“We’re both dating again.”

“I didn’t know,” Rachel murmured, squirting thick white lotion into her hands and kneading it through Nina’s hair. It was shorter than her daughter’s, only shoulder-length, more appropriate for a woman her age, but still long and thick. She required a lot of the conditioner.

“Well, we didn’t tell anyone until it was final.” Nina cleared her throat and Rachel saw her looking at her left hand as if there was still a ring there to admire. She remembered the thing-three carats, platinum, so shiny it could have blinded any magpie coming to steal it.

“You have a daughter, don’t you?” Rachel gathered Nina’s hair up with clips and covered it with a plastic cap.

“Emma?” Nina smiled, relaxing a little. “She’s with her father this weekend.” Well that explained it. Rachel listened to Nina talk about her date-an Illinois congressman. That was a step up from a corporate lawyer, wasn’t it? Nina’s eyes seemed to ask. Rachel didn’t say anything, she just led her client over to the dryer and handed her a stack of magazines.

“Okay, I’ll be back in ten minutes. You stay here and get conditioned.” Rachel smiled and turned the blower on, raising her voice so Nina could hear her. “Your hair will look ten years younger when the heat treatment’s done.”

“Ten years?” Nina touched the plastic cap tentatively. “Can we do twenty? Then Emma and I could be twins.”

Rachel laughed, setting a timer for ten minutes and putting it on the counter behind Nina. “If I could do twenty, I’d be a magician, not a hairdresser.”

“I’m sentimental about hair, I admit.” Nina flipped through the magazines, choosing a People with a smiling Brad and Angelina on the cover. “I haven’t let Emma cut her hair since she was ten.”

“It must be very long.” Rachel swallowed, remembering that a decidedly less hirsute Emma and her father were waiting for her to return.