“You have great hair,” Maxine said. “What are we doing with it?”
“I want the ends trimmed, and then my hair washed and styled,” Katie said.
“We can do that,” Maxine said. “Let’s get you to the shampoo station.”
And for the next hour, Katie was in the hands of a master.
She got her hair washed and then taken back to the styling chair where Maxine began massaging her head and neck. When she finally stopped and began combing her out, Katie was completely relaxed.
“How much off the ends?” Maxine asked.
“No more than an inch,” Katie said.
Maxine nodded, but her eyes were narrowing. “You know, you’d look real good with some highlights.”
“I’m a bit of a traditionalist,” Katie said. “Just a trim.”
Maxine nodded again, then began sectioning off Katie’s hair, and the trim began.
An hour after Katie had walked in, she left with her hair in a soft, swingy style.
And although she’d only gone in for a haircut, she was leaving the beginnings of her reputation behind her. The new teacher was pretty and nice, and she laughed at people’s jokes and left Maxine a nice tip.
In a small town like Borden’s Gap, that was gold.
Chapter Thirteen
Katie got in the car and then headed back up Main. In Albuquerque, there would have been countless places in which to shop for gifts. In Borden’s Gap, there was one.
Arnold’s Antiques and Gifts. Heavy on the antiques. Easy on the gifts.
Katie wasn’t letting the displays in the window deter her joy in exploring her new surroundings. She was hopeful that the majority of her shopping experiences while living in Borden’s Gap did not include long drives to Jackson or online at Amazon.com.
Still feeling fresh and sporty from her trip to the hair salon, she walked into Arnold’s with a bounce in her step and was immediately overwhelmed in the very best way.
The interior was laid out in vignettes. The gift-shop portion of Arnold’s was all up front. But the deeper a shopper moved into the store, the more entrenched they became in antiques. One whole display counter held antique jewelry. Another area was devoted to paintings and old frames and all manner of decor. And in the very back, the apparent quality of antique furniture was on a level with what Katie had been accustomed to seeing in Chicago.
She was still taking it all in when a tiny little man with a shock of snow-white hair approached.
“Morning, miss. Are you looking for something in particular, or do you just want to feast your eyes?”
Katie looked down at the smile on his face and was enchanted, both by the way he’d phrased his question and his elfin appearance.
“I’m looking for a gift for two little girls, but at the moment, I am somewhat spellbound by the surrounding magic.”
The old man clapped his hands together. “You’re feeling the ages,” he said. “Only a true sensitive would recognize the power. I’m Billy Arnold, the owner, but I’ve been called Bitty all my life…for obvious reasons.”
Katie held out her hand. “I’m Katie McGrath, a new resident to Borden’s Gap. I’m pleased to meet you, and if you don’t mind, I’ll call you Billy. Your mama must have loved the name or she wouldn’t have given it to you.”
In that moment, and for only the second time in his life, Billy Arnold fell a little bit in love.
“I would be honored, Miss McGrath.”
She held up a finger, unaware she’d shifted into teacher mode. “Katie…please, and I love antiques, so I’d like to look around a bit. Out of curiosity, how did you get started in collecting?”
Billy smiled. “Oh, that’s easy. As I was losing three generations of my family, I kept inheriting their treasures. At first, I couldn’t bear to part with any of it because it reminded me of them, but when I became the last of our Arnold lineage, I finally realized their things were not keeping me company. Just crowding me out of my own home.”
“You have a most unique, descriptive voice. You should have been a writer,” Katie said.
Billy beamed. “Why, thank you. How about you? What sparked your interest in antiques? Do you have some from your family as well?”
Katie shook her head. “I don’t have family. I was abandoned as a baby and never adopted. The only past I have is my own. But I grew up in Chicago and saw some amazing antiques there. I guess that’s where my love of grand design, dark wood, and art carved within the surfaces began.”
Billy Arnold took a deep breath. She’d stolen his heart with a smile and a laugh, and now she was breaking it. He could not fathom a life without family.
“Well now…I’ve taken up far too much of your time. Wander to your heart’s content, and if you have a question, just call out. The sound carries in here, and my hearing is still quite good. In fact, I’ve accidentally overheard the most amazing bits of gossip from some of my customers, so if you get a phone call, you have been warned.”
Katie burst out laughing, then gave him a thumbs-up as she began winding her way through the aisles, unaware Billy Arnold was doing a little shopping of his own.
She spent the better part of an hour prowling, then searching through the gift shop before she found two perfect little gifts for two perfect little girls and carried them to the register to pay.
“I’ll take these,” Katie said, as she laid down two little-girls’ headbands—one red, one blue—both covered with rhinestones.
“Good choices,” Billy said, and rang them up, then bagged them separately. “Little ones do like to open their own gifts, right?”
“Yes, they do, Billy, and thank you for letting me wander about in here. It was such a pleasure to meet you.”
“The pleasure was mine,” he said, and then took an object from beneath the counter and set it before her. “I would be honored if you would accept this little gift from me to you. The figurine sitting at her dresser reminded me a bit of you. While it is within a globe, it is not a snow globe. It is a music box. If you wind it up, it plays ‘Clair de Lune,’ which is one of my favorite music-box tunes. I don’t know who it belonged to, and you don’t know who you belonged to, and it’s quite charming, as are you. I wanted you to have your own antique. I have cleared it and blessed it, so there are no lingering entities attached…but who knows? It may be the trigger to an antiques addiction of your own.”
Katie’s eyes welled. Tears rolled before she could stop them, and then she couldn’t get her emotions under control.
“I don’t know… Nobody ever… Oh my God…thank you. You have no idea how treasured this will be.”