He undid his jeans, slipping his hand into his Jockeys, though he didn’t need any preparation there.

Then the shower water stopped. She’d be toweling off now. He pictured her body. He decided to establish a rule that they had to walk around the trailer naked. They’d only get dressed when they went outside.

Inhaling deeply, he smelled the sweet scent of shampoo fragrance on the humid air.

“Edwin,” Kayleigh said, a playful tone. “I made myself ready for you. Come look.”

Grinning, he walked to the doorway and found her in front of the bathroom door, fully clothed.

Edwin Sharp blinked. Then the smile vanished and he cried out in horror.

Chapter 76

“NO, NO, NO! What’d you do?”

She’d found tiny blunt-end fingernail scissors in the vanity kit he’d bought. TSA approved for air travel and therefore safe.

But they would still cut. And that’s just what she’d done with them: she’d sheared off all her hair.

“No!” He stared in horror at the pile of glistening blond strands on the bathroom floor as if looking at the body of a loved one.

“Kayleigh!”

A two- to three-inch mop of ragged fringe covered her head. She hadn’t showered at all, she’d spent the ten minutes destroying her beautiful hair.

In a mad singsong, she mocked, “What’s the matter, Edwin? Don’t you like me now? Don’t you want to stalk me anymore? … It doesn’t matter, does it? You love me, right? It doesn’t matter what I look like.”

“No, no, of course not. It’s just …” He thought he’d be sick. He was thinking, how long does it take for hair to grow?

Ten years, four months …

She could wear a hat. No, he hated women in hats.

“I think it looks like you care a lot. In fact, you look real upset, Edwin.”

“Why, Kayleigh? Why did you do it?”

“To show you the truth. You love the girl on the album covers, on CMT, on the videos and the posters. In Entertainment Weekly. You don’t love me at all. Remember that day we were alone in the theater in Fresno? You said my voice and hair were the best things about me.”

Maybe he could find somebody to take her hair and make a wig until it grew back. How could he do that, though? They’d recognize him, they’d report him. No, no, no, no, no! What was he going to do?

Kayleigh taunted, “You want to fuck me now? Now that I look like a boy?”

He walked forward slowly, staring at the pile of hair.

“Here!” she screamed and grabbed a handful, flung it at him. It flowed to the floor and Edwin dropped to his knees, desperately grabbing at the strands.

“I knew it,” she muttered contemptuously, backing into the bathroom. “You don’t know me. You don’t have a clue who I am.”

And then he got angry too. And the answer to her question was, Yes, I do know. You’re the bitch I’m going to fuck in about sixty seconds.