Page 39 of This Time Around
“It’s a great book,” Bam offered. “One of my favorites.”
Paige went quiet again, probably thinking. “So why would someone want to shave pubes?”
Jack was still trying to formulate a response when Bam beat him to the punch.
“Shaving’s a personal choice,” the barber said. “One for when people get old like your dad.”
“Thank you.” Jack stopped there, hoping the response settled his daughter’s curiosity instead of inviting questions about anyone else’s pubic grooming.
But Paige just said, “Oh,” and fell quiet again.
He hoped he hadn’t dissuaded her from asking questions of a sexual nature. The older she got, the more obvious it would be that she didn’t have a mom to give her the info she needed. He loved that she still felt comfortable coming to him with inquiries about everything from breast development to whether he thought he could eat fifteen oranges in one sitting. He always did his best to answer truthfully.
Bam began unwinding the towel from his face, and Jack breathed deeply. He glanced over at Paige, who flashed him a grin. “Your face is all red.”
“Probably because you’re making me discuss pubes in public.”
She laughed as Bam began to lather his face with a thick foam that made his cheeks tingle. Had he ever had another person shave his face like this? Seemed like one of those things that always happened in romantic movies with the woman propped bare-legged on the counter wearing nothing but the man’s shirt.
The mental picture jogged his memory, reminding him of the time Allie had asked to try it in college. She’d been wearing gray sweatpants and a little red tank top with no bra underneath. Her hair had been loose around her shoulders, cool as silk between his fingers as she patted shaving foam on his face, then wrapped her legs around his waist and?—
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Did you have a girlfriend when you were my age?”
Jack held off on answering while Bam finished smoothing the foam around his jaw.
“Nope. Didn’t have a girlfriend until I was a lot older.”
“How old?”
“Mm, fifteen? No, sixteen.”
“What was her name?”
“Sarah Williams.”
Paige gnawed on her lip as they both watched as Bam put a fresh blade into his straight razor. The handle was some sort of carved wood, very beautiful. He glanced at his daughter to see if she looked nervous. About the razor, about the girlfriend, about anything. She didn’t look worried, but she did look like she had something on her mind.
Seeming to sense his gaze on her, she turned and looked at him. “Was Sarah the first girl you were in love with?”
“No.”
“Who was?”
An achy little knot appeared unwelcome in the center of his chest, but Jack was determined not to let it get to him. “My second girlfriend. The one I started dating when I was seventeen.”
“What was her name?”
“Allie.”
He waited for Paige to connect the dots. Bam slid the razor blade into the contraption and tested the edge with his thumb. Beside him, Jack could hear his little girl breathing heavy, the way she did when she was deep in thought.
“Was it Allie whose house we visited the other night?”
“Yep.”
