Page 30 of King's Barber
“So tell me about yourself, Quain. You have that salon next to my boy here, don’t you?” Errol leaned his elbows on his knees, staring at me curiously.
“I do. I’m a certified hairstylist.” I smiled politely at him.
“You’ve done my hair a few times,” Sophie said, tucking a loose strand behind her ear as she smiled shyly.
“I have, and you have beautiful hair.”
She chuckled and ducked her head, cheeks flushing deeply enough I could see them against the light of the fire. “Thank you.”
“Soph’s our pride and joy,” Luke said, his voice less slurred and more coherent. “She’s gonna be a doctor someday.”
She rolled her eyes. “I want to be a trauma surgeon,” she said to me. “Luke thinks that’s the most amazing thing ever. First I need to get into a good college. I want to go to Harvard.”
Luke snorted and waved his hand at her. “Harvard. You don’t need to go there. We got a good college here. Go to New Gothenburg State. Grant says they’ve got a great med school.”
She huffed and crossed her arms over her sweater. “We’ve talked about this, Luke. I want to go to Harvard. I have the grades for it.”
“It’s too far away,” he argued back, glaring. “And it’s for those rich kids, the pretentious ones. I don’t want that for you. And how are you going to pay for it? Not everyone gets grants and shit like that.”
She pouted, and I swore I saw tears glimmer in her eyes from the firelight. She sat on the other side of me, so I touched her arm in comfort, and when she turned to me, I smiled.
“If you get that acceptance letter from Harvard, then I think you should go there.”
“Easy for you to say,” Luke grumbled, poking me in the side. I glared at him. “You got the money. Harvard would cost a fortune, and we just don’t have the cash.”
“I’ll figure something out,” she whispered, her voice wavering on heartbroken. Luke must have heard it, too, because his shoulders slumped, and then he nodded.
“Yeah, we’ll figure something out.”
The interaction between them was intriguing. I’d seen Luke in many situations—with the Kings, at the shop, even with his uncle—but he truly was wrapped around his cousin’s little finger. He’d give her the world if he could, and that was a beautiful side of him to see. I smiled, my stomach growing warm again.
He frowned at me for a moment before his mouth curved, too.
“Okay, who wants to blow shit up?” Errol asked from his side of Sophie. KC sat on the end, and he leaned forward to look at me with wide eyes.
“Excuse me?” I said, surprised.
Errol stood, clapping his hands together with glee. “I got an old car just over there and some homemade bombs ready to use. All you gotta do is throw the little bastard andkaboom!” He said the last word unexpectedly loud, and KC nearly fell off his chair at the sudden decibel change.
“Are you serious?” KC asked, and I didn’t miss the excitement that washed over his face.
“No!” I snapped, standing. “No bombing anything.”
Luke laughed as he stood, too, touching my shoulder with a light caress I didn’t expect from him. “It’s fun. Releases the stress.”
“I don’t have any stress.” I didn’t push his hand away even though I should have. The touch was nice, and my insides melted. Ireallyneeded to get laid by someone who wasn’t Luke. My dry spell had gone on for too long, and now I was actually considering sleeping with my target.
All four of them—including my traitorous son—laughed like maniacs, and I glared at them.
“I don’t!”
Luke pulled me against his side and his warmth seeped through to me. His leather jacket was softer than I expected, and he smelled like rum and cinnamon. “Come on, it’s not going to hurt.”
I sighed. “Fine, but if anything happens to KC, I’m going to kill you.”
That was a promise rather than a simple threat, but Luke didn’t know that. He laughed again and guided me around the bonfire toward the old car his uncle had mentioned. Errol, Sophie, and KC were hot on our tail, and the kids were chatting to each other in excitement. When we reached the car, I noticed the bombs already in a container.
“You just leave bombs lying around?” I asked incredulously, pursing my lips to stop myself from giving them a lecture about bomb safety. I wasn’t the type of guy who used explosions to kill often—rarely ever—but even I knew what kind of safety measures to use for them. Errol and Luke clearly didn’t.
