“Lord, I so don’t miss SoCal,” the woman said. “Not even a little bit. The land of blonde extensions, orange tans, bleached teeth, fake boobs … you’re probably ecstatic to be out of there.”

Lily laughed softly. She hadn’t thought of it like that, not once. “Yes, actually,” she said, surprised. “I am.”

Her ten o’clock appointment was Lenny. She remembered him vaguely from high school, but she didn’t really know him. Still, this was Cedar Ridge, so even though they weren’t well acquainted, they could carry on a conversation like they were old friends.

Small-town living at its finest.

“Look at you,” he said with a smile. “You got all hot. Like I want to have you for dinner hot.”

She laughed. “Stop.”

“Come on,” he said, smiling. “I got hot, too, right?” His eyes were warm and frankly appraising, and she laughed again. Lenny had always been drop-dead handsome and he knew it.

“What have you been doing with yourself over the past ten years?” she asked, changing the subject.

He shrugged. “I run the equipment at the resort.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“It is. You ever go out with a big-equipment operator?”

In San Diego, Lily had been a master of dodging such questions. She never dated the clientele, period. It made for bad business. “I’m on a dating hiatus,” she said.

“Hmm,” he said, all relaxed and easygoing. “Maybe I could change your mind.”

“I don’t think so, sorry.”

He smiled. “No reason to say no so fast. Just think about it.”

She didn’t need to think about it, but she didn’t want to argue with him. “Sure,” she said. “So, do you like working at the resort?”

Something crossed his face but was gone too fast to identify. “Usually,” he said. “I’ll stick around, at least until the place goes under.”

She met his gaze in the mirror. “What?”

“Yeah,” he said and shrugged. “Hopefully not. It is the Kincaids, after all, so anything could happen. But don’t worry, they’re good at landing on their feet. Real good.”

When she’d finished his hair he tipped generously, joked that she was making him work harder for a first date than he was used to, and left.

At her noon appointment she was asked if she’d ever seen any of the Real Housewives of Orange County stars and if their hair was real.

At her one o’clock, Lily decided to head off the questions from the get-go and steered all conversation toward her client. For her trouble she learned from an ex of Aidan’s that he had been voted most likely to never settle down, which was the one thing he’d apparently gotten from his “no-good” father.

At her two o’clock she met Evan, their hair products rep, and learned he had a huge crush on Jonathan, who refused to date him.