I’d be lying if I said I didn’t let my fingers linger just a split second longer than necessary over the smooth skin of his forehead and his temple and that ultra-soft skin right behind his earlobe. I could feel his stare on me as I worked, but only let myself look him in the eye a couple of times, smiling each time like this was no big deal, when it felt like anything but. The clippers were loud between us, a distraction to the tension I felt in the pit of my stomach in reaction to how close we were.

“Sorry if I stink,” he apologized in that near-whisper voice.

“You don’t smell at all,” I said to him, forcing myself to keep my gaze on the very center of his newly trimmed hair. “I’m almost done. I just need to use my shears on a couple of spots.” Did my voice sound hoarse or was I just imagining it?

“I’m not rushing you. You doing this for me is a hell of a lot better than my usual barber.” God, how could a voice be so attractive? “I might have to start coming in every two weeks if you’re gonna be rubbing the back of my neck like that, Buttercup.”

I smiled, but it was off and my stomach was fluttering, and I’m sure my face was turning pink.

“Why you blushing?” he asked in that croon that sang straight to my ovaries.

“Because.” I laughed again, awkward and stupid, and why the hell was I doing this to myself? You know better, Diana. “You reminded me of something I heard. That’s all,” I said, rubbing my hand on my pants before moving around him.

He hummed. “You can tell me. I can keep a secret,” he said. “I don’t share.”

“Me neither,” I kind of mumbled before shuffling over to stand behind him, trading one tool for the other to catch a couple of super fine hairs right by his ears that I hadn’t been able to get. “It’s stupid. I’ll tell you another day.”

I spotted his Adam’s apple moving. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could hear my heart racing inside my chest. It only took a couple of minutes to finish up, to make sure the lines and edges along the nape of his neck were clean and straight. After brushing his bare skin off, I pulled the cape off him. I slowly shook it out as he got to his feet, avoiding the small pools of rich brown hair on the floor.

“How much do I owe you?” he asked.

I gestured toward the front desk area with my head, conscious that Sean and Ginny were nosey as fuck and still not done with their clients. “How about ten bucks?”

He touched the back of my hand again with his, and I knew without a single doubt, for one split second, his pinky finger hooked around mine before letting it go. “That’s how much I pay my old guy to cut me behind the ears and shove his sweaty armpit in my face. How much?”

He sounded just like Miss Pearl.

I kept myself from coughing and from glancing down at his hands, and somehow even rolled my eyes, trying to keep this light and playful even though it felt like something more. “Ten bucks. That took me fifteen minutes, tops, Dallas. It’s a friend discount, and don’t think about tipping me. I’ll sneak the money back in your bag during practice.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. You help me all the time. I can avoid shoving a stinky pit in your face and make sure I leave you without any cuts.”

“You sure? I know you charge like a hundred bucks for a haircut.”

I’d do it for free at my house if he wanted, but in that moment, that seemed like a dangerous idea. “I don’t charge a hundred dollars for a haircut. It’s like eighty, and it takes me over an hour to do that usually. Ten bucks. Cough ‘em up, Captain.”

That slow smile crossed his harsh features, lighting up my gut. “As you wish.”

I started grinning before I stopped. What did he just say?

Before I could ask myself if he’d really just said what I thought he said, Dallas added, “And it’s Senior Chief, Peach. Not Captain.”

Was I having hot flashes? Was I imagining things? I tugged at the collar of my shirt with my good hand and replied, “You got it, Senior Chief.”

He snickered and shook his head. As he handed over a ten-dollar bill from a scuffed leather wallet, he asked, “You putting me down for two weeks from now?”

I blinked and even my hands stopped moving. “You’re serious?”

He was dead serious. I could tell from the expression on his face. I’d seen it before. And he confirmed it. “I’m serious. Put me down.”

“Why don’t you just come over to my house and have me cut your hair there?” I offered, whispering. I could do it. I could keep my hands to myself.

“I like having an excuse to come see you,” he replied in a low voice that went straight to my chest.

I eyed him and nodded, slipping the cash into the register before reaching over to take the computer off sleep mode. “Is Monday fine?” I managed not to croak.

“Sure, baby.”

I was not going to make a big deal about the “B” word. And I didn’t. Words were just words sometimes, with no special meaning at all, and Dallas and I had been through some stuff together. Trip called me “honey” all the time too. Maybe Dallas was just practicing terms of endearment on me? Yuck. “All right.”

“You got me down?” he asked before I’d even saved the date.

“I’m about to.”

“Good. Make me your six o’clock from now on. Any day you want, I’ll make it work.”

My index finger hovered over the mouse for a moment and I held my breath. There was something about this that felt different. Heavy. “For how long?” I asked slowly.

“For as long as that calendar will let you.”

* * *

“That whore.”

Ginny let out a laugh from her spot across the salon where she was cleaning out the sinks we used to wash customers’ hair. “Your tip was that bad?”

The fact she knew why the insult was called for didn’t even register to me. We’d been working together for so long doing this, we were both well aware that there were only a handful of reasons we would call our customers names. It was either they missed an appointment, complained about a haircut they specifically requested even though we tried to talk them out of it, or we were tipped like shit. Under normal circumstances, we didn’t usually complain about our tips. I mean, shit happens; sometimes people have less money than they do at other times, but in this case…

“She just finished telling me she got promoted at her law firm. She left me five dollars, Gin. Five dollars. It took me half an hour to blow out her hair after I cut it. My hand hurts like a son of a bitch from holding the dryer.”

Her laugh exploded out of her, because that kind of shit happened to all of us on a semi-regular basis. Some weeks were better than others. It was why I never tipped waiters badly. While Ginny paid us based off a fair commission structure compared to other salon owners I’d worked for in the past, every penny still counted, especially when you had bills and kids. Today alone I’d had six stingy customers. On the other hand, I’d had to cancel her original appointment because of my hand. Her roots had been pretty brutal.

“Ugh,” I groaned. “It’s just been one of those days.”

“Aww, Di.”

I sighed and dropped my head back before shoving the five-dollar bill into my wallet. “I need a drink.”