Facial Recognition Read online

  Facial Recognition

  A Serenity Spa Novel

  Jennifer Peel

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2020 by Jennifer Peel

  All rights reserved.

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Dedication

  To Jeremy: Thank you for always seeing me.

  Chapter One

  “How was your lunch date, Gracie?” Lorelai sang two octaves above her normal sultry voice.

  I leaned against our welcome desk at the spa and sighed. “Well, it was going good until he took his socks and shoes off and put his foot on the table. He wanted to make sure I got a good visual of how freakishly high his arches were. Apparently, he was written up in some medical journal. Not only were his arches higher than the Saint Louis Arch, but I had no idea a man could grow so much hair on his feet. It was worse than a hobbit.” I shuddered, trying to shake the thought of it out of my head. I knew I was going to have nightmares about the bushes of hair on his feet.

  Lorelai laughed hysterically. “No wonder he became a podiatrist.” She grabbed her phone and started scrolling. “Let me see who else I know that I can set you up with. I’m running out of options. How many blind dates have you been on now?”

  I bit my lip and started throwing up my fingers to help me count. “I think the podiatrist made it thirty-five.” I blew out a deep breath, making my bangs take flight. “I’m doomed to go to my twenty-year high school reunion alone. What’s worse is I’m in charge.”

  “Don’t give up hope yet. You still have two months.”

  “Yeah, but Mr. Right—or even Mr. Right Now—and I need time together so it’s not awkward. You know how epic I hope the night will be. There’s no leaving it to chance.”

  “Don’t you worry, darlin’, we’ll find someone.”

  Yeah, I’d been telling myself that for the last eight years. Being single never bothered me until I turned thirty and began to seriously question if I would ever get married and have children. The last few years, I had started taking ovulation tests just to make sure my ovaries were still spitting out eggs. The good news was that I was still fertile; the bad news was there was no fertilizer in the foreseeable future, and I was afraid my uterus might become a desolate wasteland soon.

  “Keep scrolling,” I begged her. “Maybe number thirty-six is the charm.” I refused to show up alone to the reunion. It would be like prom all over again. I was the only prom queen in the history of Pecan Orchard High to ever get stood up. I had to push the horror out of my mind.

  Beautiful Lorelai, who looked so angelic with her platinum-blonde hair and big, blue-as-the-sky eyes, smiled at me. “Don’t worry, I’ll call my momma if I have to. She’s the biggest meddler in all of Texas.”

  Poor Lorelai was always dodging the men her mother threw her way after Lorelai’s husband had died a few years ago. God rest William’s soul. He was a dear, sweet man. But there was no time for reminiscing as Zoe, one of our attendants, popped her head out of the door that led to our treatment rooms. “Gracie, your two o’clock is here. A facial massage in treatment room one.”

  “Oh, yes.” Lorelai began to fan herself. “I checked him in and ooh la la. I wouldn’t kick him out of my bed for eating crackers, I’ll tell you that.”

  I giggled.

  “Although I have to say he had a brooding energy about him,” Lorelai added. She was our resident energy healer and yoga instructor. “Perhaps you could help lift his spirits. Maybe he could be number thirty-six.”

  “I thought we agreed when we opened this place, we wouldn’t date the clients or our coworkers.”

  She wagged her brows. “Wait until you see this man—you’ll be calling an executive meeting and begging us to bend the rules.” Lorelai, Colette, and I had deemed ourselves the executives when we opened Serenity Spa two years ago. We were three best friends who were tired of working for other people, and we’d finally saved up enough money to open our own place here in the fabulous city of Fort Worth.

  I flipped my curled strawberry blonde hair. “Well in that case, if you hear loud gasping, don’t come in. It will only be me checking to make sure he knows how to properly administer a good night kiss,” I teased. We weren’t that kind of a place. No kinky stuff on the premises.

  “Do what you gotta do, girl.” She winked.

  “I better hustle and change back into my scrubs. You, please keep scrolling.” I was getting desperate.

  She saluted me. “I’m on it. Have fun.”

  I darted off toward the “executive” bathroom in the back. We had to have some perks as the owners. Basically, it was a multipurpose room. We held most of our so-called meetings in there, sitting on the oversize sage ottoman, mostly laughing between discussing our business. It was also our dressing room, crying room, and on occasion, we used the toilet in there.

  I never tired of taking in our surroundings; it was as serene as our name indicated. White walls with whitewashed wood floors, accented with natural wood furniture and plants of every kind. In the background there was always some sort of meditative instrumental music playing. And it smelled like eucalyptus and peppermint. It was a place I was proud to be a part of.

  Once in the bathroom, I shimmied out of the peach sundress I had worn for my date. I liked this dress because it showed off my toned legs, as white as they were. But when you had skin as fair as mine, tanning wasn’t an option. I had to wear SPF 150 just to go outside and withstand the Texas sun. I got back into my green scrubs and threw my hair up into a messy bun. Heavy on the messy—my long hair had some serious curls. I did a quick brush of my teeth while looking in the mirror and begging God to hold off on the crow’s-feet a little longer. I dabbed some pink lip gloss on and popped in a mint, just in case my next client really was the one.

  I was beginning to wonder if I was being too picky. Should I just take hobbit, high-arch man? I mean, he at least chewed with his mouth closed. Except he had put his foot on the table. Still, he was polite, and he had gorgeous azure eyes. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear the voice. Not sure why I kept putting stock into the voice. It was obviously so wrong. Plus, I was only fourteen when it first spoke to me. Who gets told at fourteen who they should marry? Yet I couldn’t forget that feeling I’d had the first time I saw Brooks Hamilton. I was sitting in my new backyard, picking grass and feeling sorr
y for myself. We had just moved to Pecan Orchard from Oklahoma so my momma could be closer to the hospital in Fort Worth that dealt with her special heart condition. Not only had I been missing my friends, but I was afraid to lose Momma. That’s when Brooks had popped his head over the fence and asked if I was okay. I remember locking eyes with his deep chocolate ones, and then I’d heard a piercing voice say: You’re going to marry that boy someday. Too bad Brooks only ever saw me as his and his twin sister’s friend. And it was more than unfortunate that he’d ended up being the jerk who left me crying on our senior prom night when he stood me up. I’d finally thought he had feelings for me, like the overwhelming ones I had for him. That was wishful thinking. Not only did he stand me up, but he then ignored me all the way until we graduated. Then he had left Pecan Orchard forever. I couldn’t exactly blame him for the reason he’d never returned, but that was another story.

  I hadn’t seen him in twenty years. It’s not like I had been pining for him all this time. I just needed the voice to come to me again and tell me who the right man was. I prayed that whoever he was, he had normal feet.

  I scooted over to the treatment room, smiling at each guest clothed in one of our white robes, walking between treatments. The look of pure contentment on their faces had me feeling renewed and hopeful. I was going to find the right man to take me to my reunion and hopefully share my life with. With a relaxing exhale, I grabbed my client’s paperwork hanging outside of the door, and without looking at it like I should have, I knocked on the door. “May I enter?”

  “Yes,” a deep masculine voice responded.

  I opened the door to find a very familiar, half-naked man staring at me. The sight of him made me swallow my mint whole, which made me cough and splutter it back up so I didn’t choke to death. Though dying might have been better for me in the moment.

  Brooks—who should have been lying down on the treatment table under the blanket that had been provided for him—was sitting up, bare chested, his long legs dangling and covered in charcoal dress pants. He was totally ripped, I might add. Sun kissed and as perfect as he had always been, with tousled golden-brown hair that had the right amount of curl to it. The last twenty years had been more than kind to him.

  He looked at his pricey watch. “You’re late.” No, Hi, how are you? Sorry I stood you up and ruined the day you had dreamed of all your adolescent life.

  “I think your watch is fast.” I knew for a fact I was right on time, as I had checked my phone before I left the bathroom and it was 1:59. It didn’t take me a minute to walk over here.

  He grimaced at me, yet said nothing.

  He might not have been talking, but the voice was back and piercing as ever. You’re going to marry that beautiful man someday.

  The voice startled me and made me drop the clipboard I was holding with Brooks’s paperwork on it. Holy crow. Could I be any more ridiculous? I picked up the clipboard and silently told the voice it was full of crap.

  Brooks was staring at me with his head tilted. “Are you all right?”

  “Fine, just fine. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other.” I tried to keep the bitterness out of my tone, all while kicking myself for not checking his stupid chart before I came in here. If I had, I could have asked Anastasia to take him or faked an illness. That’s what I got for being all hopeful earlier.

  Brooks narrowed his eyes. “I’ve never been in here before.”

  It took me a moment to comprehend what that meant. When I finally realized what his words implied, I swore lots of big four-letter words in my head. How was it that he didn’t recognize me? I knew it had been a long time, but it’s not like I had shriveled up and succumbed to old age. Hello, I was still ovulating. And I still wore the same jeans size I had back in high school, thank you very much. I came close to chucking the clipboard at his head. Instead, I professionally scanned it to see if he was allergic to anything I had in my arsenal of cleansers and essential oils. I wasn’t above giving him a rash or some minor breathing difficulties. Unfortunately, I was the one who got the breath knocked out me.

  While reading his paperwork, I almost choked on my mint again when I noticed that he was referred to us by Morgan Bronson, my nemesis, the girl I used to love to hate in high school. The girl who had owned Brooks’s heart even though she was awful. Miss Valedictorian had toyed with Brooks all during high school. If she’d told Brooks to jump, not only had he brought out the trampoline, but he’d done tricks in the air just to keep her attention. The girl used to wear pencil skirts to school almost every day. She had thought high school was so beneath her, she’d refused Brooks’s invitation to be his prom date. That’s when I’d stepped in and asked him. What a fool I had been. Even so, he was a bigger one for still having anything to do with the woman.

  I wondered if Carly, Brooks’s twin, knew her brother was still in contact with Morgan. Sadly, Carly and I had seen each other only a few times since we’d graduated from high school. Nothing had ever been the same since then. I’d missed her and Brooks’s friendships more than they would ever know. Carly and I only semi kept in touch now over social media. Though she was planning on coming to our reunion in July. I could imagine her going ballistic if she knew about Brooks and Morgan. She hated Morgan more than I did. Perhaps Morgan had changed her manipulative ways. Maybe she and Carly were even friends now. After all, twenty years was a long time.

  I plastered on a fake smile and looked up at an impatiently waiting Brooks. “My mistake. Shall we begin?”

  Chapter Two

  I turned off the lights and flipped on the meditative instrumental music, hoping it would calm my soul. The soft sounds of piano and rain normally made me feel peaceful. Not today. I couldn’t believe Brooks Hamilton was here and he didn’t recognize me. What happened to the sweet boy who had brought me cookies the day he’d caught me crying on my lawn? I still remembered him saying, “My momma calls these her happy pills.” We had eaten the entire plate. Then he’d introduced me to Carly. Their friendship that summer before our freshman year was a lifeline.

  Now before me sat a man—albeit the most attractive man I’d ever laid eyes on—who looked cold and vacant. I knew he was a divorce lawyer because his daddy was still our neighbor and was like a second father to me. Tom Hamilton was a broken man, but one of the best, in my opinion. I knew Brooks would disagree with me, seeing as he hadn’t seen his daddy in twenty years.

  With a deep breath of courage, I faced Brooks. “Mr. Hamilton, please lie down and pull the blanket up to just under your arms.”

  Brooks’s brow scrunched. “You look familiar.”

  Oh, I look familiar. Gee, I wonder why?

  “I didn’t catch your name,” he interrupted my snarky internal dialogue.

  Normally, I would have introduced myself, but not only had I gotten flustered, I was mesmerized by his washboard abs. Like an idiot, I responded without thinking, “You can call me Jane.” Like Jane Doe, dead on arrival. Why did I lie?

  “Jane,” he repeated as if he were confused. Believe me, he wasn’t the only one.

  “Yep, Jane. Just Jane.” I wouldn’t shut up. What was wrong with me? You know, other than that I heard a voice that was an obvious liar. And I was a liar too. That was so not me. Well, I had to run with it. It wasn’t like we would ever see each other after this. So what if I lived next door to his daddy and sometimes commented on his sister’s Facebook posts. The odds were still extremely low. According to his daddy, Brooks had vowed never to speak to him again, and as far as I knew, Brooks lived in Dallas, which was like forty-five minutes away from Pecan Orchard. Except what if he checked our website and saw my picture and name? Honestly, did I care if he knew I was a liar? The answer was yes because, generally speaking, I was a good person. However, in this instance I was choosing the path that led straight to hellfire and damnation.

  “Please lie down,” I repeated.

  He followed instructions this time. I had to admit I was sorry to see his pretty chest and abs go
away. I wondered what kind of exercises he was doing. In high school he’d been on the track team. And although the cheerleaders didn’t cheer at track meets, I still decorated his truck before each one. Because I was a lovesick fool.

  I took my place at the head of the treatment table and pushed the controls to raise it, trying to get my heart rate to calm the heck down. “Are you comfortable?” I eked out. Not that I cared if he was, but I had to say it.

  “Yes,” he replied gruffly.

  “Is there a specific reason for your visit today?”

  “Other than using the gift certificate my girlfriend gave me so she’ll get off my back, no.”

  “You have a girlfriend,” I squeaked. “How nice,” I lied again, because it was probably Morgan.

  He cleared his throat. “Nothing official, we’re just dating.”

  I wanted to roll my eyes. How very noncommittal. It was definitely Morgan. When had she come back to Texas? Last I heard she was at some uppity school back East and then got a bigwig corporate job. She, like Brooks, never came to Pecan Orchard, even though her parents still lived there and her older brother, Julian, lived in nearby Cherry Hills. Occasionally I saw him. Like his sister, he was gorgeous, driven, and full of himself. He was an OB-GYN and on his third marriage, I believed. However, he wasn’t as uptight as his sister and always waved a friendly hello whenever he saw me.

  Brooks was staring straight up at me. Wow, did he have some luscious, thick eyelashes. It was disconcerting to have him peering at me. Most clients closed their eyes.

  “I can’t shake the feeling that I know you.”

  I shrugged and reached for the bergamot oil that smelled like citrus, and then I remembered he hated anything lavender scented. He used to get on Carly for using lavender lotion. I evilly grabbed that bottle instead. I rubbed some in my hand. “Close your eyes.” I cupped my hands and placed them a few inches above his mouth and nose. “Breathe deeply in and out.”

  His warm, minty breath tickled my hands.