Page 59 of Forever Endeavor

CHAPTER 19

Billie

“Can I get you anything? Coffee? Water? Daiquiri with a mini-umbrella?” She pointed out the bar blender on the kitchen counter.

Cal laughed. “Sonny thought of everything, I see. Don’t suppose you have any regular ‘ol beer back there?”

“Coming right up.” Billie opened the fridge and pulled out a cold one from Sonny’s stockpile. “Like you said, he thought of everything.”

He guzzled as he took a scenic tour of the seaside decor. “This place looks like the Copa Cabana.”

“I think that was the intention,” she said. “Even the bathroom is a tropical oasis.”

The chaos had wiped away Cal’s usual vitality. His dulled eyes were sunken, his sun-beaten skin turned grey. His rumpled clothes and wild, wiry whiskers seemed even scruffier that usual. Billie felt awful, and awfully guilty. “Are you okay? You’ve had a lot to absorb today,” she said, patting his knee. “I’m so sorry you’ve been put through the wringer. But I hope you know I wouldn’t do anything to purposely hurt you.”

“I understand why you did it,” he said. “The thing I’m grappling with most is that I might actually get to see her again. Funny, I’ve thought about her thousands of times over the years, and I guess I always imagined her being exactly the same. Silly, I know. As if time stood still and preserved her youthful beauty just as she was that night.”

“She’s probably a mother, if not a grandmother, but I’m sure in many ways she’s still as you remember.”

“Wonder what she’ll think of this ol’ codger? Hate to think she’ll be disappointed by the haggard reality waiting on the other side of her own memory.” He stroked his woolly beard pensively. “Is it too late to be pen pals instead?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, you’re still the same hunky buck you were back then. All you need is a little sprucing around the edges. We’ll find you something snazzy to wear and after a trip to the barber shop, you’ll look and feel like a million bucks.”

He wiggled his furry eyebrows. “Why wait? You got any scissors?”

“Yeah, there’s a small pair in the bathroom. Why?”

“Maybe it’s time I got rid of this scraggly beard. I’ve had it so long that I’ve forgotten what my face looks like under here. Mind if I use the shower first?”

She gulped. A major makeover ahead of a potentially life-changing reunion that might not even happen? Yikes. “Of course, it’s your cabin, Cal. Be my guest.”

The next time she saw him, he peacock-strutted out of the bathroom, barefoot and barrel-chested, a towel proudly slung over one shoulder. His hair was slicked back, and a good portion of the heavy beard had been whacked away. “Whaddya think? So far, so good?”

“Geez, Cal. You look terrific,” she said. “But what do you mean byso far?”

He passed the scissors. “Let’s keep going. And give the hair a trim while you’re at it.”

She made room at her desk for a makeshift salon and procured a comb, shaving cream and a razor. Billie picked up the scissors, her hands trembling. “Sorry, I’m a little nervous.”

“Then for godssake, start with the hair first,” he joked. “Save the face for last.”

She began by steadily trimming the ends of his silvery hair as she would her own. Not bad. As she felt bolder, she started having fun, and as she relaxed, more hair fell to the floor.

“When you set out to look for her, what did you hope to find?”

Billie pulled back. “I only wanted to find her for you. Beyond that, I didn’t really have any expectation. However, if she runs into your arms and you sail away into the sunset together, I wouldn’t be mad at it. What about you? What are you hoping for?”

“I’m afraid to hope for much,” he admitted. “I’m grateful she remembered me at all.” He held up the mirror to inspect her work. “Nice job, Sunshine. If this writing thing doesn’t pan out, maybe you could pick up a gig in a salon.”

Satisfied with his hair, she moved on to his beard. “You’re sure you want it all to go?”

“All of it,” he affirmed.

Billie lathered thick, white foam over his facial fleece, around his mouth and down the column of his throat. Starting in front of his ear, she grazed the razor in a line from his sideburn to his jaw, leaving a row of smooth skin in its wake. One down. Once his cheeks and jawline were hairless, she leaned in to shave his chin clean before focusing on the contours of his upper lip. “Almost done,” she whispered on their way to a nick-free shave. Billie finally put down the razor, then pressed a warm cloth to soothe his skin. “Hey, you survived.”

His eyes opened and he smiled. “So did you.”

She peeled back the cloth to inspect her work. Clean shaven, his grey hair now short and tousled and his marine-blue eyes popping, Cal could’ve passed for Richard Gere’s slightly better looking younger brother. “Wow, we just Benjamin Buttoned a good ten, twelve years off you.”

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