Page 3 of The Tiger King's Christmas Bride

Chapter One

Violet Martinez had just finished cleaning her work station at Hair and There, the beauty salon in Maccon City where she worked when her boss, Sherry Morgan McAllister interrupted her.

The woman had a wonderfully lilting accented voice that Violet wished she had. It made her seem so mysterious and alluring. That and the fact she was like crazy beautiful. Though Violet did not understand her crazy penchant for colored contact lenses or her multi-faceted locks. One minute her eyes were blue the next they were yellow or purple. Same with her reddish, goldish, pinkish, silverish hair.

LOL.

Violet didn’t have the kind of looks that could carry such extravagance. She was just the average woman. Short, chubby, brown-haired, brown-eyed, and skin a permanent olive-tan color.

She was a nail technician who had aspirations for becoming a full-time author someday. As it was, she’d self-published a few short stories over the past year in between work and volunteering at the local senior center.

She’d sort of made a family for herself there by borrowing other people’s often ignored and neglected grandparents. She’d been raised by her grandmother after her own parents had split and decided raising a kid wasn’t in the cards for either of them. She’d have gone into foster care if her abuela hadn’t stepped up and taken her in.

The old woman had been kindness itself, but when her Alzheimer’s had advanced, Violet found she’d needed help. Placing her in the Maccon City Senior Center had been a lifesaver.

She missed her so much, especially this time of year. This was her second Christmas alone since her abuela had passed on. Violet still visited the other seniors at least once a month to give manicures and pedicures to the tenants who wanted them free of charge.

In fact, she was just there yesterday and had already treated the dozen or so seniors who’d wanted her services to a holiday palette of mani-pedi’s. This was her night off and she couldn’t wait.

Tonight was Christmas Eve, and all she wanted was to go home to some spiked hot chocolate and a marathon of old movies that she had already carefully picked out. The salon would be closed tomorrow, and since she had no family or close friends to share Christmas Day with, Violet planned on editing her current work in progress.

Unlike her other lighthearted comedies, this one was a romance. The only problem was the ending. Typical love stories were supposed to end happily, but how could someone who had her history with men even know what a happy ending was?

Sigh.

It was frustrating, but that was what it meant to be a writer, she supposed. Anyway, she could rest tonight and work on it tomorrow.

“Violet?” Sherry interrupted her train of thought.

“Sorry, Sherry, my brain went off on a tangent. What is it?” she asked.

“I am sorry to ask this of you, but I need you to go to the Leeds’ Mansion for an emergency situation,” she began and Violet’s stomach dropped.

Oh no. Not tonight.

“Yes, I am sorry, it seems Margot, or Grandmother Leeds, you know how she prefers everyone to call her that, has come home unexpectedly and chipped two nails on her flight down from visiting her grandson in Canada. She will pay you in cash, and because it is Christmas Eve, you can keep it all, Violet. You see, I would go myself, but Seff would prefer I did not,” she patted her burgeoning belly and Violet nodded.

She couldn’t ask the heavily pregnant woman to drive all the way out to the Pine Barrens on Christmas Eve. Besides, Margot Leeds was a very important client. She and her granddaughter-in-law spent thousands of dollars a year on hair and nails at the salon, and they were good tippers.

Violet wasn’t exactly thrilled about it, but there was also no way in hell she could afford to turn down that kind of money. She mustered up a smile for her worried looking boss and stood up nodding.

“Of course, I can do it. I am almost finished packing up for the day anyway. It’s no problem.”

“Are you sure?” asked Sherry.

“Of course, I am. Now, you go home to your husband and family and I will lock up tonight. I’ll head straight over to the Leeds’ Mansion when I am done.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” Sherry sighed and hiccupped, covering her mouth while her cheeks turned bright pink which oddly enough seemed to match her colored contacts, even though Violet could’ve sworn they were brown a moment ago, “don’t dawdle the weather might kick up a notch, but Mrs. Leeds said you were welcome to stay if anything happened.”

She was still stuck on Sherry’s eyes when the woman spoke, but it was probably a mistake. Violet was the one with boring brown eyes and brown hair. They went perfectly with her boring lifestyle she supposed. Sherry must’ve had the pink on.

“What? Oh no, I’ll be on my way home before the weather gets bad,” she said.

Hours later.

“I want to thank you for coming out at such late notice,” Margot Leeds, walked Violet to the door and smiled at the sounds of laughter coming from the South parlor.

“My granddaughter,” she said and Violet smiled.

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