“The hair would all have to be mine to be a selfless act, wouldn’t it? And for that to be true, I’d have to grow my hair out and shave it a few dozen times to get this amount.” She shook her head. “I don’t know where you come up with half the things that come out of your mouth.”
“I can’t take the credit for this one. That was all Jo from Little Women.”
“You know Little Women?”
I shrugged. “I have a sister.”
She looked over her shoulder at the field, and my eyes followed her gaze. Eric had the team in a circle around him. Introductions had already started. I really should head over there.
A tug on the pads in my hands brought my focus back to Nicole.
“Thanks for your help, but I need to get these to Sierra.”
I tightened my grip. “Not so fast. I still need to hear about why you have bags of human hair in your trunk. Very suspicious, Miss Applegate, and as a good citizen, it’s my duty to report suspicious behavior.”
Her full lips turned down. “Let go, Drew.”
I met her glare with an impish one of my own. “Tell me about the hair, Nicole.”
She half-growled, half-sighed as she folded her arms over her chest. “Fine. I gather all the swept up clippings at the studio where I work and store them until they’re needed.”
“When are the offcuts of human hair, collected from hair stylists, ever needed?”
“When disaster strikes oil rigs and spills thousands of gallons of crude oil into the water, killing marine life and polluting habitats.”
She was saving hair…to clean up oil spills… “Hair?” My voice sounded incredulous to my own ears.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, hair. Human hair is hydrophobic and biosorbent, which means it both repels water and collects heavy metals and other contaminants, like oil. It’s natural, reusable, and the cutoffs only go to landfill anyway.”
My fingers loosened around the football pads. “Wow. I never would have thought of that.”
She reached forward and snatched Sierra’s equipment from my limp grip. “Yeah, well, I didn’t think of it either. Just read about someone else’s research.”
“And then put the idea into action. Wait, is the fact the hypothesis didn’t originate with you why you didn’t tell your mom about your hair-hoarding-to-save-the-oceans practice?”
This time her laugh was brittle. “Shirley would not see sweeping up and storing hair clippings as anything noteworthy, trust me.”
“So you’re not a tree hugger on steroids for your mom’s approval, and you obviously don’t mind getting in her craw if the amount of times you emphasized the word mama says anything.”
A ghost of a smile passed over Nicole’s lips.
“So tell me, what is the drive behind your Captain Planet superhero persona?”
She shut the trunk and locked her car with the press of a button on her key fob. Her gaze rose to mine and bore in. Studying me as if I confused her.
“No one has asked me that in a long time,” she said in a quiet voice. “They just assume I’m a liberal fanatic. So much granola going to my brain that I care more about ecology than economy.”
“But that’s not the case?”
A car whizzed past, the displaced air ruffling Nicole’s hair. A strand fell from the confines of her updo and brushed her cheek.
“I’m a Christian.”
Three words. A declaration. As if those three words said everything.
Unfortunately, that cleared everything up about as well as an Alka-Seltzer tablet dissolving in water. “I know Christians who think climate change is all a hoax or a conspiracy theory, so you’re going to have to give me more than that.”
Nicole checked for traffic before stepping out to cross the street. I followed at her side.
“In Genesis, God gave man dominion over the Earth. Some people take that to mean Earth’s natural resources are ours to exploit.”
“But you don’t.” I had to admit, I’d never really considered the wording of the verse before.
“No. God spent six days creating beautiful, imaginative things. From an atmosphere that gives us dazzling sunsets that challenge artists, to plants that can photosynthesize and use the sun He set in the sky to produce their own food. From the smallest insect to the greatest mammal, He designed every cell to work in unison, knowing the beginning and the end and hardwiring adaptations into His models. And then He made man in His own image. And bestowed on him dominion over all His creation. That’s power, sure, but we should all be humbled by the responsibility on our shoulders. To not only care for but nurture everything He spoke, touched, and breathed life into. From the great oceans to the tiniest speck of algae. From the giant animals that roam the grasslands to the smallest arthropod in the jungles. Not to mention the one created being He formed with His own hand. Bent down and breathed life into sculpted lungs.” She looked away and retuned a wave from Sierra. “I’m just trying to do the part that God has asked me to do.”
Silence overtook me as I tried to process the depth of her conviction. I never would have guessed her motivation was driven by a sacred sense of Christian duty.
“And now it’s my turn to ask you a question.”
I raised my eyes to hers.
“What are you doing here?”
The same thing she’d asked me at the restaurant.
I pulled a whistle out of my pocket and twirled it in a wide circle beside my body. I caught it midair, brought it to my lips, and blew. Turning to the group of kids staring wide-eyed at me, I shouted, “Who’s ready to play some football?”
5
Nicole
Of all the youth football teams in all the towns in all the world, he had to coach Sierra’s.
I looked up at the sky, a fluffy white cloud lazily floating along the blue expanse over my head, and mouthed, Really? Evidence what it was, I believed God had a sense of humor. But I didn’t think He got His kicks at the expense of His children. Even so, I would’ve sworn I heard a deep, throaty chuckle that danced on the breeze my direction, swirling around me and leaving me almost dizzy. The sound was pleasant. Rich, like a salted-caramel, double-chocolate lava cake, the gooey center oozing around me until the last strands were carried away.
I blinked up at the sky. Tilted my ear. Another laugh, but the divine cadence hadn’t come from the heavens. The earthly origination pulled my face back toward the field. Drew lunged for one of the players on his team, and the boy jumped to the side and ran away.
Drew chuckled. “I almost had you that time, Weston.”
Internally, I sent another Really? skyward, collected all the warm gooeyness Drew’s laugh had elicited, and shoved it to a corner to solidify into a hard chocolate rock.
Maybe our being thrown together so often wasn’t so much a cosmic joke as it was a test, my patience and tolerance being thrust center stage with a spotlight beaming down, exposing every angle. I sighed, knowing I’d failed thus far. But there was just something about the man that got under my skin.
“You didn’t tell me Dr. Swoony number two was Sierra’s coach.”
I jumped and spun, my hand going to cover my pounding heart. Amanda’s pert lips sported a mischievous smile as she swayed back on her heels, her hands inserted into her back pockets.