Love Gently Falling (14 page)

Zinnia shrugged, sauntering toward the door as if she was finished with her confrontational visit.

“Or did you say those things to Marley simply because you knew she would tell me, and you knew that would make me back off…kind of like protecting your property?” Rita got in front of Zinnia, making it to the door first.

“That's perfectly ridiculous.” Zinnia glared at her.

“What was your real reason for coming down here, Zinnia?” Rita kept her hand on the door, blocking Zinnia from exiting. “Did you think you could intimidate me? About this salon? About my brother? About future customers and employees? About Johnny? Because that's what it feels like to me.” She sighed. “I'm happy to let bygones be bygones and to forgive and forget, but I don't think that's what you really had in mind. Did you?”

With narrowed eyes, Zinnia shook her finger in front of Rita's face. “You should talk. Despite what you say, I know you're doing all this to get back at me. You never liked me. You always thought you were better than me just because your mom owned this shop. Admit it!”

“That's ridiculous. I've never—”

“You came back here thinking you could ruin my life, Rita. But you'll see that it's not that easy—”

“If anyone's going to ruin your life, Zinnia, it will probably be you.” Rita opened the door. “Thanks for stopping in.” As Rita locked the door, she couldn't help but feel she'd just been hijacked onto an emotional roller-coaster ride. But she also felt like she'd finally stumbled onto the truth. Johnny had been partly right about Zinnia being jealous of Rita way back then. But, perhaps more importantly, Johnny was no more involved with Zinnia than he was with Marley or her mother or even Rita herself, for that matter. Johnny was simply being Johnny—a good guy and a loyal friend. He had too much sense to get pulled in by someone like Zinnia. And, as she turned off the salon lights, Rita actually felt a small wave of pity for Zinnia. Maybe she'd changed a little since those old days, but she still had a ways to go.

Rita insisted on helping
with her mother's hair and makeup on Friday morning. “I know you've been practicing doing it yourself,” Rita said as she ran the smoothing iron over the last strand of her mom's platinum hair, “but it's okay to be pampered sometimes. You deserve it.”

Donna muttered a fairly intelligible thank you. “Your speech is really improving,” Rita told her. “But I hope you won't feel the need to converse with everyone today. I'm sure it'll be overwhelming. Just try to enjoy. We all understand that you've been through a lot these past three weeks. The girls are just excited to see you.” She straightened the collar of Donna's pale pink blouse. “You look so pretty, Mom. No one would guess that you'd recently suffered a stroke.”

Donna pointed to her limp right hand and sadly shook her head. “This…arm. Not good.”

Rita knew her mom was uneasy about being in public again. And she just wanted her to relax and feel at ease. “People only notice your arm if you point it out.” Rita picked up the fluffy blush brush, giving her mom's cheeks one last swoosh of color. “Even your face is pretty much back to normal. Have you noticed how much it's improved? Unless you smile really big, it's hard to see any paralysis.”

“It's better.” Donna gave her a small smile. “See…”

As Ricky drove them to the mall, Rita tried to play down the improvements they'd done at the salon. “As you know our budget was pretty limited,” she told her mother. “But we did our best. I just hope you like it.” As Ricky drove through the mall parking lot, Rita warned her mom that they were going to blindfold her. “I don't want you to see it until you're all the way in there.”

At the back door, Rita pulled out a silk scarf. “Close your eyes, Mom.” Donna giggled as Rita loosely tied the scarf around her head. “No peeking.”

“I haven't seen it either,” Ricky admitted as the three of them went inside. “Not since I finished painting, anyway.”

“We're just going through the back room now,” Rita explained. “And here we are in the salon.” She grinned at Charlene and Jillian and Yolanda. “The gang's all here.” After Charlene nodded that her camera was ready, Rita untied the scarf and watched as her mother's face lit up.

“Oh—my—oh—my!” Donna started to cry. But Rita knew they were happy tears. Donna continued to exclaim “oh my!” as she went around the salon, touching the chairs and examining everything. She was more than just pleased, she was ecstatic. And Rita could not have been happier.

“You really like it?” Rita finally said.

“Love…it.” Donna tightly hugged Rita with her one good arm. “Thank you, Rita.”

“I have something else to show you. In fact, I want you all to see this.” Rita led them up to the reception desk, where she opened the appointment book. “Eventually you will be able to enter appointment bookings just on the computer,” she explained. “But for now we can do both.” She opened the book and showed them how many appointments had been booked for the next several weeks. She pointed to Saturday. “As you can see we have a busy day tomorrow. Lots of new customers, too. So everyone will get a full eight hours.”

Donna pointed to the column where Rita had inserted her own name. “You are working, too?”

Rita grinned. “That's right. We were so busy that I decided to take appointments, too. Hair and Now is getting back on its feet, starting tomorrow.”

Donna's eyes filled with tears again. “Oh…my…” She shook her head in wonder. “This is good. So…good.”

As Rita closed the book, she noticed a delivery man at the door. Although the salon wasn't officially open, she unlocked the door and was pleasantly surprised to see that he had an enormous bouquet of bright red tulips.

“Whooo?” Donna asked Rita, sounding a bit like an owl.

Rita peeked at the card. “Congratulations to Hair and Now on your grand reopening, from Jolly Janitors,” she read.

Donna slowly nodded. “J-John.”

As Rita placed the pretty arrangement on the reception desk, she told herself that this gift was simply from a business to a business—but she wished it was something more. Although she knew she didn't deserve it.

Everyone snacked and visited for more than an hour, and Donna was holding up pretty well, making some really good attempts at conversation. But as it got closer to the time for the sneak peek party to begin, Rita grew concerned. “I invited all of your old clientele, Mom. And I'm sure they'd love to see you, but I don't want to wear you out.”

“I don't know…” Already Donna had declared she wouldn't stay for the rest of the festivities, but she'd been having such a good time that Rita wanted to make sure.

“We'd love to have you stay, Mom, but if you're tired, we understand.”

Donna looked slightly torn, but finally turned to Ricky. “Home…” she told him. “We'll go home…that's good.”

Everyone hugged and said goodbye and Rita reminded Donna that it wouldn't be long before she'd be spending whole days here again. “You just need to get stronger, Mom.” She kissed her cheek. “Keep working at your exercises.”

Donna linked her arm in Ricky's. “Yeah. I will. Ricky will help.”

The rest of the afternoon was spent meeting and greeting old customers, many who hadn't been into the salon for years, giving them personalized tours, making them feel welcome, replacing appetizers and refilling glasses, and booking yet more appointments. By the time the last of the guests left at around six, Rita felt socially exhausted, but happy.

She took her time cleaning up the remains of the party and putting the salon back into working order. It wasn't until she was taking a trash bag out to the Dumpster that she realized she was stranded. Because Ricky had driven them here and then taken Donna home, she was without wheels. Not only that, but she knew that Ricky was taking Melinda out tonight. She considered calling her dad to pick her up, but knew he'd be home by now, probably with his feet up.

As she went back inside, she called Marley, explaining her situation.

“No problem,” Marley assured here, “but I have to stay here until closing. I'm by myself, too, or I'd offer to run you home.”

“That's okay. I'll just stick around until nine.” Rita peered out the front entrance as she unplugged the Valentine lights.

“That's two hours,” Marley pointed out. “What'll you do?”

Rita looked out at the ice rink, where, to her surprise, several people were already skating. “I think I just found something to occupy me.” She giggled. “I will be putting myself On Ice.”

“What?”

“Skating. I'm going ice skating!”

Marley laughed.

“So, I'll see you around nine.” Rita eagerly grabbed her coat.

“Be careful,” Marley said. “And don't break anything.”

It wasn't until Rita reached the On Ice entrance that she noticed the “closed” sign. Standing by the gate, she felt like the hungry kid with her nose pressed against the candy-shop window. “Are you really closed?” she asked a gray-haired man who was walking through the darkened lobby area. “I saw skaters out there and thought…”

“We're not officially open,” he explained.

“Oh…sorry to bother you.”

“It's just our On Ice employees and some mall employees, sort of testing it out.”

So she explained about Hair and Now's reopening. “And it's so fun to coincide with On Ice. I love that the ice rink is back. I used to skate here all the time as a kid.”

“You a pretty good skater?” He grinned as he unlocked the gate.

“I was okay.” She felt a surge of hope.

“Come on.” He jerked his thumb toward the rows of skates behind him. “What size you need?”

“Elevens.” She laughed. “Yeah, I know.
Bigfoot.
”

He smiled as he set the skates in front of her. “I'd never call such a beautiful young woman Bigfoot. Have fun, kid.”

She did feel like a kid as she sat down to lace up her skates. She extracted her leather gloves and the silk scarf she'd used to blindfold her mom, before she deposited her handbag and boots in a locker. Tying the scarf around her chin, she realized her corduroy skirt and tights weren't the best outfit for skating, but if she moved fast enough, she'd probably stay warm.

At first she felt a little unsteady on the slippery ice, but before long she was moving along fairly gracefully. She could feel the wide smile on her face as she swayed from side to side, gliding happily around the gleaming ice. This was wonderful, amazing—the next best thing to flying. The other skaters all seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as she was. It was like a small private party. To her delight, she still knew how to skate backward, and after awhile, she even attempted a spin and was relieved to remain upright. Skating, it seemed, was like riding a bike…one didn't forget.

After about an hour of vigorous skating, she felt herself wearing out. She slowed down, deciding it was a good time to take a break. She was about to exit the rink when she heard someone coming from behind—and moving fast. Unsure of which side the skater would pass on and worried they might collide, she glanced over her shoulder and was shocked to see it was Johnny! In that same instant, her skates slipped and she felt herself falling backward—straight into Johnny's path. It was going to be ugly.

Hoping she wasn't about to wipe out Johnny, she braced herself for pain. But instead of slamming onto the rock-hard ice, she felt a strong arm swoop around her, and, as Johnny pulled her snugly next to him, she remained on her skates.

“Sorry to startle you like that.” With his arm still wrapped around her waist, he guided her to the side rail, where she stared at him in wonder.

“I can't believe you actually kept me from falling.” She laughed nervously. “I thought I was a goner for sure—and probably taking you down with me.”

He smiled. “I thought you made a rather graceful recovery.”

“Only because you saved my bacon.” She made a relieved sigh. “Thanks.”

“I only saved you after I spooked you. Stupid move on my part.” He reached over to push a strand of hair away from her face. “Sorry.”

“I was getting tired,” she admitted. “I'd been going at it pretty good for an hour. I was probably an accident just waiting to happen.”

“Can I join you in a break?” he asked with hopeful eyes.

“Sure.” She nodded eagerly.

“I'm guessing you haven't had dinner yet.” He rested his hand on her back as they exited the rink.

“As a matter of fact, I haven't,” she confessed. “Other than a few appetizers, I haven't had lunch, either.”

“It's late enough, we might be able to get a table at Noah's Ark.”

Before long, they had turned in their skates and were on their way up the escalator. “How did you get the old guy to let you in?” she asked Johnny.

“On Ice is one of my accounts. I'd been invited.”

As they strolled down the mall, he asked about her day and she told him all about her mom's wonderful reaction as well as the sneak peek party. “And we've got a full day of appointments booked for tomorrow. And lots more for the rest of the month.”

They were soon seated at a table in Noah's Ark. Once again, there were candles and tablecloths, and it didn't quite seem like the same café. But Rita was so happy to be here with Johnny that she wanted to pinch herself.

“What a happy coincidence,” she declared, “meeting you like that at the ice rink. Especially since it wasn't officially opened.”

“I have to confess that it wasn't completely serendipitous. I knew you were down there,” he said. “I spoke to Marley a little while ago.”

“Oh…?”

“So bumping into you wasn't a true coincidence.” He chuckled. “Well, not that I meant to
bump
into you. Not like that anyway.”

“Well, I was hoping I'd get to talk to you before I went back to California,” she admitted after their orders were taken.

“When do you leave?”

“My flight's Monday morning—early. And tomorrow I'll be doing hair all day. And then Sunday's the big grand reopening celebration. So I'm glad I ran into you tonight.”

He smiled. “Me, too.”

As much as Rita longed to keep their conversation light and bright and upbeat, she was distracted by something. Finally, she just blurted it out. “Zinnia paid me an unexpected visit.”

His brows lifted. “She did?”

“Yes…and she was rather forthcoming…” Rita arranged her words carefully. “I mean, about her relationship…with you.”

“Forthcoming? About me? What do you mean?”

“Well, she's obviously very into you, Johnny.” She made a half smile. “Can't blame her for that. But I was a little disturbed when she informed me that you'd repeated something I'd said to you the other night. Something I thought I'd said in confidence.”