Chapter 4
CHAPTER
FOUR
King
I’ve had a shit morning.
Today marks the first day of school for the girls, and after a long summer of them sleeping in, getting them up this morning was way harder than it normally is.
Ellie was definitely the easier of the two. It only took me having to yell for her to get up twice before she listened and got herself ready. Willow, on the other hand, I practically had to drag out of bed.
My youngest isn’t a morning person on a normal day, but make it a school day and she’s even worse. She likes the social part of school—hanging out with friends, recess, basically all the fun stuff.
But she struggles with the actual learning.
Willow was diagnosed with ADHD two years ago when her teacher noticed she was struggling to focus in class. We went to the doctor, and once we had an official diagnosis, they recommended we try therapy first before getting her on any medication.
Therapy has been life-changing for Willow for the past two years. She still struggles with focusing at times, but the both of us have learned how to manage it much better. With that said, she still has her moments where the idea of going to school is a fate worse than death to her—which is exactly how she describes it.
After finally getting her out of bed and bribing her with pizza from her favorite restaurant for dinner later—probably not the best parenting, but who cares, it got the job done—I managed to get her in the car.
Ellie starts earlier than Willow now that she’s in high school, and Willow is in her last year of elementary school.
I still can’t believe I have a kid in high school. I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday. The way her little hand wrapped around my finger. The way she looked up at me with so much love through her big brown eyes that look so much like mine.
Now, she barely mumbles a goodbye as she slams the car door and walks into school. Although, I guess that’s pretty standard with any fourteen-year-old girl.
Aside from having a grumpy attitude at times, Ellie is a good kid. Her and Willow both are. They were just being little shits this morning.
I drive them both to school, dropping off Ellie first and then waiting in the carline to drop Willow off. I stare out the window as I wait, a glimpse of long copper hair catching my attention.
I can’t help the way I sit up straighter in my seat, my eyes locking on the woman. She turns around, and I sigh when I realize that it’s not her.
I don’t know why I’m even looking. It’s not like I even know who she is, but for some reason, I look for her in every crowd. I just can’t stop thinking about the woman who spilled her drink on me, regardless of how hard I try.
After dropping off Willow, I go home, clean up a bit, and shower before getting ready to head into work. I feel like I’ve already had a full, exhausting day as I walk through the back door of Blackheart Ink around noon, yet the day has barely started.
Darla texted me last night that after nearly two months, she finally found a perfect new receptionist that would be shadowing her today. When Darla said she was picky about who would be taking her place, she really meant it.
She went through dozens of applications, passing on every single one of them simply because she said they just weren’t the right fit. For her to have finally found the one is a big deal.
I can’t say I’m in much of a mood to meet anyone right now, but considering whoever Darla found is about to become my employee, I figure I should put on a good front.
I make my way to the front of the shop, stopping in my room to put my stuff down before walking into the lobby. I stop short when I see the woman sitting behind the desk.
Fuck.
Bright green eyes lock on mine, shock filling them for only a second before she schools her features. I stay frozen in place, staring at the woman who hasn’t left my mind since that night at Carl’s over two months ago.
The woman I thought I’d never see again.
But secretly hoped I would.
“Perfect timing,” Darla says when she notices me. She stands to walk out from behind the desk. “King, meet your new receptionist, Sawyer Davis.”
The woman, who I now know as Sawyer, follows Darla out from behind the desk, moving to stand in front of me. She looks exactly how I remember her—absolutely stunning. She’s wearing dark blue straight leg jeans and a black short-sleeve top, the bottom of it just hitting the waistband of her jeans. Unlike the night at Carl’s, her ink is now on full display.
She has over a dozen different-size tattoos scattered over her arms, and I try to peek at the different designs without blatantly staring. There are a few different script ones that I can’t make out at first look, but the majority of her tattoos are small designs—a group of butterflies, a constellation of stars, an anatomical heart. She has more, but I force my eyes back to hers before she catches me ogling her.
She pushes her shoulders back, her eyes narrowing on mine.
“Sawyer, this is Damien King,” Darla introduces me.
There’s silence between us, neither of us sure of what to say. Do we talk about the elephant in the room? Do we ignore it? Or do we both wait for the other person to make the first move.
The problem I’m facing with this situation isn’t the interaction we had in the bar, but what happened after.
Did she piss me the fuck off by spilling her drink on me and then blaming it all on me? Yes. Did she intrigue me enough to leave a lasting impression on me? Sure. Is she the kind of beautiful that I can’t stop thinking about? Absolutely.
But none of that matters anymore if she’s about to become my employee. I wouldn’t deny someone a job based on my own feelings, especially if Darla feels that she’s the right fit.
What bothers me about the situation is that she got to me that night. I’m not a reactive person. I’d go as far as to say I’m a control freak, so when someone baits me in the way that she did that night, I ignore it. I always ignore it. But for some reason, with her, I couldn’t.
I engaged in her antics even if it was only for a second.
Someone having the ability to make me lose control so easily is a scary thought. I’m a single father, a business owner, and have more on my plate than I can handle most days. I can’t deal with any distractions, and even without knowing her, she feels like one.
But assuming Darla’s already offered her the job, I have to give her a chance, don’t I?
I shove all the worries about the situation down and extend my hand toward her. “You can just call me King,” I say. “Nice to meet you.”
“We’ve already met, but you knew that.” She crosses her arms over her chest, and I drop my hand.
“Yeah, I haven’t forgotten.” I raise a brow, keeping my exterior calm and unaffected.
“Good.” She nods, seemingly pleased that I remember her.
Personally, if I were her and my first impression on my new boss was scolding him in the middle of a bar after spilling my drink on him, I think I’d rather they not remember, but it doesn’t seem like she has any regret.
“Am I missing something here?” Darla asks, looking back and forth between the two of us.
“I met Sawyer a couple of months ago at Carl’s,” I explain. “She spilled her drink on me, and we had a bit of a disagreement.”
“And by disagreement, he means that he stood directly in my way, making me spill my drink, wouldn’t buy me a new one, and then insinuated that I was too young to even be drinking, so I called him a fucking asshole.” She rolls her eyes.
Darla looks between the two of us for a few seconds before grabbing her chest as a loud laugh falls from her lips. Sawyer and I both stay quiet, watching as Darla finds the awkward situation completely amusing.
“This is perfect,” Darla says as her laughter dies down, looking toward me with a wide smile on her face, like she knows something that I don’t.
I don’t get the chance to ask her about it before Sawyer interjects, a frustrated look on her face that she quickly masks.
“This has been great, and I can’t thank you enough for the opportunity, Darla.” She smiles softly at her. “But I’m assuming I’m fired?” She turns to me.
She probably should be. Considering she can’t even admit that she was the one who walked into me at Carl’s, I can’t imagine she’d be the best at following any instructions as an employee.
Yet the idea of letting her go seems wrong too.
“Do you want to be fired?” I ask, tilting my head down at her, and her eyes widen in surprise.
“Not particularly, no.” She shrugs.
“Fine.” I nod. “Keep shadowing Darla until she says you’re ready to start working on your own, and then we’ll get you set up full time.”
A confused expression covers Sawyer’s face, like she can’t figure out exactly what just happened. To be fair, I feel just as confused.
With nothing else to say, I force my attention away from her and turn to Darla.
“You can just send Lenny back when he gets here, please,” I say, referring to my appointment that’s set to start in twenty minutes.
Darla nods, a knowing sort of smile still on her face that I try to ignore.
With a final glance at Sawyer, I turn and walk back to my room, closing the door behind me as if the piece of wood will put some sort of distance between the two of us.
The day started off shitty, and now it’s just… weird.
I guess I have a new receptionist now, and out of all people, it has to be the woman who I admittedly haven’t been able to get out of my head for the past two months.
And right now… I have no fucking clue what to make of that.
It’s only five p.m. when people start filling the backyard of my home. There are half a dozen picnic tables set up throughout the yard, a couple food and drink tables, and music plays through the speakers.
Every year since I opened Blackheart Ink, without fail, I’ve hosted a barbecue here for all my employees and their loved ones in September. Even past employees are invited. It reaffirms the idea that at Blackheart, we’re all a family. So, the barbecue becomes a day for all of us to spend time together, eat food, listen to good music, and just hang out outside of work.
Although this year’s barbecue is also moonlighting as a retirement-slash-going-away party for Darla.
Sawyer has been shadowing Darla for the past two weeks, and as of Monday, she’ll be starting on her own. Which means Darla is officially retiring.
Her and David booked their tickets and have decided to backpack around Europe for the next three months. They leave in a few weeks from now, but considering they have to pack, prepare, and say goodbye to all their kids and grandkids, we figured this would be a good time to get our own goodbyes in.
Ellie and Willow have been helping me set up all day long, setting up the rest of the food and drinks while I barbecued burgers and hot dogs. They also helped me put out the cake we got for Darla. Ellie insisted on making a playlist to play throughout the night. She has good taste in music, so I was more than happy to put her in charge.
Willow abandoned me about two seconds after her friends showed up, which isn’t surprising. Ellie’s best friend, Chloe, showed up about an hour ago and joined in helping us until the two of them decided they were done.
They’re now both sitting at a picnic table in the corner of the yard, seemingly trying to ignore Willow and her two friends who are sitting next to them. I’m not even dealing with that right now.
We set out the cake for Darla, making her cut the first slice about an hour into the night since I know she normally doesn’t end up staying too late. After the entire staff tells her how much we’ll all miss her and says their goodbyes, the barbecue goes on as normal.
“I still can’t believe Darla won’t be around for me to hang out with anymore,” Logan says from where she’s sitting across from me, Kade sitting next to her.
Kaden and Logan have been married for over two years now, and the two of them are happier than just about anyone I know. They’re the type of people who were meant to find each other.
“It’ll be weird,” I agree with her.
“But I did meet Sawyer the other day,” she adds, a smile on her face. “I like her, she seems nice.”
“Who’s nice?” Demi, Asher’s wife and Kade’s sister, asks as she walks up to sit next to Logan, Asher following right behind her.
“Sawyer, the new receptionist for Blackheart,” Logan explains.
“Oh yeah, I met her last week.” Demi nods eagerly. “Love her. I told her she has to come to the restaurant one day, and we can all hang.”
“Who are we hanging with?” Theo, Logan and Demi’s friend, who has somehow turned into all of our friends, sits down next to me.
“Sawyer, the new receptionist, keep up,” Demi says as if it’s obvious.
“Well, I haven’t met her yet. Why haven’t I been introduced? I feel left out.” He pouts, and I see Logan roll her eyes in my peripheral vision.
“Calm down, Alvin, we’ll introduce you.” Demi laughs, using one of their inside nicknames that I refuse to ask about. “Is she here?” she asks, looking around the backyard.
“She’s around here somewhere,” I mumble, sipping my beer.
The truth is, I’ve been pretty much avoiding Sawyer for the entirety of the past two weeks, still going through Darla for everything.
I knew the time would come when Darla would officially retire and I’d be forced to face her, but now that it’s here, I don’t feel ready. Although, I guess I don’t have much of a choice.
My eyes wander around the yard, immediately spotting her long copper hair in the crowd. She’s standing with Sky and another woman that I don’t recognize, so I assume she’s either her or Sky’s friend.
“Is that the girl from Carl’s?” Gabby whispers to me as she sits down at the table on my other side, her husband, Kyson, following.
“She’s our new receptionist,” I reply, giving her a look to not bring up the Carl’s incident with everyone else right now.
Her eyes widen for a second before she nods at me with a soft smile on her face, understanding. I think that’s one of the reasons she and I get along so well, unlike most of them, she respects boundaries.
Gabby, Demi, Logan, and Theo were all kind of thrust into my life after Kade started dating Logan, and then Asher with Demi. And then Theo is just kind of always wherever they are. But out of all of them, Gabby’s the quietest and the one I didn’t expect to actually become friends with.
Over the years, I’ve gotten to know her, and she’s actually a pretty amazing person. So is her husband, Kyson. Her and Kyson both are probably the two that force me to come out with all of them more than the others.
“If you really want to go introduce yourselves now, Sawyer’s right over there,” Kaden says to Theo, pointing Sawyer out in the crowd.
“I think we should all go say hi.” Logan nods, looking between Demi, Theo, and Gabby.
“Fine with me, but I need another drink first. Doomsday?” Theo looks at Demi. “Care to get drunk with me?” He smirks at her.
“Um, actually, I can’t,” Demi says, nervously biting her lip.
“Ugh, why not? Drinking alone is not nearly as fun,” Theo whines.
I look over to Asher, who has a proud smile on his face, and the answer is obvious.
“Congratulations,” I say, holding up my beer bottle to him.
His smile grows bigger, if that’s even possible, as he clinks his bottle against mine.
“No way.” Logan looks at her with wide eyes. “You’re pregnant?”
“Yeah, I am.” Demi nods, an overjoyed laugh falling from her lips.
“Oh my gosh, I’m going to be an aunt.” Logan stands from the bench, pulling Demi up into a hug.
Gabby stands up from next to me, following Logan’s lead, and after Theo picks his jaw up from off the ground, he does the same, everyone congratulating Demi and Asher.
“I’m pissed you can’t drink, but I’m really fucking excited to be the fun uncle,” Theo says to her.
“It’s okay, now all of you just have to drink for me.” Demi laughs loudly.
“Deal.” Gabby beams at her.
“Come on.” Logan grabs Demi’s hand. “Let’s go introduce ourselves to Sawyer, and then spend the rest of the night drinking for you in celebration.”
“Perfect.” Demi nods.
I watch as the four of them walk across the yard to where Sawyer is. She turns to face them as they seemingly introduce themselves. I watch her do the same, a blinding smile covering her face. I jerk my attention away from her at the sound of Kade clearing his throat. Asher and Kyson are in their own conversation, but Kade stares right at me with an amused look on his face.
“What?” I grunt at him, trying to pretend like he didn’t just catch me staring at my new employee.
“Nothing.” He shakes his head. “It’s just, remember a few years ago when I first met Logan and I told you about it, and all you said to me was, ‘you’re fucked’?” he asks.
“Yeah, I remember.” I nod.
It was the truth. The second that I saw the look in his eyes when he talked about her, I knew that something was bound to happen between the two of them. Now they’re married, so I guess I was right.
“Why are you asking me that now?” I hesitate, confused on where he’s going with his question.
He raises a brow at me, letting out a small chuckle.
“ You’re fucked.”