“Truly lovely, Em.” Jake stood, pulling out his wallet. “What do we owe you, Rapunzel?”

Rachel raised an eyebrow at the platinum Visa in his hand. “Come on up front.

You can pay there.”

This was the dangerous part. Nina was still under the dryers in the back, facing the front of the salon, and she could probably see the lobby from where she was sitting.

If Rachel didn’t want a big scene, she was going to have to get them out of there-fast.

She wrote the ticket up quickly and gave him the total.

Jake gave a low whistle, handing over his Visa. “And that was just a haircut. No wonder Nina spent a mint here every month.”

“The price of beauty can be very high.” Rachel smiled and ran his card, glancing over her shoulder. Nina was still reading, that was good. But ten minutes was almost up and the timer she’d set would be going off. She didn’t want the woman to come hunt her down, that was for sure.

“Well it must be some sort of sign, both of us being Red Wings fans in Blackhawks country.” Jake leaned on the counter as Rachel waited for the authorization. Emma wandered through the lobby, picking up a bottle of styling product and reading the back.

“A sign of what?” She glanced over her shoulder again, trying not to be too obvious. This time Nina saw her. Damnit. She moved a little left, hoping to block her view of Jake. “The apocalypse?”

“Could be.” He laughed. “Hey, I have an extra ticket to game two…if you’re interested.”

Rachel handed his card back as the authorization came through on the machine.

“How much?”

“Free. You’d just have to put up with my company the whole time, if you could stand it.” He took his card back, slow, his fingers brushing hers and Rachel looked up in surprise. His eyes were smiling but he had a nervous sort of look, an expression she didn’t expect to see on his confident face.