Chapter 3 #2
“Ren, the guy who is opening the shop next door, says he wants to see my work.” I ripped the card out of my pocket and waved it in PD’s face, proving a point.
I could feel myself getting out of control.
I liked PD. Respected him. Hell, wanted to be him.
But I had been trying so hard to get him to take me on as an apprentice.
It had been years of me begging and begging.
Oh yeah, and begging some more.
PD swatted away the card, and I snatched it as it fluttered toward the ground and shoved it back in my pocket.
“You little shit.” He growled and grabbed my shirt, dragging me closer. He gave me a shake, and I couldn’t stop myself from closing my hand around his wrist, even though it wouldn’t do much good if he decided to deck me.
“For your sake, I’ve been nice. I’ve been understanding. I’m not a nice guy,” he snarled.
Will snickered, and PD glared at him.
“But I’ve been encouraging.” PD shoved me, and I caught myself on the hood of the car, hissing at the heat as I snatched my hand off it.
“I get it. I respect someone who goes after what they want. But here are the cold hard facts.” He slapped the side of my car.
“Your art isn’t there. If you were some crazy good artist, I would’ve at least directed you somewhere else.
I know people around the city. But you’re not. ” He glared directly into my eyes.
My stomach disappeared and my balls joined it. “But—”
He sliced a hand in front of himself. “You’re good enough, maybe, to do auto work.
” He nodded at my car. “You’re good enough for a lot of things.
But you are not good enough to put ink to skin.
Okay? You just aren’t. And if you were ever going to be, you’d have turned out something worthwhile by now. I would see it.”
Horror washed over me as tears prickled my eyes. I frantically wiped my face with the back of my hand.
PD stomped off, which was almost funny because he was using the crutch like an oar to row away from me, and then he spun around, taking his hat off to smack it against his thigh.
“I didn’t want to be a fuck, okay? I didn’t!
But there. That’s the truth. Go back to Barber’s shop and stop coming into mine. You don’t have what it takes.”
“He’s only a kid, PD.” Will shook his head, but the pity on his face did me in.
I ripped open my car door and flung myself into the seat.
Will came over and stared down at me, frowning. He was a big guy, too, and honestly, he scared me a little when he crowded close because I’d seen him lose his temper in the past.
He pointed at my dad’s ring, the Kings of Men MC ring he’d left in Mom’s room when he’d gone to prison. “You shouldn’t be wearing that. Cain didn’t want you involved in the club, PD’s right.”
“That you remember?” I felt like an asshole as soon as I saw the hurt on his face. He shrugged and started walking toward the garage.
“Sorry! I’m sorry!”
PD slammed his fist into the hood of my car. I groaned at the dent, but then I saw the fury on his face and swallowed hard. I shouldn’t have said it. PD was protective of Will.
“You’re done. Get lost!” PD pointed at the road. “And if you say shit to Will again, you’re over. I don’t care who you’re related to or what King will say.”
“Shit.” I closed my door and started the car.
PD glared as I reversed out of his driveway back onto the road. Pissing PD off was the absolute last thing I wanted to do. I wasn’t the type of guy who hurt people’s feelings. What just happened?
I felt like hell as I drove through the morning traffic, fighting tears.
PD didn’t think I was good enough to do tattoos.
I ground my teeth. But he’d said he thought he should see better art from me by now, so perhaps I just needed to practice more?
Try harder? This couldn’t be his final word on the matter.
It just couldn’t. I’d wanted to warn PD about that loser opening the tattoo parlor beside his place, tell him I would help get rid of him.
And I couldn’t even do that right. My gut hurt like I’d swallowed broken glass, and I fought off more tears.
Was he serious about my artwork or was he trying to get me to stop going into his tattoo parlor?
My head was a mess, so I drove around for a few hours and had a cheap fast-food lunch.
I still wasn’t ready to face anyone, not really, so I went to the beach and stared at Lake Ontario.
Soon it would start getting cold and days like this would be a thing of the past. As the afternoon dragged on, I finally started to be able to take deep breaths without feeling as if I was dying, so I pointed my car toward Barber’s shop.
PD was just upset that I’d come to his house again. That had to be it. He didn’t mean anything he’d said. My gut churned. Or did he?
Luckily, I found street parking near the shop. I sat there with the AC blasting on my hot face for what felt like an hour as I replayed the clusterfuck at PD’s house on a loop in my mind. After a while, I finally managed to drag myself out and head down the sidewalk to the shop.
Part of me wanted to go inside and complain to Barber, but he would just give me shit, too, and tell me that PD should’ve beat my ass for what I’d said to Will, which was fair.
Sometimes it was hard for me to remember Will still had days when he wasn’t okay because usually when I saw him, he was fine.
Or at least, he seemed fine. Hell, Barber might even give me some shit work to do just for bothering PD again.
No, if I wanted to make up for pissing off PD and show him I was ready to be his apprentice, I needed to do something to prove myself to him.
How was this my life? It wasn’t fair.
The gears in my brain were turning when I walked by the big window that looked into the shop.
My feet stopped without consulting the rest of me.
I caught myself on the window, palms splayed on the hot glass.
KC was sitting in a chair in front of Barber, who was finishing up a trim.
And he was laughing about something. So was Barber.
KC was as sexy as always, short red hair glinting in the sunlight that filtered through into the shop. His cheeks creased with laughter and his biceps flexed in his black V-neck T-shirt as he laced his fingers together.
God, those arms were something else.
Hair was getting on KC’s shirt because Barber had the black cape on him crooked.
Part of me was happy to have such a good view of KC, but he would be uncomfortable later.
I bit my bottom lip. Would he go shower off the hair?
My cock got involved, nudging at my boxers, as soon as I imagined soapsuds on those muscles.
Warm heat filled in that spot in my stomach that PD had hollowed out with his awful words.
It felt so good to look at KC that it made my heart hurt.
My pulse rushed in my veins and my tongue turned to stone.
My ab muscles went tight and I could barely breathe.
It had been this way since the very first day I’d met him when we were both still in high school.
I spied on him for a little while longer before I started feeling like a creep and went inside.
“What do you think?” Barber set his trimmer down on the counter with one hand while undoing the cape on KC’s neck with the other. He removed the cape, dumping red hair on the floor, and shot me a crooked smile as he spotted me because he knew I would clean up his mess. “Could you get the broom?”
“Right on schedule,” I mumbled, but instead of doing that, I got a damp towel out of the warmer along the far wall. My heart flip-flopped as I took the towel over to KC and gently wrapped the cloth around his neck.
“Oh yeah. This is the best part,” he said with a big grin. His tone gave my dick a few ideas and it tingled and firmed up while he tipped his head forward and exposed more of his solid neck. When I glanced up, my face was flushed, but KC’s eyes were closed, so that was fine.
“Glad you like it.”
“Thanks, Oli. You’re so good at that.”
White-hot heat punched me in the stomach and slithered lower to make my dick pulse. Shit, if I wasn’t careful, I would melt into a puddle at his feet.
Barber was smirking when I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, and despite being one of the laziest people on earth, he’d grabbed the broom and was sweeping up the hair on the floor to give us some privacy.
“Y-you’re welcome. Anytime.” I stepped back and scowled at Barber, who stuck his tongue out at me. Then, he made a kissy face, and I froze in horror. I would stab him with his own scissors if he said something.
Stab him dead.
“So, you’re spiffed up for your big date. Where are you going to take him?” Barber asked as he bent down to sweep the hair onto a dustpan.
“Date?” I asked, staring at KC in the mirror. He didn’t open his eyes, too busy enjoying the warm towel. The bliss on his face ravaged my insides and had me crossing my hands over my crotch to make sure my problem stayed hidden. Or would it draw more attention? I shoved my hands in my pockets.
“Yeah! Can you believe it? The hottest guy I’ve ever seen in my life asked me out after I splattered an entire smoothie on my shirt.
It was such a gross mess.” He chuckled, and the warm sound stroked across my skin, lighter than a kiss, raising goose bumps.
Even as the horror of what he was saying sank into my brain, I couldn’t stop wallowing in how much I loved being around him.
“I’m done with the towel. It’s starting to get cold. ”
I felt like a robot as I peeled the cloth off him and took it over to the hamper next to the warmer to drop it in.
“He was covered in tattoos.”
“Oh, those kinds of guys are the best lay.” Barber leaned the broom on the counter and ran a finger down his arm, showing off his tattoos. “You should pound him into the mattress. I bet he’d love it!”
I thought about getting that towel out of the hamper and strangling my boss with it.
“You’re going out with some guy you just met?” I tried to make the question sound casual, but Barber cut a long look in my direction.
KC hopped out of the chair, still grinning. “Yeah, why not? What do you think of the cut? It’s a little shorter than I usually get.” He blasted me with that amazing smile of his and the urge to just crawl across the floor to him smacked me.
“It’s great. You always look good.” That awful sensation from earlier today that had taken me hours to beat back was digging a new hole in my gut all over again. He looked perfect for someone else.
“Awesome! Well, I gotta go. I have practice and homework.” He patted my back as he walked past me, and the heat of his palm seared through my thin shirt. I breathed through the rush of excitement that mingled in a strange, unpleasant way with the grief biting at my insides.
“See you at home,” Barber said, before flinging himself down into the chair KC had abandoned and texting with his tongue poked between his teeth.
That meant he was probably sending Quain, his boyfriend, something that would irritate him.
Pissing off Quain was Barber’s favorite hobby when he should be working. Well, also when he wasn’t working.
It was half of what he did with his life.
KC was Quain’s son, so Barber got to live in the same house as KC.
See his perfect face every morning. Go on vacation with him.
Hang out for no reason, other than they belonged in the same space.
I knew Barber didn’t care about that, but it didn’t stop me from being jealous.
As I walked past him, I stepped on the pedal that lowered the chair, and he yelped.
“Shit! I bit my tongue.” Barber pouted in my direction.
“Sorry.” I was so not sorry.
“What bug crawled up your ass?” He slipped his phone into his pocket, then crossed his arms and focused all his attention on me, which could be dangerous.
“Nothing.”
“Oh no. You look like someone called your mom a whore.” He snorted.
I glared at him and went over to the register, dropped down onto the stool behind it, and then rested my forehead on the counter.
“You alive over there?”
“Someone is opening a tattoo place next to PD’s.”
Barber laughed and clapped his hands, and I raised my head to glare at him.
“That’s not a good thing,” I ground out between my teeth.
“Eh, maybe it’ll put him out of business, and you can finally stop trying to quit on me.” He sprang out of his chair and rushed over to ruffle my curls in exactly the way that made me homicidal. I swatted at him.
“Stop being a jerk! It’s a really bad thing!”
He tilted his head and laid his hands on the counter. “It would be a real fucking shame if something happened to that building the new guy is in, wouldn’t it?”
“I told PD that, and he said it wasn’t my business. Told me to stay out of it.” I wrinkled my nose.
Barber bent over, rested his chin on the counter, and then the goofy idiot smirked up at me. “Well, I’m not supposed to involve you in club stuff, but this isn’t that. You know what I always say.”
“Better to ask for forgiveness than beg for permission?”
“Close enough.” He struck, ruffling my hair again, and I squawked, nearly falling off my stool to get away from him. “Don’t be a fucking pussy.”
“PD was mad,” I mumbled.
“Yeah, when isn’t he?” He shrugged and went back to his chair, taking out his phone again.
“Can I go? It’s dead.” The wheels were turning in my head again.
If my life was about to be over because KC was going to meet someone perfect and marry him and never look at me twice, I at least needed to hold on to my other dream.
I couldn’t let PD lose business or I would never have a chance to redeem myself and get him to hire me.
I knew I could do it. I just had to try harder.
“Sure. Don’t do anything I would do.” He winked.
“I’m going to do exactly what you would do,” I grumbled, taking off for the door.
He must’ve heard me because he was laughing when I left.