The Liar

“We couldn’t pay a lot, at least until we see how it goes. Forty-minute sets, and ten of the twenty between you’d work the crowd some. Go around the tables. What I want is to try a kind of weekly theme.”

“She’s got ideas,” Derrick muttered, but with a spark of pride.

“I have good ideas.” With the ginger ale in one hand, Tansy tapped a finger on the bar. “And this good idea is we’d start off with the forties. Songs from the forties, specialty drinks from then. What did they drink back then? Martinis or boilermakers. I’ll figure that out,” she said, waving it aside.

“Next week it’s the fifties, and we work our way up. It’s all nostalgia. We’ll draw in a lot of people. I’ll get it set up. We’ll use a karaoke machine for now. Maybe if we do the expansion, we can get a piano, or we can hire a couple of musicians. For right now, to start, we’ll get that karaoke machine, Derrick, because we’re going to start doing Karaoke Mondays, too.”

“She’s got ideas,” he said again.

“I got one says people just love hearing themselves sing whether they can’t pipe out a single true note. They’ll be flocking in here Monday nights. And now Fridays, too. That’s what we’ll call it—just ‘Friday Nights.’ I know it’s only one night a week, Shelby, but that’ll give you room to find some day work if you need it.”

“Are you all right with all this?” Shelby asked Derrick.

“She manages the place. I just own it.”

“Not this Friday,” Tansy continued, steamrolling over them both. “It’s too soon, and I have things to put together. Next Friday. You’ll want to come in a couple times, rehearse, once I get it set up. We’re going to need that expansion, Derrick, once we get this going. You’d better talk to Matt and Griff, get that nailed right soon.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“So. Shelby?”

Shelby blew out a breath, drew in another. “All right. I’m in—and if it doesn’t work out, no hard feelings. But I’m in, and grateful. I’ll be your Friday Nights.”

10

She all but danced over to the salon.

“Why, don’t you look a treat,” Viola said the minute she stepped in. “Sissy, you remember my granddaughter, Shelby.”

That started a winding conversation with the woman in Viola’s chair while Viola removed a forest of enormous rollers and began the styling.

The minute she had an opening, Shelby announced her news.

“Won’t that be something? Tansy and her Derrick, they’re making something out of that place, and there you’ll be. A headliner.”

Shelby laughed, automatically shifting the basket of used rollers out of her grandmother’s way. “It’s only Friday nights, but—”

Sissy interrupted with a story about her daughter starring in the high school musical while Viola poofed her hair to twice its volume.

“I really should get on. I guess Mama’s doing a treatment.”

“Back-to-back facials. Tracey’s got Callie for a while yet, doesn’t she?” Viola asked. “I got a break coming up.”

“I still have a couple of stops to make. I thought I’d see if Mountain Treasures is hiring part-time, or maybe The What-Not Place as Tansy says they do well with tourists and locals.”

“I got some sweet Depression glass teacups there to go with my collection,” Sissy told her.

“It’s on my list. The Artful Ridge isn’t as they’re not hiring, at least not me as long as Melody Bunker has a say in it.”

“Melody’s been jealous of you since you were children.” Knowing her client, Viola sprayed a fierce cloud of holding spray over the mountain of hair. “You be grateful she didn’t hire you, baby girl. If you worked over there, she’d make your days a misery. There, Sissy. Big enough for you?”

“Oh now, Vi, you know I like to make a statement with my hair. God blessed me with plenty of it, so I like putting it to use. It looks just wonderful. Nobody does it up like you. I’m having lunch with my girlfriends,” she told Shelby. “Doing it fancy, up at the hotel.”

“Won’t that be fun?”

It took a few minutes more to scoot Sissy along, then Viola blew out a breath, sat in the chair. “Next time, I swear, I’ll just use a bicycle pump on that hair of hers. Now, how many days a week you thinking of working?”

“I could do three or four—maybe even five with shorter hours if I can work out a deal with Tracey, and maybe ask Mama to fill in with Callie otherwise. Any more than that, I’d have to see about taking her to day care.”

“That’d eat up your paycheck.”

“I was hoping to wait for the fall for it, give her time to settle in, but I may have to do it sooner. It’ll be good for her to be around other kids.”

“True enough. Here’s what I’m going to say to you. I don’t know why you’re going over to Mountain Treasures and other places when I can use you right here. You could help with the phones, the book, the stock and supplies, and the customers. And you could help keep things organized as you’ve got an organized nature. You find something you like better, that’s fine. But for right now, I could use you three days a week. Four when we’re busy. You could bring Callie in here and there. You spent plenty of your time in the salon when you were her age.”

“I did.”

“Did it hurt you any?”