Finding Betsy (Betsy Jones Book 2)

Chapter 11

Delilah made a poor job of hiding the damage. The large fluffy winter beanie she had stuffed onto her head did nothing to hide the jagged cut to the strands of her auburn hair. Betsy winced. Not her hair, she thought in dismay.

Stepping past the doorway, Betsy approached the young girl with slow steps. Delilah looked ready to bolt, her body trembling with nervous anticipation. A black smear crept from beneath the ridiculously large sunglasses covering half of her face. She tucked her hands into her pockets in a flash of sparkling red varnish. Betsy shook her head. Her make up bag had been raided with disastrous results. And where had she even borrowed the scissors from?

Betsy shook her head and pressed her lips together. She could have been angry. Instead, all Betsy wanted to do was laugh at the absurdity of it all. But, when she spotted the pitiful wobble to Delilah's bottom lip, she knew she was a goner.

"What's the hold up? Breakfast is - what?" Nick paused in the doorway to Delilah's bedroom, his eyes blinking owlishly at his daughter's altered appearance. His eyes drifted from the winter beanie to the sunglasses and sundress peeking from beneath the over-sized jumper. "I'm confused. Is it winter or summer?"

Delilah gave a meek whimper, her head bowing so that the sunglasses dropped off of her face and onto the floor.

Shaking her head, Betsy stretched up a hand and patted Nick's t-shirt clad torso. "Head back downstairs, your in-laws won't survive tornado Tommy without you there." When he glanced down at her, his brows lifting in askance, she just smiled. Their eyes met and within that one glance, there was an entire conversation. "Delilah and I will be having a girls' day. Sorry, no boys allowed."

Nick huffed as he replied, "Fine, we'll have to make do without you."

Yet, in contradiction to his words, his hands were gentle as they landed on her shoulders and gave a light squeeze. His gaze warm as he looked between the two of them. There was also relief. The thought of Nick trying to navigate a hair emergency with a pre-teen was both comical and terrifying. A part of her was almost tempted to make him join them.

"You'll survive." Betsy replied cheekily after a brief pause, lifting on to her tiptoes and pressing a brief kiss to his lips. "We'll bring you back a surprise, okay?"

"Sounds like a plan." Nick replied, before backing from the room. "Call me if you need anything?"

"We will."

"Great." He spun on his heel only to pause in the threshold. "Oh, and Betsy? Thank you."

Once he was gone, Betsy closed the door behind him and then turned to face the morose girl once more.

"Okay, let's see the damage." She said softly, coming to kneel before her. She winced as her knee landed upon a discarded make up brush.

Reluctantly, Delilah tugged the hat from her head, the jagged curls tumbling down. Where before her hair had been long, reaching halfway down her back, the longest piece now reached her shoulder. The shortest kissed her chin. A wonky fringe fell into her eyes.

Reaching out, Betsy pushed several strands from her face to try and create some order but it just fell back into disarray. "I think we're going to have to see the professionals for this. I am many things but I am definitely not a hairdresser."

"I'm sorry. I tried to follow the video but it didn't work," Delilah cried, pulling off the sunglasses to rub at her eyes. The mascara smeared ever further across.

"It's okay. We can sort this out." Betsy replied calmly, her eyes spotting several plaits sitting on her bedside table. "And even better, we're going to do something with the hair you cut off. If it's okay with you, we can post it off so that it can be turned into a wig for someone who doesn't have hair. How does that sound?"