A Love of Her Own Read Free

lovely, but truthfully, I’m afraid to sit down. My butt might leave an indentation in the sofa.”
    They giggled like schoolchildren, then Vanessa caught her breath. “Hey I heard you caught a mugger this afternoon, a little kid, of all things. Are you all right?”
    “ I’m fine. It wasn’t my purse he grabbed; it was some older woman who hightailed it out of there the minute she got her bag back, leaving me stuck with Billy the Kid.” Ava shook her head at the memory of the woman’s quick exit from the scene. “Ness, I couldn’t believe it. He was all of nine years old at the most.”
    “ What’d you do?”
    “ I let him go. It wasn’t like I could press any charges or anything, since it wasn’t my purse he grabbed.”
    Vanessa shook her head. “Damn punks are ruining the neighborhood. You know, my shop could do just as well as the ones by the mall or in Nile Beach if the police would be a more visible presence on Main Street.” Nile Beach, Palmdale’s much smaller neighbor to the east where Ava had grown up, was a historically African-American town that served as a popular vacation site, hosting numerous large reunions and other events each year and serving as the center for spring break gatherings of black students along the East Coast.
    “ There are cops all over Main Street, Ness.”
    “ Yeah, just passing through in their patrol cars or speeding with their sirens on if they’re in a hurry to go get lunch. Big deal. What we need is good, old-fashioned foot patrol. Bring back the beat cop. A few whacks with a nightstick might make these punks think twice before they try to rip someone off.”
    Ava squeezed her friend ’s arm. “I hope so, Ness. I’ve got just as much as stake in it as you do.” It was true that downtown Palmdale, a historic neighborhood in the midst of a restoration, still had its problems with crime, but at least it had given Ava, Vanessa, and other entrepreneurs opportunities to open for business with loans from lenders eager to invest in the area. Ava knew she didn’t stand a chance of securing funds to open a shop in the mall, which was located in the newer side of town, not far from Catherine’s home, and where the relative security of an upper middle-class area was reflected in the store rents. “But you’ve already got a reputation as the best hairstylist in town, Ness. I wouldn’t worry too much.”
    Vanessa shrugged wordlessly. Both women ’s heads turned at the sound of approaching voices. Catherine appeared from the side hall with a group of five or six, whom she had apparently just given a tour. One of them was Hilton.
    “ Lord have mercy, who is that?” Vanessa hissed.
    “ A friend of Catherine’s.”
    “ Wow, is he ever good-looking. If I wasn’t married…”
    Ava ’s eyes twinkled. “I understand he’s available for a price.”
    “ He’s…say what?”
    She chuckled at her friend ’s obvious confusion. “He apparently rents himself out to do heavy work and other things couch potato husbands don’t like to do. He also builds furniture.”
    “ Is he here alone?”
    “ Looks like it.”
    Vanessa nudged Ava ’s ribs, the force of the jab making the gesture as subtle as an unmarked police car. “Well, you ought to get him to build you something, honey!”
    Ava winced from the sharp pain, which fortunately was only fleeting. Vanessa was actually a little on the plump side, but her elbows were all bone. “Actually, I already talked to him about it,” she said when the moment passed. “But it’ll be strictly business. Catherine has already told me in rather frank terms that it’s hands off.”
    Vanessa pressed her chin to her chest and flashed Ava a dubious look. “Catherine! Well, that’s surprising. He doesn’t look like her type. No,” she added, “let me amend that. With that face and build he’s anybody’s type. But he’s a blue-collar man. Since when does Catherine go for that?”
    Ava shrugged. “Maybe she’s realized that all