Forever Together by Leeanna Morgan Read Free Book Online Page B

in a woman’s only domain. As soon as he saw the
over-sized hairdryers he knew he’d made a mistake.
    “Nice to see you, Deputy Dan.” Loretta
grinned at him from behind the reception desk. “Have you come in
for an eyebrow wax?”
    Someone snickered from behind one of the
turbo hairdryers and he scowled. “I was driving past and thought I’d come in and see how
everything is going.”
    “That’s mighty friendly of you, Dan. As you
can see, we’re doing fine.”
    Now he really felt like an idiot. He forced
himself to gaze around the room, trying not to look uncomfortable,
trying to find something to distract the women still staring at him
like a fish in the wrong pond.
    Kate walked out of a room at the back of the
salon and stopped. Her mouth dropped open. “Dan? What are you doing
here?”
    “Loretta’s already asked him that,” Jessie
yelled from under one of the hair
dryers . Dan blinked twice at the layers of foil wrappers
surrounding her head. Jessie was a seventy-something woman who knew
the ins and outs of most people’s lives in Bozeman. “He said he’s
here to see how we’re doing.”
    Kate’s eyes narrowed. If she gave in to the
murderous thoughts sending blue flames his way he wouldn’t be the
only one that was arrested. Colin would shove them both in a cell
and God knew what would happen then.
    Kate crossed her arms in front of her chest
and glared a bit more. “Looks as though you could do with a
trim.”
    Dan ran his hand through his hair. He
purposely kept it longer than the buzz cut he used to wear. It
curled at the ends, occasionally fell in his eyes and annoyed the
hell out of him on hot days like today.
    But he’d grown used to it. It was a reminder
that he was different to the man who’d left for Iraq. He’d gone
overseas to fight for democracy and ended up fighting for his
sanity. At least he’d come home alive. His best friend’s body had
come home in a casket, leaving Dan and the rest of his platoon to
struggle with what had happened.
    Kate picked up a pink cape and flicked it
open. “My last client just left.” The smile on her face worried
him.
    He looked at the cape and took a step
backward. “I don’t need a haircut.”
    Kate wasn’t taking no for an answer. Before
he could leave the salon, she
dived toward him, holding his arm. He couldn’t move without taking
her with him and that wasn’t going to happen. The women in the
salon were staring at them, remembering every word for the gossip
sessions he knew would circulate town.
    “You’re not running away are you, Dan?” Kate
threw his words back at him with a smile on her face.
    Her fingers tightened their hold on his arm.
If he didn’t know better, he’d
swear she cared about the length of his hair. Or had hatched a
devious payback plan.
    “I need to get back to work.” Okay, he was
definitely grasping at straws. He’d changed his shifts when Kaylee
had been admitted to the hospital .
He started early and finished at three o’clock, give or take any
overtime when all hell broke loose.
    “It’s nearly four-fifteen,” Jessie said from
beneath a head covered in tinfoil. “I thought you finished
early?”
    Damn. That’s what you got for living in a
small town. Everyone knew your business, even when you didn’t think
they cared.
    “You’re not scared are you?” Kate dropped her
voice to a low whisper. Goose
bumps skittered along his skin.
    “It’s the cape.” Loretta looked incredibly
pleased with her insightfulness. She took a black cape off a shelf
and handed it to Kate. “Try this one.”
    Dan didn’t want any cape. He didn’t care if
it was pink, blue, purple, or yellow with orange spots. Kate wasn’t
getting anywhere near his hair. She did her matador trick again,
opening the cape like a seasoned pro. Sweat trickled down his neck,
under the hair she wanted to cut.
    He glanced at the door and then at the smile
on Kate’s face. She was enjoying every minute of his impulsive
decision to come