the credit card Delilah paid with and the way they both dressed and carried themselves. She’d deal with the fallout when and if it came, not her beloved Nana. After she finished using the facilities, she stared at herself in the reflection of the mirror. She did a quick fix of her makeup and finger combed her hair. Not because she wanted to look good for the oaf of a man, but because she wanted to appear professional and put together when she did come face-to-face with the upcoming confrontation.

  As she opened the door, she heard the unmistakable sound of a man’s deep voice, the tone sending a delicious shiver down her spine. “Back off hussy, he’s bad for you,” she whispered to herself before walking into the main salon area.

  “May we speak with you in the office please,” he asked, waving his arm toward the open doorway.

  Nova saw his daughter sitting in a chair looking like a lost kid. Much more like the fifteen-year-old she now knew her to be. Her heart turned over for the young girl, but she still thought she looked great with the new do. “Hiya, Delilah. How’re you doing?”