Shattered Ties(27)

I pulled my car into the shop parking lot just as my phone dinged with an incoming text.

Emma: I had a lot of fun today. Thank you.

Me: I did, too. We’ll have to do it again sometime.

Emma: Tomorrow?

I smiled at her text. We’d just separated, and she already wanted to hang out again. This was good, really good. Or it could be really bad, depending on how I looked at it.

Me: I can’t tomorrow. I have that dinner thing with my mom and *.

Emma: Oh, right. Well, if you finish early or something, just text me.

Me: I will. By the way, thanks for kissing me. I’m glad I could brighten your day.

Emma: I did NOT kiss you. You kissed me.

Me: Whatever helps you sleep at night.

Emma: Ohmigod. I give up.

I slipped my phone into my pocket and walked inside the shop with a stupid grin on my face. I was surprised to see Andy’s twin sister, Ally, sitting behind the counter. It wasn’t unusual for Andy to stop by and hang out while I worked, but Ally rarely came by the shop.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” I asked.

“Waiting for you to show up. I was starting to wonder if you were coming in or not.”

I looked up at the clock to see that I still had a few minutes before I was officially working. “I’m not late.”

“But you’re always earlier than this.”

I rolled my eyes. “What’s with the interrogation?”

“I saw you on the beach today...with a girl.”

Well, shit. I’d been so into watching Emma’s every move that I hadn’t noticed anyone else around us. “And?”

“Who is she?”

“Does it matter?” I had no idea why Ally cared so much.

“Of course it matters. Do you have a girlfriend that you’re not telling us about?”

I laughed. “Is that what this is all about? You think I’m dating someone and keeping it from you and Andy? You’re nuts.”

“If she’s not your girlfriend, then who is she?” Ally asked, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

“Her name is Emma. She goes to school with me, and she wanted to learn how to surf.”

“You’re hanging out with one of them? I thought you were better than that.”

“Oh, give me a break. Emma’s nice. She isn’t stuck-up, like most of the kids at school.”

“Whatever. They’re all stuck-up *s, and you know it.”

Ally was one of my favorite people in this world, but she was starting to annoy me. I’d never seen this overprotective side of her, and I didn’t like it.

“I’m done with this conversation. Is there another reason you stopped by? Or did you just want to interrogate me?”

“See? You’re already acting stuck-up.”

I ran my hand down my face in aggravation. Ally needed to leave before I kicked her out. “I need to work. Go.”

“Whatever. Just don’t forget the little people when you marry the rich princess.”

“You say ‘whatever’ a lot!” I yelled as she walked past me and out the door.

I walked into the employee room and slipped on my work shirt, glad to be rid of her. I loved the girl like a sister, but Emma wasn’t her business. Ally had always had a bit of a protective streak with Andy, but now wasn’t the time or the place to start acting that way about me.

I spent most of my shift checking in clients and cleaning. I still had an hour to go with nothing to do when Rick yelled for me to come back to where he’d just started setting up with a client.

“You yelled?” I asked as I stuck my head inside the room.

“Yeah, you want to watch?”

“Hell yeah!” I said as I stepped inside the room. I didn’t get to come back and watch the guys work very often, and I never turned them down when one of them would ask me.

“Good. Grab a stool, and sit down.”

I pulled a stool over next to the guy who was facedown on the table with his shirt off. Rick pulled another stool over and sat down on the opposite side of the guy.

“Jesse, this is Wendell. Wendell, this is Jesse. He works here, and he’s hoping to tattoo when he’s old enough.” I raised a hand in greeting. “Hey.” “Hey,” the guy grumbled.

Okay then. It looked like this guy wasn’t up for much conversation.

I got comfortable on my seat as Rick applied the outline, and then he had the guy check it out in the mirror. It was the first good look I’d seen of the guy, and I had to admit that he was scary as f*ck. He had a long beard and even longer hair that was tied into a ponytail at the base of his skull. A bandanna covered much of his head. Both of his arms were covered in ink as well as the side of his neck. When he stood next to Rick, he was several inches over Rick’s six feet four inches. Between his size and his appearance, he was one scary dude. We never questioned clientele, but I would have bet my paycheck that he was a biker and not the ride-for-fun-on-the-weekends kind of guy. This guy was the hardcore biker-gang type. There were a few of those gangs just north of us, and we saw them from time to time. They always made me nervous, but Rick didn’t seem to mind them.

“Look good?” Rick asked.

“Yeah,” Wendell said as he settled back onto the table.

It was a cool piece that would take more than one appointment to complete. It was a dragon wrapped around a sword that started at his shoulders and stopped just above his pants line.