Tate Murphy sat in the comfy chair at her station, sipping coffee and looking out the window. It was a Saturday in the very beginning of February. Winter had been cold but spring was beginning to imagine itself. The trees carried buds, heavy with leaves, and the air wasn’t quite as chilly as it’d been even a week before.
All in all, a lovely day. Soon to be even lovelier. One leg crossed over the other, foot slowly kicking back and forth, she waited for her morning visual donut. Matt Chase.
Ah, there he was. Hot damn, her body lit up when he pulled his truck into the lot adjacent to the salon. Hopping out, he hefted a duffel bag over one shoulder and loped across the street.
“Good Lord the man looks good enough to eat,” Tate murmured as she took a drink of her coffee. Faded jeans showed off long legs and a nice, trim booty. A hoodie sweatshirt fended off the cold but didn’t stop her from seeing the work-hard body beneath. He was in dire need of a haircut and she had no trouble admitting she’d love to get her fingers in it. A bit shaggy, it curled up just around his ears and touched the back of his collar. A color like burnt sugar.
Although he had on cool-looking sunglasses, she knew the eyes beneath were a light green, fringed with chocolate lashes. Mmm. Mmmm. Mmmm.
“Ah, I see his hotness has arrived.” Anne, co-owner and her next youngest sister, stood beside her, leaning into the chair.
“Kinda makes me want to set a fire,” Tate said, one corner of her mouth lifting.
“Um, I smell something burning already. Your panties perhaps?”
Blushing furiously, she spun, laughing at Anne’s outrageous comment. “I’m gonna light a candle for you. Three.”
Anne joined her in laughter. “You just about raised me, I expect I need all the help I can get.”
“Hey, divas, did I miss him?” Beth, the last owner and next youngest sister after Anne approached to refill everyone’s coffee cup.
“Yeah, he just went inside. But there’s always lunchtime.” Sated for the morning, Tate stood and began to get all her tools in order, making sure her station was stocked and ready for the day.
Four years before, Tate and Anne had decided to buy the run-down old house at the far end of Main Street and renovate it into a hair salon. They’d scrimped, saved, worked multiple jobs and got the down payment together and then had spent months doing the renovation work themselves. Luckily, they had a large, and free, workforce. With eight Murphy kids and two spouses to help, they’d been able to paint, knock out walls, drywall, replace the plumbing, landscape, and apply for all the proper permits and licenses. Hell, they’d even put up a new roof. A few months after Anne graduated from beauty school, Tate left her old salon in Riverton and they opened the doors to Murphy’s Cuts and Curls.
Two years after that, Beth came in as part owner and ran the business end of things. The salon was a family affair. Beth had been helping out with the books when she’d offered to buy in at a smaller share. The place would wither and die without her to, well, do everything that needed doing. Not only did she handle the books and deal with ordering supplies but if someone needed a shampoo she could do that too.
Truthfully, Tate had wanted a fancier name but their youngest sister, Jill, who was getting her degree in marketing, told them that if they kept the name folksy but not too cutesy, it’d make people more comfortable.
Jill must have had something, because from the moment they’d opened, they’d done a brisk business. Women stopped leaving town to get their hair done. Tate and Anne offered everything from the giant hairspray helmet the women like Polly Chase preferred to the stylish razor cuts her daughter-in-law Liv currently sported. It made Petal seem a friendlier place to Tate, who always had felt an outsider there.
Tate made a decent living. Enough that she’d been able to help Tim and her other siblings pay tuition at the University of Georgia for their two youngest siblings. Before that, she worked to pay for her younger brother Nathan’s college and master’s in teaching. They’d all worked together to help out when the others had needed it and that’s what counted.
“Anne, your first client of the day is a color, I’ll send her over to Tate for the cut,” Beth announced as she made another pot of coffee.
Tate looked at the place she and her sisters had built from the ground up and pride swelled her heart.
* * *
Matt tossed his clothes into the hamper with his name on it and headed toward the showers. He’d been up for sixteen hours and was dead on his feet. Too bad he didn’t have the luxury of sleeping, one of the other guys at the station had been injured at the fire they’d just put out and Matt needed to fill in for him.
As he quickly cleaned up, the scent of freshly brewing coffee cut through the steam, waking his senses. When he stumbled out into the main living area on the second floor of the firehouse, he saw his older brother Shane waiting for him.
“I heard about Tony getting hurt.” Shane’s voice was gruff as he handed Matt a cup of coffee. Matt knew it was Shane’s way of making sure he was unhurt.
“He’ll be all right. Jim had some smoke inhalation so he’s at the hospital too, just to get checked out. I wasn’t in the part of the house where the beams collapsed so I’m lucky.”
“Here, Momma sent this over. She wanted to come herself, you know how she is. But Daddy intercepted her and I promised to bring it.” Shane quickly covered his grin with a pathetic attempt at hunger as he handed a series of sealed containers to Matt.
“Come on, get that hangdog look off your face. I’m sure there’s enough for five of us.” Matt put the containers on the table and pulled out plates and utensils as Shane popped the lids off and made sounds of approval.
“Smothered pork chops, mashed potatoes, dang, she even sent over cornbread. Cassie’s gonna kill me for spoiling dinner but I can’t resist.”
Matt snorted as he filled his plate. “Yeah, ’cause Cassie’s such a fine cook and all.”
Shane couldn’t stifle a laugh but shook his head. “You’re a bad influence on me. She may not be able to cook worth a damn but she makes up for it in other areas. Speaking of hot sexy women, how’re things going with Melanie?”
Matt shrugged. “Eh. She’s...” he paused before sighing “...vacant. Yeah, she’s pretty and has a great body. She’s good in bed and all, but she doesn’t make me laugh. We don’t talk about anything real. She doesn’t seem to care about anything. Honestly, I want to have what you guys have. But the right woman hasn’t come along yet.”
“I used to think being married was being tied down and trapped. But Cassie, being with her changed me, changed my life. Even after being married a year and knowing her two, I haven’t found myself bored yet. The woman is a roller coaster.” Shane chuckled.
“Well, I’m a lucky man. My sisters-in-law are all firecrackers. I want that too. I’m wondering if I’ll find her. I’m thirty-two, I’ve dated a lot of women within a thirty mile radius of Petal. Maybe she’s not out there. Maybe I fucked up with Liv and I’ll never get another chance.”
“You didn’t want Liv. You still don’t. She’s meant for Marc. All I can say is your woman is out there. I know it for a fact. I think you’re looking in the wrong places. If you want a deep woman you can laugh with, stop going out with women like Melanie. Break the pattern, Matt.”
Matt sighed as he ate. “Women like Melanie are familiar territory, you know?”
“I do know. I was you, Matt. Okay, better looking, but still, look at the women I kept ending up with. Except for Maggie, and we all know that was doomed. It wasn’t until I clapped eyes on Cassie that I knew what I wanted. Her. Forever. It took Kyle a few months and Marc a few years of knowing their women. You? I think you’re more like me. You’ll see her and you’ll know and it’ll be right.”
“You know, everyone in this town thinks you’re such a hardass. If they only knew what a sensitive person you were deep inside. I’m not being snide, I mean it. Thanks. Thanks for checking in on me and for the food and for caring.”
“You’re my brother, Matt. And my best friend. Although if you told Kyle or Marc, I’d have to say I love you all equally and crap because I’m the oldest and all.”
Matt snorted and popped his brother one on the arm.