Queen's Highway

Chapter 13

Sitting at the tech's station, Brooklyn sighed as she watched the woman file away her wedding nails.

The pain she had felt the day before, while on the floor of the RV, with Steve inside her and above her, was her nail snapping at the bed. Between the growth that had occurred, and the the intense physical activity, the nail had simply broken. When she had noticed it while dressing in the morning, she had commented on it to Steve. He had taken her hand, kissed the broken nail, and told her not to worry.

After leaving St. Regis, they had continued on West along the 1-90. It wasn't very long, before they crossed into Idaho, among the winding and twisting turns of the highway. She had pointed out the state sign, and Steve had laughed, nodding.

She had been a bit delicate with the nail, not wanting to aggravate it, but willing to wait until they were actually further west before seeking out a salon that could fix it. It really wasn't that big a concern for her. Nails broke. That was kind of what they did, in her opinion. It hadn't been until she had started working at Tassels that she had even cared about her nails. It was a look for her hands that seemed to be appreciated by the patrons, and honestly to her, she found she was tipped more, if her hands looked good while serving drinks.

Having her toenails done as well was a smart thing, as well manicured nails didn't snag on stockings or shoes.

She had continued up the practice of having her nails done every two weeks or so, because she had liked the look, and Steve seemed to appreciate it. In this instance, she had been content to attend to physical pampering of a sort, in the effort to both please Steve, and because it seemed all of the females she saw in New York seemed to get manicures or pedicures of some sort.

Even Nat looked like she maintained a workable, if short, manicure.

But the harsh reality was, nails were one of those things she never really thought about beyond making sure they were out of the way, while growing up in HYDRA.

Papa had regularly taken a knife to her nails, if they got too long, while she was training or in the field with him. Other times, he had straight up bitten them off, if there was no knife available. Snags, tears, and nails that grew too long could be a liability.

When Steve and Brooklyn had reached the first major stop in Idaho for them, Wallace, he had held her hand, while she led him through the town, investigating and inspecting it's silver mining history, while he toyed around on his phone a bit. She had taken a bit of caution, realizing that, as they wet along on this trip, that her collar might become more and more evident, and might eventually lead to questions that would at the very least be uncomfortable to either dodge or answer. With this in mind, she had done a bit of searching through some of the clothing Kitty had packed for her, finding a somewhat higher collared, lighter fabric shirt. It had made it just a bit easier for her to keep the pendant hidden. Steve had not spoken about it, although she had seen him notice it. It wasn't the best of the available solutions, the easiest being removing the collar, but that wasn't something she had a desire to do. So, she was planning on relying on higher collars, or possibly even scarves, if she found any that she liked.

She had gone to the bathroom at one of the museums, taking the time to adjust her collar slightly, and when she had come out, he had been ending a phone call, then put his phone away, smiling at her.

After a bit, he had kissed her hand, and told her he had a surprise. After a very short drive, he had pulled over the bike, in front of a small salon and pulled her in, introducing her to the technician, and kissing her head, telling her to not get claws, then left.

Carrie, the nail tech, had led Brooklyn to her station, and invited her to sit down. Once that happened, she began to work on her nails, initiating small talk.