Chasing Perfect (Fool's Gold #1)(73)

“What’s Josh like in bed?” a woman in pink curlers yelled from across the room.

Conversation stopped. For a second there was only the sound of the soft music. Once again everyone was staring at Charity.

Julia sighed. “You don’t have to answer that,” she said. “Not that we’re not interested,” she added with a wink.

She turned to the salon. “She’s new, remember. Everyone back off.”

“But I want to know,” another woman insisted. “I’m sixty-two. The odds of me finding out for myself are slim.”

Charity laughed. “He’s everything you could imagine and more.”

The woman in curlers sighed. “I knew it,” she said dreamily.

“I saw him riding his bike the other day,” another client said. “What that man does for those bicycle shorts. It was the highlight of my day.” She glanced at Charity. “No offense.”

“None taken.”

“You’ve been dating for a while now,” Julia said. “How’s that working out?”

The questions weren’t subtle, Charity thought, more amused than offended.

“He’s a great guy. I like spending time with him.”

“Josh is one of the good ones. That first wife of his was a total bitch.”

“I remember her,” another client said with a sniff. “She came to town once. Walked around like she was afraid of getting dog poop on her shoes. She was beautiful, but what a bitch.”

There was a murmur of agreement.

Charity would have loved to ask questions about Angelique but wasn’t sure how. After all, she was fairly confident that anything she said would be reported to the entire town, not to mention get back to Josh.

“You came from Henderson, didn’t you?” Julia asked. “I thought I heard that.”

“Yes.”

“Leave anyone special behind?”

Charity met Julia’s interested gaze in the mirror. “No.”

“I’m surprised. A pretty girl like you. There had to be someone.”

Not a topic Charity wanted to discuss. Not with this crowd. “Not really.”

“My first husband was a total loser,” Julia said. “He cheated, which I could live with, but then lied about it, which I couldn’t. I chased him out of the house with a frying pan. He never came back. Good riddance.”

“All men cheat,” one of the customers said.

“Not all,” another protested. “Some don’t.”

“Name one.”

“My Arnie. He’s a good man.”

Julia leaned close to Charity. “And butt ugly. A sweetheart, but the lights would have to be off all the time.”

Charity did her best not to respond to any part of the conversation.

“Josh ever cheated?” someone asked.

“Not that I’ve heard. He was faithful to that wife of his, not that she deserved it. Stupid cow.”

Josh had claimed to be faithful and Charity had believed him. Which might make her a fool, but she was tired of trying to be sure. After her first two disastrous relationships, she hadn’t been taking any chances with her third. She’d run a credit check and had a friend on the police force get her a DMV report. He’d been clean. Engaged to someone else living in Los Angeles, but clean.

Hurt but determined to learn from yet another mistake, Charity had accepted the job in Fool’s Gold as a way to start over. Maybe having such a public history was part of Josh’s appeal, she thought. She didn’t have to worry about any secrets. Everyone in town knew everything important about him.

She went under the hair dryer for about twenty minutes, then enjoyed a very lovely massage with her wash. When she got back into Julia’s chair, the stylist turned her away from the mirror.

“I don’t want you to see anything until I’m done.”

Charity felt a tiny knot of fear in her stomach. “I guess that means I’m going to have to trust you.”

“You’ll be happy, I promise.”

“That’s a big promise.”

One of the older ladies had finished. With her silver hair all neatly teased and sprayed, she slipped on her jacket, but instead of leaving, she walked over to Charity.

“I remember Josh when he first came here,” she said. “That mother of his was awful. He’d been in a bad fall and walked on crutches. He was about the most pitiful thing I’d ever seen. It took him nearly fifteen minutes to go a single block. How he struggled to get to school every day. That poor boy. His clothes were ragged and he was skinny as an alley cat. It about broke my heart. Then one day she was gone.”

Charity knew the general story of Josh’s past, but she’d never heard it told with such clarity.

“None of us knew what to do,” another woman added. “We didn’t want to send him to a state home, but there wasn’t much choice. Then Denise Hendrix offered to take him in. The rest of us contributed to the family, helping pay for Josh’s medical expenses.”

The first woman nodded. “He needed surgery to repair how his legs had healed wrong, then physical therapy. That’s why he started riding a bike. To strengthen his legs. Ethan rode, too.” She patted Charity’s arm. “So Josh is special to us. Always has been. You’ve got yourself a good man there.”