Page 108 of His Curvy Distraction

Chelsea nodded and stepped away so I could answer.

“Hello, this is Natalie.”

“Hey, Natalie, this is Chuck with Total Paving. Uh, sorry to bother you, but we just got here, and there’s a problem.”

“What’s going on, Chuck? I thought you guys were good to paint today.”

“We are, and we can. But the camper thing you have?”

“Yeah?”

“Uh, a tree fell on it.”

“What?” I screeched.

Every machine in the salon turned off, the dryers, the shampoo, everything. Silence echoed in my ear.

“Yeah, I kind of figured you didn’t know yet.”

“Uh, no, I didn’t know a tree fell on my office. Dammit.”

The collective gasp around me reminded me I wasn’t alone.

“Sorry, Natalie. Do you still want us to paint lines? We can hold off if you want to come out here and look at it before we get started.”

“Yeah,” I said, tugging at the cape Chelsea had around my neck. “I’ll be right there.”

Chelsea stepped forward and unsnapped the cape as I hung up the phone. “Are you okay?”

I shook my head, a mirthless laugh escaping. “No. I… Crap. Omar said the trees looked like they were going to fall and told me not to put the camper where I did. I thought it was fine.”

“You couldn’t have known,” Haley said.

“He knew,” I spat.

“What can we do?” Chelsea asked.

“Nothing.” I drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I need to go look at this and see if it can be saved. I’m sorry I’m rushing out. Let me pay you before I go.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Chelsea said.

“I’ll take care of it,” Daisy replied. “I’ll meet you out there in a few minutes.”

“You don’t have to do that,” I told her, grateful my hair was done besides drying and styling.

“I’ll meet you out there soon,” Daisy said firmly. “Go. See what it looks like.”

I nodded and thanked them, then left.

My heart raced the entire drive over there. It was only a few minutes, but I imagined the worst the entire time, trying to figure out a backup plan.

The easiest thing would be to put a table in the building for parents to sign kids in and out.

But without the camper, we didn’t have bathrooms.

Dammit.

I turned onto the newly paved driveway from the road and wanted to cry. It was stunning and exactly what I wanted, but then I saw the camper.

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