Page 95 of Family Bonds- Jarrett & Andi

She laughed. “Stop. I think you read more into it.”

“You’re probably right,” he said.

“I have to tell you about this last-minute client I got in today. Just makes me shake my head. She and her friends, all early twenties, are going to the casino and staying the night for a girls’ single party. She comes from money, not sure about the other two, but my guess is they probably did. Kylie, my client, was almost whining that her father makes her workpart timeat his law firm when she just wants to be an influencer.”

“God,” he said. “Don’t get me going on that.”

“I know,” she said. “I know so many do it or want to. She’s got a lot of beauty sponsors. She had some hair product she wanted me to use and I did, then got pictures she posted of her hair when it was done. She tagged Amanda’s salon and my social media accounts.”

“What?” he asked. He turned sharply to look at her. “Is that smart?”

“That is part of my business,” she said. “It’s not like my picture is on my accounts.” She pulled her phone out and showed him. “It’s a cartoon picture of me. Lots of people do it.The rest are pictures of styles I’ve done. Not even my client’s faces, as most don’t want that.”

He took her phone out of her hand and looked. A lot of the pictures were from the back or side and if they were front on, the faces were blurred some.

“Is this the person that tagged you today?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said. “As you can see, it’s just abefore and afterpicture of her. The only picture she posted from the salon is the one I took from the back. Her before and after were taken in the hotel room. Now it looks like she’s talking about the product she used and doing more with them.”

He pulled her phone back and saw what she was looking at.

It didn’t make him feel any better but not much he could do about it either now.

“Do you normally have that happen?” he asked, handing her phone back. “Have people tag you like that?”

“Yes,” she said. “It’s how we network for business. I do it with Amanda and other stylists too. It was hard to start all over again two years ago. It’s not like I could use pictures from my old account. I couldn’t risk anyone tying them back. Those accounts were taken down and that was it.”

“Because Colleen is in the ocean?” he asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“Her name is,” she said. “But not her.”

“Damn straight,” he said. “She’s right here in front of me. The woman I love. I don’t care what your name is or was.” He hugged her.

“I don’t know why I needed to hear that. Sometimes I think of the past and just wonder. Kylie was saying it was her lucky day because she had an appointment with me. I thought, well gee, if that is what luck is for her, then she has no understanding of life at all, or has no concept of what people are going through.”

“Probably a combination of both,” he said.

“But I know I’m damn lucky to have you and it was the first thing I thought.”

“Maybe I needed to hear that too,” he said,giving her a kisson the forehead. “And I’ll help you cook dinner while we’re at it. I thought we could sit in front of the fireplace tonight while the snow was falling. Maybe find a movie to watch?”

“That sounds great,” she said. “But you want to shower because I got here too fast. Maybe I was just excited to see you.”

“I’ll always want you to be excited to see me,” he said.

“Go shower and I’ll make brownies. That’s our dessert.”

He kissed her one more time and went upstairs to shower and change. He grabbed her bag of clothes that she’d left by the door and set it on the bed.

Andi was right, some people didn’t understand what luck was, but he knew and he was never going to forget it.

And had to dial back his reactions to things like the picture on social media. Maybe he didn’t have as good a handle on his emotions as he thought.

32

ONE OF THOSE MEMORIES

“Ilove a real fire,” Andi said two hours later. “You don’t see too many houses with real fireplaces now.”

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