Dragonfly

Chapter 5

Even if I wasn’t sure how to interpret my date with Julian, there would be pictures. And I wanted to look as hot as possible. Tamara Johnson had done my hair since we moved here, and being a local, she knew all the inside scoop. I sat in her home-salon Friday afternoon as she pulled out my curls with her big round brush and gave me the latest.

“Julian’s so cute. I love the way he dresses. And so talented.” She winked as if she knew something I didn’t, which she probably did. “You know that running sculpture he’s working on? With the motorcycle parts? His mom said it’s been commissioned for the NationalAthleticCenter in Darplane.”

“That would be huge!” I had to add that to my feature on him—bonus for both of us! “Hey, I didn’t know you did Ms. LaSalle’s hair.”

Julian got his easy, beachy manner straight from his mom. She reminded me of a French movie actress with olive skin, long dark-brown hair and dark eyes. She’d never married, not even Julian’s dad, and she was quiet and graceful. I’d talked to her a few times when I was tutoring Julian. She owned a small souvenir and original artwork store down by the water.

“Oh, yeah,” Tamara said. “Since we were kids. Before she was Alexandra LaSalle and just went by Lexy.”

A one-word name. Perfect. “I wonder why she’s always alone. She’s so beautiful.”

“Mm-hm,” Tamara nodded. “Keeps to herself. Very private.”

My mind drifted to the other loner I’d recently met. And my story idea. “Hey, what do you know about Bill Kyser? He has those twins who started at the school this year?”

“I know those folks don’t mingle with the natives.”

“Actually, Lucy invited me over to their house to study, and I sort of met him.”

Tamara grinned. “Well, I will tell you this, that’s a good-looking man.”

“But kinda mean, don’t you think?”

“I wouldn’t know, baby girl.”

“Do you know what happened to his wife?”

“Meg Kyser?” Tamara looked up at the ceiling. “It’s been a long time. The official report is that she was killed in a car accident. Period. But there was some gossip drugs or alcohol was involved. I think some people even suggested she might’ve committed suicide. But that kind of stuff isn’t said about the Kysers.”

“Why would she do that?” I asked. “I mean, they’re rich and she was a mom.”

Maybe I could understand wanting to get away from Bill Kyser if he were as mean behind the scenes as out front, but I couldn’t believe Jack and Lucy’s mom would kill herself. She had small children, after all.

 “Why does anybody do anything?” Tamara looked at me, and I knew what was coming. “Mental illness.”

Tamara’s big thing was mental illness ever since she’d started taking psychology courses at the community college. It was her explanation for everything these days.

“You think she was crazy.”

“We don’t like to use that term,” she said. “But she might’ve had a hormone imbalance after having the twins, or maybe she was having an affair and got busted.”

“Tamara!”

“Oh, I don’t know anything for sure.” Her dark eyes were twinkling as she laughed and finished ironing my last lock of hair. She spun me around so I was facing the mirror. “How’s that?”

“Can we keep it this way forever?” I ran my hand down the side of my smooth, freshly highlighted coif. Tamara was very good at her job, and she didn’t charge me full price since I was a minor, she said.