Page 18 of Her Second Chance Cowboy

Nancy made a show of shrugging her shoulders. “It’s fine.”

Evie didn’t look impressed in the slightest. “You know that I can tell when you’re lying, right?” She touched Nancy’s arm, squeezing. “I really am sorry for putting you in the position of having to be the one to say no. I know the girls were a lot today.”

Nancy ducked her head. “It’s okay,” she said. “I want you to have the wedding of your dreams, Evie, and I’m going to make sure that you do.”

Evie threw her arms around her, hugging her tight. “You’re the best, Nance.”

They cleaned up the brunch mess, and Nancy left with the completed seating chart and playlist for the DJ. She’d add the pages to the binder she made for the wedding so that they wouldn’t be misplaced. On her way back to the ranch, she had an idea: while she couldn’t say yes to most of the bridesmaids’ ideas, she could make sure that Evie got the cohesive bridal party image that she imagined. She pulled out her phone, did a quick search for the closest salon that wasn’t Evie’s, and made an appointment. Luckily, the woman had a slot open for that day.

The salon, like Evie’s in Windy Creek, was small and dated, but unlike Evie’s where the appliances were old but everything was well kept, the vibe this salon gave off said that it wasn’t properly maintained. It made Nancy feel a little uneasy, but since she was here, she didn’t feel like she could back out.

“So,” the woman said as she popped her gum, “what are you looking to get done?”

Nancy smiled. “Do you have any experience with extensions?”

The stylist nodded. “I can do the tape-in extensions today. If you’re looking for sewn-in, it’ll be a few days.”

“Tape-in is great,” she said. “I need it long enough for an updo for a wedding in a few weeks. Will they hold up that long?”

The woman nodded again and hustled to a backroom to get the supplies. She brought back dark hair wefts that were a near match to Nancy’s hair. She explained that these extensions bond to hair with heat from a straightening iron. “You can’t wash your hair for three days,” the stylist said as she started sandwiching the wefts with her hair. “It’ll need to settle.”

Nancy noticed halfway through the process that her scalp was starting to tingle. “Is it supposed to burn slightly?”

The stylist shrugged. “Some people have a reaction to the tape and the heat, but I’ve never had an allergic reaction before. Do you want me to stop?”

The tingling wasn’t too awful; she could handle it. “No, it’s fine.”

It wasn’t fine, though, and she spent another hour in increasing pain. She paid the woman with shaking hands and drove back to the ranch while barely resisting the urge to yank the damn extensions out. Finally, she decided enough was enough. The stylist said not to wash it, so when she got back to the guest house, she made a beeline for her shower. She would wash out the extensions, eat the two hundred bucks, and ask Evie for a recommendation later. She should have done that to begin with, but she’d wanted it to be a surprise to show the others tomorrow.

Nancy barely let the water heat up before she jumped into the shower. As gently as possible, she shampooed her hair and her tortured scalp, but the extensions didn’t budge. Whatever binding was supposed to set over the next few days already seemed rock solid. The showering did nothing to help with the pain, either. If anything, the burning was all the worse because she had scrubbed at her scalp.

She got out and pulled her clothes back on, near tears as her head throbbed. She had to get these things out of her hair, or they would drive her crazy. She tracked back into the main room of the guest house, searching the drawers for scissors. She was startled when there was a knock on the door. “Nance?” It was Colin. “Hey, do you have a minute? I was hoping we could talk.”

Her immediate impulse was to stay quiet and hope he’d go away. She didn’t want him to see her like this—in tears and struggling with her hair. But this was Colin. She could trust him, couldn’t she?

“Y-yeah,” she stammered. “Just a second.”

She took a breath and went for the door.

TWELVE

Nancy swung the door open, bracing herself for the possibility that he might laugh. Not that her newly longer hair looked particularly laughable, but the situation was certainly ridiculous, given the way that her body was physically rejecting her effort to fit in. When she met his eyes, though, he looked worried, and somehow, that made her feel better. She moved out of the way so that he could step into the guest house.

“What did you do to yourself?” he asked, eyeing the hair that now sat just below her shoulders.

“I tried to be team player,” she said.

Thatmade him smile. “Did that include drinking a potion to make your hair grow?”

She laughed and winced when the extension pulled at her scalp. “The girls want to style their hair up for the wedding, and I wanted to be accommodating, so I went to the closest salon that wasn’t Evie’s and got extensions to surprise everyone.”

“Okay…” he said slowly. “Well, you look great, if that helps? I mean, honestly, you mostly look miserable, but your hair is pretty. Do you not like how it looks?”

“At this point, I couldn’t care less how it looks,” she admitted. “Ithurts. I don’t know if the stylist messed up putting them in, or if I’m having some weird allergic reaction or something, but my scalp is stinging like I’m being attacked by bees. I’ve got to get these out. I was looking for scissors when you knocked.”

The soft look in Colin’s eyes made her stomach flutter. “I’ll help,” he offered.

Nancy nodded, grateful for the assistance. “I tried washing them to loosen the tape, but they didn’t budge. That’s why I was looking for scissors.”

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