Picket Fence Promises

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“No.”

“Is he still in town?”

“He’s at Charity’s. At least he was last night when I dropped him off. He wanted to have dinner with me, I told him no because I was cutting hair at the Golden Oaks. He met Esther and John, and Esther told me that being a Christian is like bungee jumping—thanks so much for warning me about that—and unless Charity’s bird perched on Alex’s poster bed last night and recited the Ten Commandments, he’s probably lurking around somewhere, ready to pounce on my unsuspecting self. Oh, and Heather called and he answered the phone…”

“Okay, stop right there. My brain can’t take your version of shorthand. Heather talked to him?”

“Sort of. He pretended he was my voice mail. It wasn’t a real conversation. He said he has me cornered. I went back home and decided I’m never going to let him see my apartment.”

“I like your apartment. It’s unique, like you.”

Best friends. Their loyalty is deep but strange.

“I don’t think I’m going to get out of dinner, unless he has to arm wrestle Jim Briggs, then there’s a chance. Alex could probably beat the farmers but Jim has arms like wooden posts, have you noticed that?”

“Why would he arm wrestle Jim Briggs? Never mind. How long is he staying? And why is he here?”

“Answer to both questions—no idea.” I glanced at my appointment book and saw Jill Cabott’s name scrawled between the black lines. Jill always ran a few minutes late. “I’m not even sure how he found me. He said he wanted to tell me how he’s doing.”

“So he came in person. From California.”

“I guess.” Seeing Elise’s expression, I shrugged. “It doesn’t make sense to me, either.”

“Does he want a relationship with you?”

Elise’s words may have been soft but they hit hard. “No!”

“You sound pretty sure.”

“He didn’t ever want a relationship with me.”

Elise frowned. “But you told me that you left him.”

“I did.”

“So, doesn’t that mean you were the one who didn’t want a relationship?”

“I can’t have this conversation without coffee.”

Elise smiled. “I’m just trying to understand.”

“Get in line.”

In the ten minutes of privacy we had before my appointments started, I filled her in on what happened at Sally’s and how Candy threatened to confiscate his luggage and that Jim Briggs wanted me to be careful. By the time I finished, the normally unflappable Elise Penny was looking a bit dazed. I was glad—I’d hate to be the only one.

“So people aren’t falling all over him?”

“Maybe if they’re armed with pitchforks.”

“He’s not going to make the marquee then.” Elise looked disappointed.

“Maybe he will…only it’ll say Go Home Alex Scott.”

“You’re handling all this pretty well.”

I was? “I am?”

“You aren’t falling apart. You aren’t packing your suitcase. You aren’t eating handfuls of Tootsie Roll.”

I’ve learned to dispose of the wrappers. But she was right. “God reminded me of something last night. I don’t have to run away anymore. Now I can run to.”

Elise didn’t flinch or look surprised when I mentioned God. She was getting to know Him better, too. I came across a verse recently that said something about God-chosen lives and what splendid friends they make. Elise was that kind of friend. So were Annie and Esther and John.

There was a flash of color outside the window and the door swung open. “Good morning, ladies.”

Alex. And he looked like he got a decent night’s sleep, too. And he looked like he’d been…running? He was wearing black sweatpants and a gray T-shirt and tennis shoes that would have cost me a month’s rent. His hair was messy and his face flushed with color. And he still looked gorgeous. Honestly, could he be any more annoying?

“You remember my friend, Elise?”

Alex nodded and smiled. “Hi, Elise.”

The day before, I’d been so shocked when I’d seen him that I couldn’t even remember introducing him to Elise and Annie but now I watched him carefully to see his reaction. Usually when men see Elise for the first time, they get a little tongue-tied. Elise is truly beautiful. If God hadn’t planted her in Prichett, Elise could have been as famous as Alex.

The first time we met, I really wanted to hate her but Elise is totally un-hate-able. In the first place, she isn’t one of those beautiful women who flaunt their beauty. And she doesn’t pretend she isn’t beautiful, either, which can be just as irritating. She accepts it just like I accept the way my hair has a stubborn wave that can only be tamed with a curling iron the size of a rolling pin.

My favorite thing about Elise is that there’s more to her than pretty packaging. We’ve been friends for ten years but it wasn’t until Heather contacted me and I started to unravel that I realized that true friends are right there, winding you back up and tucking in the loose pieces of your heart.

Alex was polite but his eyes didn’t linger on Elise, like a tourist getting his first glimpse of the Mona Lisa. What on earth was wrong with him? He was looking at me.

“I almost woke you up to go running with me this morning.”

Elise was too polite to laugh but out of the corner of my eye, I saw her shoulders jiggle. “Well, I better start my day. Sam and I are going over to Munroe to pick up some parts for the tractor.”

“How is Annie feeling?” Mindy would be thrilled that I’d tried out her delay tactics but I really did want to know. I’d been so wrapped up in my own troubles that I hadn’t even thought to ask until now.

“Anxious to start the nursery. With the holidays coming, she’s going to be busier at church.” Elise moved toward the door just as Jill Cabott pushed it open.

“Elise!”

Jill hugged her and Elise disappeared momentarily in the depths of Jill’s sheepskin coat. When she reappeared, she was smiling. Wonders never ceased. A few months ago I practically had to hide my scissors when the two of them were in the same room together. Elise had blamed Jill’s son, Riley, for her daughter Bree having second thoughts about going to college. But Bree and Riley were taking their romance slowly and she was in Madison—at least for the next four years—so Elise could breathe a little easier.

“Hi, Jill. All set?”

“Just let me hang up my coat.”

Elise gave me a little wave that promised we’d get together soon and slipped out the door. Alex was sitting on a chair, his hands clasped behind his head and his legs stretched out in front of him with a cup of coffee wedged between his knees. Right next to the coatrack.

I knew the second Jill realized who Alex was because her sudden gasp sounded like a blown-out tire.

I hustled her over to the chair and sat her down. “Now, what do you want me to do today?”

“The same as always. Trim a little off the sides. It’s getting a little shaggy. Better go shorter because with Thanksgiving coming, I know I won’t have time to come back before the middle of December.”

I tried to ignore Alex but it wasn’t easy. Especially when he jumped up and prowled over to the chair. Jill’s eyes got so wide I was afraid they were going to roll out of her head.

“Wait a second. You’re telling her what to do?” He leaned over until he was eye to eye with Jill, who shrunk farther into the chair.

“Alex!” I snapped out his name but he ignored me.

“Yes…” Jill obviously thought it was a trick question.

Alex looked at me and shook his head. “They have no idea, do they?” he muttered.

“You’re not helping,” I said through gritted teeth. “Have some more coffee.”

“Tell Bernice to cut your hair the way she sees it,” Alex said.

I stepped on his foot, wishing that I’d worn my one pair of stilettos, an impractical impulse buy that lurked in the back of my closet but I didn’t have the heart to part with. “Alex, Jill just wants a trim.”

“What do you mean, the way she sees it?” Jill was confused but willing to be enlightened.

“You aren’t supposed to tell her how to cut your hair—she’s supposed to tell you how your hair should be cut.”

“She is?” Jill glanced at me. “You are?”

“Jill, I’ll cut it any way you want me to.”

Alex said something under his breath that made Jill gasp again but she swallowed bravely. “Go ahead.”

“Jill…”

“I mean it, Bernice. Do whatever you think you should.”

Alex grinned and stalked back to the row of chairs. “My work here is done.”

The work of messing up my entire day? And he was willing to do it for free. How sweet.

An hour and a half later Jill was staring at her reflection in the mirror, touching the ends of her hair with shaky fingertips. Every four to six weeks for the past ten years I’d been trimming a conservative inch off Jill Cabott’s puddle-brown blunt cut, knowing that the style was hopelessly outdated and didn’t show off her features to their full advantage. I had to admit that I went a little crazy with the unexpected power I’d been given.

“I…Old Dan is going to faint when he sees me,” Jill whispered.

Old Dan is Jill’s husband and he isn’t that old. Unfortunately, his firstborn son was named after him and to differentiate between the two, they had to split into Old Dan and Young Dan. People should really think these things through in advance, if you ask me.

“He’s going to buy you roses and take you out for dinner,” Alex, the eavesdropper, said.

“I’m sending this bottle of gel home with you…” The tears in Jill’s eyes stopped me cold. “Jill, I’m sorry. What can I do? Do you want me to take the highlights out?”

“No, I love it. I look…like I always wanted to.” In a daze, she wrote me a check with a tip big enough to pay my monthly cable bill. She even gave Alex a timid smile as she walked out the door. Oh no, his first convert.

“Thanks a lot.” I grabbed the broom and started to sweep the floor, resisting the urge to use it to chase him down Main Street.

“Do these people know anything about you, Bernice?”

“They know what I want them to know.”

“I get it. You’d rather pretend that all you know how to do is follow directions. If they knew who you are, what you can do, it would wreck your whole small-town beautician persona, wouldn’t it? You might not feel like you fit in after all.”

Without knowing it, Alex ripped a Band-Aid off a wound I’d been trying to keep covered for years. I knew I didn’t fit in with Prichett. All the years I’d lived and worked here and no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t blend in with the natives. But why did Alex have to see it? And why did he feel the need to point it out?

“Don’t even think you know me. That was twenty years ago. We were practically kids when we met. Don’t think for a minute I’m still the same person.”

“You haven’t changed that much.” He actually had the nerve to laugh. “You still aren’t afraid to tell me what you think.”

“Somebody has to. Honestly, just because people are gorgeous and have money doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get yelled at once in a while.” I absolutely wasn’t going to smile.

“Bern…why aren’t you married with ten kids?”

My heart stalled suddenly. Alex was still standing five feet away from me but suddenly he felt much closer. It astounded me that he could even ask the question—I mean, was his eyesight that bad? My looks were as plain as my name.

Since I couldn’t tell him the truth, I gave him the grim statistics instead.

“If you must know, Prichett has a population of less than two thousand people and out of that number there are only six eligible men. Out of those six eligible men, four of them are afraid of me and the other two are forty-year-old brothers who still live with their mama.”

“Afraid of you?”

“There are totally unfounded rumors that I’m…difficult.”

“No kidding?” Alex stretched and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. I immediately focused on the coffeepot instead of the expanse of tanned abdomen that he’d uncovered with that casual movement. Alex really was a health hazard. “Hard to imagine. So, are we on for dinner tonight?”

“I have a PAC meeting.” Yes. Finally a reason for its existence.

At Alex’s blank look, I filled him in. “The Prichett Advancement Council. Don’t laugh.”

“Not in a million years. But just to warn you, I’m not leaving town until you have dinner with me so the more excuses you come up with, the longer I’ll be here.”

My ten o’clock appointments—the Graley sisters—were crossing the street. I couldn’t take the risk that Alex would say the same thing to them that he’d said to Jill. As it was, I couldn’t imagine what kind of fallout there would be when people saw her new look. I figured I might have to beg for a job at the Buzz and Blade.