“And she’s dating one of your dad’s employees?” Karen asked while flipping the pages of People magazine.

“Nolan Parker. He’s supersexy. Becky ’bout died when he started flirting with her in chemistry. The whole school was talking about them most of the year.”

The desire to learn more about Nolan Parker and Becky’s family was a constant pull. Karen had seen her share of scared teenage girls. Though Becky wasn’t crying and visibly frightened, there were a few unmistakable signs that she was in some sort of trouble. Girls held their stomachs for two reasons, and Becky didn’t seem sick to Karen.

“Oh my God, that’s you.” Hannah grabbed the magazine from Karen’s lap and twisted it around to Judy and Petra. “And that’s Mike and Zach. Wow, how cool.”

“Let me see that.”

Sure enough, the magazine had a picture of her sandwiched between the Gardner brothers the night of her anniversary party. Michael was glaring at the camera, Zach had his hand on her arm, and they were looking at each other. The hair on Karen’s arms stood up. They looked good together.

“It must be cool always being in magazines like this.”

Karen rubbed her forehead. “It’s highly overrated. Your brothers had to chase that guy out of Michael’s backyard.”

Hannah sent a puzzled look. “Don’t you mean your backyard?”

“Isn’t that what I said?”

“No. You said Michael’s backyard.”

Karen swallowed. “Well, you know what I mean.”

Hannah returned her eyes to the magazine and searched through it again. This time asking who Karen had met within the pages.

Petra had gone silent again. Only this time she eyed Karen.

Damn.

Chapter Ten

Apparently, Petra went from stealth information gathering mode to I’m the queen of this salon and you will do what I say mode.

Petra was originally from Germany. She’d moved to the States when she met and married a military man. As Karen learned after a brief and to the point explanation, Petra’s husband had gotten a stomach bug and ended up at the VA hospital shortly after she’d given birth to their son. The stomach bug had turned out to be cancer and he died six months after his diagnosis.

“What was I to do?”

Before Karen could answer, Petra went on. “Richard’s family was here, and they wanted to help me with Alec. My English wasn’t good back then.”

“Back then?”

“It’s been eighteen years now.”

“Wow, that’s really sad.”

“It was awful. But I survived. Alec was a pain in his teens. So wild my boy.”

Now this was the fast-talking woman Judy and Hannah described. She had Hannah’s hair in one hand, the scissors in the other, and she snipped, pointed into the mirror, and combed. It was as if she had three hands.

Judy sat off to the side with her new do. Although if Karen had to guess, it was her old do just redone.

Apparently happy with the cutting, Petra tossed her scissors aside, picked up the bottle of mousse, and sprayed the white foam in her palm before rubbing it all over Hannah’s head.

“Alec wasn’t that bad,” Judy said from behind her magazine.

“For a single mother, he was awful. Stayed out late, didn’t call. Gave me a heart attack when he told me he wanted to leave town and not graduate.”

“Did he graduate?” Karen asked.

“Nope. Moved to Florida.”

“How did that work out?”

Petra turned on the hair dryer and picked up a brush. She talked over the noise. “He’s OK now. Got his GED and joined the coast guard. I visit him a couple times of year in Key West.”

“See, told you he wasn’t bad. It’s this town. Makes you wanna leave before society tells you it’s OK.”

Judy had a point.

Within minutes, Petra was flipping off the smock around Hannah’s shoulders and saying, “Your turn.”

“I really don’t need a haircut,” Karen protested.

Petra paused for a minute and tilted her head. “I’ve seen your pictures for months now. Everyone coming in pointing to pictures of Mike and his new wife. Every time your hair is up as it is now, or flat on your head.”

“I don’t like anything that requires work.”

Petra made a clicking noise with her tongue and pointed to the torture chair. “Trust me.”

Judy raised one brow. “Might as well give in. She’s relentless.”

“It’s only hair,” Hannah said. “It grows back.”

“I won’t do anything that requires more than five minutes to prepare. I bet you have a headache once a week at least.”

Karen felt her limbs untangling from the chair and walking in Petra’s direction. “I do actually. It’s stress.”

“Not stress. It’s the rubber band. All that stress on your scalp is tension, gives you a headache.”

Karen allowed Petra to wash her hair and watched as the hairdresser combed out the layers and ran her fingers through the ends with thought. “Shorter. With a few long layers around your face. Yes!”

Twenty minutes later Karen left Petra’s feeling five pounds lighter. Not that her hair had been terribly long, but with this shorter style and the addition of the right mousse and appropriate hairbrush, Petra had changed her appearance.

“I like it.” Hannah played with the ends of Karen’s hair and smiled.

“She’s good.”

A familiar-looking truck was parked on the opposite side of the street. Karen glanced up to see the words Hardware Store above the building. “Is that your dad’s store?”

“Yeah.” Hannah grabbed her hand and tugged her. “C’mon. Let’s show Zach your new style.”

That’s right, the truck was the one she’d seen Zach and Michael leave in that morning. Although the road was void of any cars driving by, it was strange for Karen to walk down the middle of it without feeling like a car would scream around the corner any second. Hannah’s endless energy was weighing on her as the day moved on.

They pushed through the store with a ringing of a bell at the top of the door.

Like the inside of a hair salon held familiar smells, so did hardware stores. Sawyer’s life’s work was laid out on aisles of shelves holding boxes of everything a household could need. The narrow rows of merchandise stood eight feet tall and ran the span of the room. At the front of the store, there was a register without anyone standing behind it.