Page 16 of When Love Takes Root

For a second, I almost hung up. Then the lights flickered again. That made the decision for me.

“Hi, Mr. Brooks. This is Celeste Coleman. Leilani gave me your number. I know Onyx already explained what’s happening, but I wanted to update you.”

I paused, glancing toward the back row where Starr was unplugging dryers and moving cords away from the wall.

“I shut down the back stations and turned off the dryers on that side. The lights flickered again, and there’s still a smell near the rear wall. It’s not strong, but it’s there.”

The salon moved around me in pieces. Faint music from the speaker near the register. Women murmuring. Starr guiding Ms. Lorraine toward a front dryer. Leilani standing close enough that I could feel her support without her touching me.

I drew in a breath, careful and measured.

I continued, “I don’t want to make this bigger than it is. I just don’t want anybody getting hurt. Leilani said you were coming, so I’ll be here. Thank you. And again, I’m sorry for bothering you.”

I ended the call gently, set the phone down, and released a slow breath.

Leilani smiled gently. “You said sorry twice.”

“I was being polite.”

“You were apologizing for needing help.”

I picked up a pen from the desk and set it back down because my hands needed something to do. “Those can both be true.”

“They can. But only one of them is trying to choke you.”

Before I could answer, Chantel had everybody laughing again, adding dramatic hand motions to her story while Ms. Lorraine was hollering about tax brackets.

The sound helped. So did the hum of the front dryers.

Leilani squeezed my arm. “Onyx’s on his way too.”

I nodded. Of course he was.

Onyx had been Big J’s brother in every way that mattered. He was godfather to my babies. If something threatened this shop or my children, Onyx was going to move like the promise he made to Big J still had breath in it.

I swallowed hard.

“My grace is sufficient for thee,” I whispered.

2 Corinthians 12:9.

The verse didn’t fix the breaker. It didn’t erase my grief, but it steadied me. Sometimes, steadied was the miracle.

I smiled at my client in the mirror, picked my comb back up, and went to work while we waited for help to walk through the door.

“Man, if you don’t stop eating and hand me that flashlight, I’m finna leave you down there!” I yelled from the attic.

“You threaten me every week,” Juice replied from beneath the opening, standing there with half a sausage biscuit in his hand.

“And one day, I’ma mean it

“You ain’t meant it yet,” Juice said around another bite.

I looked down through the attic opening and found my cousin grinning up at me as if I wasn’t stretched across a ceiling beam in a house older than both of us. “You know what your problem is?”

“I got several,” Juice said. “Be specific.”

“You’re always comfortable when somebody else is in a dangerous position