Page 110 of No Fear
Chapter Twenty-One
“My God, woman… you’ve got skills.”
Rachel blushed furiously as Bentley shot that mega-watt, playboy smile at her through the mirror in the salon. She’d just finished giving him a haircut. Her first time giving anyone a haircut and Bentley had been brave enough to trust her with the clippers even after the last debacle.
As it turned out, he was right. He could totally pull off any hairstyle. He’d been growing it long the past few months, always winking and smiling when Skylar asked about it and telling her he was waiting for his favorite stylist to cut it. Finally, Rachel had given in to his request and taken matters into her own hand, cutting his hair and earning a friend and a client in the process.
It helped that he was family.
“Stop it, you’re making her blush again.” Skylar teased.
“That’s kind of my thing.” Bentley blew the blonde a kiss in the mirror as he fluffed the front of his new haircut, “All seriousness though? You did a damn good job, Rach. I knew you would.”
“Thank you for trusting me.” She tried not to duck her chin.
“It’s just hair.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I know what you mean.” He winked.
“Bentley!” A loud, gruff voice yelled from the doorway, making them all jump.
“Jesus Christ!” Bentley yelled right back, grabbing his chest and feigning terror, “Give a man a heart attack.”
“Keep flirting with my girlfriend and I’ll give you a black eye too.” Remy smirked as he strolled into the salon, “Breaks over. Get your ass back to the studio. Colt needs you.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m going.” Bentley sighed, “Thanks again Rach.”
“You’re welcome.”
Bentley muttered something about Colt being the worst boss ever as he stalked out of the salon. He’d been picking up shifts next door at Fine Lines for weeks and complained about his newbossevery chance he had. But despite what Colt said about his cousin being a royal, pain-in-the-ass who would probably quit as soon as he realized he actually had to work and not goof around all day, Bentley kept going back.
Remy said he was really talented too. Far more talented than Remy was. Bentley actually had a shot at becoming an artist whereas Remy mostly ran errands, ordered supplies and balanced the books for Colt. He liked the office work, the numbers and figures, making it all add up, almost as much as he liked spending the day with his brother.
“Keep muttering and I’ll tell Colt to make you do the boring as hell bank and post office runs.” He teased his cousin as Bentley flipped him off and left.
Rachel couldn’t help but smile as her boyfriend headed towards her. He was so sexy. She’d always thought so. But in the past few months, as their lives had settled in and they’d found a natural rhythm to their days, he’d begun to smile more and the sight of it still managed to make her heart race. She thought it probably always would.
Things had been tense in the weeks after Remy killed Craig. There was no denying it. Those had been dark days for her, despite what she’d told him about being okay with what he’d done. Even knowing that he’d had to shoot Craig to save her life, she’d been in a bad place.
She’d felt sad. She’d felt guilty. She’d felt angry. She’d cried and then screamed and then cried some more.
When the cops had come by to talk to her, she’d done her best to sound surprised to learn her trailer was a pile of smoldering ash. When they’d asked her about the last time she saw her brother, she’d told them she couldn’t remember. She wasn’t his keeper. Sheriff Trebly had frowned at her bruises and told her that if she heard from her brother to call. His son, Lawson, the deputy, had all but accused Remy of hurting her, even going so far as to pull her aside and tell her if she needed help that he could get her away from him. She’d told him to mind his own damn business and she supposed Remy had been right. Since they thought he did it, they hadn’t gone looking for Craig. She hadn’t heard from any of the law enforcement officers since.
She’d dug through the rubble of her trailer but hadn’t found anything salvageable. It had all been gone, just like Remy said, but she’d been surprisingly okay with that considering Ford had saved her that bag of stuff. A few pictures and books, her diaries and some jewelry that she’d managed to hide from Craig to keep him from pawning. She would be eternally grateful to Ford for that bag but she also would have been okay with losing everything. She’d said she wanted to start over, with a clean slate, and she’d meant it.
Had it been easy replacing her entire wardrobe? No. But she’d had Skylar and Jemma to help with that. And, amazingly enough, Skylar’s other best friend, Billie, was about the same size as her so she’d given her a ton of second-hand stuff she never would have bought for herself. The outgoing bartender preferred her clothes short, tight and black so Rachel’s shy, awkward, hiding behind her oversized shirts persona had died right along with her wardrobe.
These days, she was much more comfortable with herself. Whether that was thanks to her new clothes, to the fact that she was finally happy and that Remy told her daily how sexy and beautiful she was, or just the knowledge that her brother wasn’t lurking over her shoulder, waiting to hurt her or insult her, she didn’t know.
It was probably a little bit of all of those things.
Mostly though, she knew it was because of Remy. He made her happy. He made her feel sexy. He made her feel safe. She’d never known that she could be so content with her life and it showed in everything she did these days.
“Hey baby.” Remy smirked as he pulled her into his arms.
Rachel smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck, “Hey yourself.”
