Betting Hearts by Dee Tenorio Read Free Book Online Page A

those pleasantries. Lola pulled off only one of the long, wax-covered strips from Cass’s left leg. There were plenty left to yank. Not to mention a whole other leg.
    “You scream a lot for someone everybody calls tough.”
    Cass said something singeing.
    Lola laughed…and tore another strip.
    For fifty minutes, the pattern repeated until Cass was allowed to stumble out of the waxing room and over to the styling chair. Her only consolation was that she’d been able to talk Lola out of a bikini wax. Once she’d discovered what it was.
    “Now, we do your hair. What color do you want? Blonde, like May Belle said? Men go crazy for la rubias. I know, I was one once.” Her raspy little giggle had enough dirty in it to make Cass smile despite the stinging skin. Lola pushed Cass’s chair into to a prone position.
    May Belle must have talked a lot in the hour before Cass arrived. Lola had emptied her entire day, armed with a suggestion from the former beauty queen on every single topic. May Belle herself was gone only God knew where, leaving Cass at the mercy of the Hispanic whirlwind with a whisking brush.
    Warm water sprayed onto her scalp and Lola’s hands began massaging. Cass closed her eyes in heavenly bliss. This was the first thing that felt good. But as she closed her eyes and tried to envision herself as a cool blonde, all she could see was Sally. Tiny, perfect Sally. Whatever enjoyment she had soured.
    “No. Luke would expect me to try copying his cute little Pomeranian. No, no blonde.”
    Lola was quiet for a while, scrubbing, massaging and rinsing. “ Mira, you have a lot of red in here. Ay, por qué no pensé antes? Let’s make it all red. It’ll look good with your coloring, no? Those eyes, tambien. I’ll trim it, you’ll look exactly like Rita Hayworth.”
    Cass seriously doubted it, but since she didn’t have a clue who Rita Hayworth was she kept her thoughts to herself. Lola rambled on about bone structure and eye color and a whole bunch of things that didn’t make much sense.
    “You look like your mother,” She interjected out of nowhere, humming as she sudsed. “She had the prettiest hair.”
    Cass stared up at her, shocked. “You knew my mother?”
    Lola nodded, not looking away from her work. “ Claro . She was one of my best friends, but everyone felt that way about her. When she died, the whole town came for her funeral. Everyone wanted to be like her and your daddy. He never saw anyone but her. He still doesn’t.” Lola’s expression flickered with disappointment before she pasted a blinding smile on her face. “Y por qué no ? She was beautiful. Kind. Everybody loved Lora.”
    Cass knew all that. She was too young when Lora’s lung cancer took hold, so all her impressions of her mother came from photographs and her father’s occasional remarks. She had a hard time believing Eddie was ever the life of any party, but according to the older folks, he and Lora were once the fairy tale of the town. Lora’s death remained its greatest tragedy. Had Lola been trying to get Eddie’s attention or something? Poor woman, nuclear weapons couldn’t get Eddie’s attention these days.
    “You don’t remember her, do you?” Lola asked, something soothing in her quiet tone.
    Cass shook her head. ”Just her pictures. And her smile.” Her memories were almost entirely sensory, more what she thought of instead of actual events. A scent of lilac and sunshine, a soft hand in hers…a smile. Something about Lora’s cheeky grin made Cass think her mother had a wild streak a mile wide. Thinking of that smile gave her comfort whenever she got in trouble for misbehaving. It would be nice to think she got more than red hair from her mother.
    “Hmm, qué lastima . You would have liked her, chulita . She grew the most beautiful roses. She could make any plant grow, just the way she touched it. She had that way. Like you.” Lola abruptly pushed the seat into an upright position.
    Cass grabbed the