The Guardian Read Online Free PDF

think the stuff you hear in elevators is too loud and that rock music is Satan's form of mind control. They'd bleed from their ears if they went to the Clipper."
    "I'll tell Emma you said that."
    "She'd agree with me," he said. "Those were her words, not mine. So how'd it go? At the Clipper, I mean?"
    "Okay."
    Henry nodded, understanding completely. "Sorry to hear that."
    Mike shrugged as he zipped up the coveralls.
    "So what did you charge Julie for her car this time? Three pencils and a sandwich?"
    "No."
    "A shiny rock?"
    "Ha, ha."
    "Seriously. I'm just curious."
    "The usual."
    Henry whistled. "It's a good thing I run the books around here."
    Mike tossed him an impatient glance. "You know you would have given her a deal, too."
    "I know that."
    "So why are you bringing it up?"
    "Because I want to know how her date went."
    "How does what I charge her to fix her car have to do with her date?"
    Henry smiled. "I'm not sure, little brother. What do you think?"
    "I think you had too much coffee this morning and you're not thinking straight."
    Henry finished his cup. "You know, you're probably right. I'm sure you don't care at all about Julie's date."
    "Exactly."
    Henry reached for the coffeepot and poured another cup. "Then you probably don't care what Mabel thinks, either."
    Mike looked up. "Mabel?"
    Henry nonchalantly added cream and sugar. "Yeah, Mabel. She saw them out on Saturday night."
    "How do you know?"
    "Because I talked to her after church yesterday and she told me about it."
    "She did?"
    Henry turned his back to Mike and headed for the office, breaking into a grin. "But like you said, you don't care, so I'll just drop it."
    Henry knew from experience that Mike was still standing outside the door, frozen in place, long after he'd taken his seat at the desk.

Chapter Three.
    Though Andrea Radley had earned her cosmetology license a year ago and had been working for Mabel for nine months, she wasn't the best of employees. Not only did she have a tendency to take "personal days" without warning-usually without bothering to call-but on the days she did manage to arrive at work, she was rarely punctual. Nor was she particularly adept at styling and cutting hair, at least according to the directions her customers gave her. It didn't make a difference if her customers brought in a picture or explained slowly and clearly exactly what they wanted; Andrea cut everyone's hair exactly the same way. Not that it mattered. Andrea already had nearly the same number of clients that Julie did, though not surprisingly, every one of them was a man.Andrea was twenty-three, a long-legged blonde with a perpetual tan who looked as if she'd come straight from the beaches of California rather than the small mountain town of Boone, North Carolina, where she'd been raised. She did her best to dress the part, too-no matter how cold the weather, she wore miniskirts to the salon. In the summer, she augmented that with skimpy halter tops; in the winter, tall leather boots. She called every client "sugar," batted her long, mascara-enhanced lashes, and chewed gum incessantly. Julie and Mabel used to giggle at the dreamy looks men gave Andrea as they stared at her reflection in the mirror. Andrea, they thought, could have accidentally shaved a client's head and still kept him coming back for more.
    Despite her outward appearance, Andrea was a bit naive about men. Oh, she thought she knew what men wanted, and for the most part she was right about that. What Andrea didn't understand was how to keep a man afterward. It never occurred to her that her appearance might attract a certain type of man at the expense of another. Andrea had no trouble getting dates with tattooed men who drove Harleys, or drunks who hung out at the Clipper, or guys on parole, but she was never able to get a date with men who had steady jobs. At least that's what she told herself when she was in one of her self-pitying moods. In reality, Andrea did get asked out regularly by reliable