17. Trick
17
TRICK
If I’m honest with myself, I thought she’d get weird about it afterward.
I thought she’d go all shy and closed off, the way most people do when something big happens and they don’t know how to deal with it. That’s usually what happens when you break the “just friends” barrier, right? Especially with someone like Marie—Preacher’s kid, who’s always been quiet and a little awkward.
But then again, technically, we broke that barrier last night. I haven’t watched too many of my friends during their me-time, and I certainly haven’t jerked off in front of them.
Instead of getting weird, though, she’s sitting here in the tattoo chair, swinging her legs like she doesn’t have a care in the world, giggling at something Hugo said.
It’s cute. Too cute. And honestly, it’s throwing me off my game.
Though, that might be the floaty feeling in my brain. I don’t think it’s ever been like that before. Sex, I mean. Me and the guys, we’ve tag-teamed lots of women, so that’s not the new part. But I felt it last night too, though in a smaller way.
Something about Marie makes everything different. I don’t have many rules in my life. But I’d break every one of them for her.
Normally, after a hookup, my job is to tease them, maybe annoy them a little so they start thinking about leaving. Hugo usually vanishes, keeping up his man of mystery persona. Sam generally makes comments about how late it is, and how much we don’t want to delay them from heading home.
What’s happening now ain’t any of that. Thank fuck.
But I’m not above teasing Marie. I like it. She gets all squirmy, but I think she likes it too. “Still can’t believe you actually got inked. You didn’t even flinch. Well, not much .” I grin and wink at her, enjoying the way she reacts.
Marie tilts her head, giving me a mock glare. “I flinched exactly once , Trick.”
“Sure you did,” I tease. “Once for every needle prick, right?”
Her cheeks flush, but she laughs anyway, that soft, light sound that’s got me grinning like an idiot. She mutters, “The only prick in here…”
I guffaw at that. “I didn’t know you knew that word.”
“You’re impossible,” she growls, crossing her arms.
“And you’re adorable,” I shoot back without thinking.
Her face goes redder, and I catch Hugo raising an eyebrow out of the corner of my eye. Great. Now he’s going to have something to say about this later.
That’s fine. It’s true. She is adorable.
“Don’t encourage him, Marie,” Sam says from across the room, his voice low and gruff. He’s cleaning up his station, his back turned to us, but I can tell by the way his shoulders are set that he’s listening to every word.
I’m not sure why he’s preoccupying himself with cleaning. The shop is as clean as it can be. But he also likes to clean so he can think, and I’m not sure I want him thinking about anything.
When Sam thinks, he’s trying to be an adult about things, which can only be bad in this situation. We don’t need him thinking about any of this. The man needs to let himself feel his way through it, not think his way through it. But he always says his feelings aren’t trustworthy, so that’s why he avoids them.
It’s a bullshit excuse, and I’ve told him that, but he isn’t inclined to take my word for it. So, I’ll have to drag him into this kicking and screaming like I always do when something is good for him. “Come on, Sam,” I say, smirking. “You’re telling me you don’t think she’s adorable? Look at her.”
Sam’s hand pauses mid-swipe for just a second. “Of course she is.”
Hugo chuckles softly, pushing off the wall to stand next to me. “You’ve got a point, Trick. She has a certain…charm.”
Marie’s cheeks are practically glowing now, and she waves a hand at both of us. “Stop it. You’re embarrassing me.”
“Embarrassing you?” I say, grinning wider. “Marie, we’re complimenting you. This is praise. You should be flattered.”
“Flattered by what?”
“Not by what. By who. And the who is me ,” I say, leaning in a little. “I mean, look at me. Obviously, I know all about being adorable. If I say someone is adorable, then you know on good authority that they are, in fact, adorable.”
She snorts a giggle. “It feels like, the more you say that word, the less meaning it has.”
“Nah, the trouble is Sam and Hugo. They don’t know what it is to be adorable like me and you. They’re just riding my compliment coattails.”
Hugo snorts. “Please. If anyone’s riding coattails, it’s you. Mine, specifically.”
“Yours?” I turn to him, pretending to be offended. “The only thing I’m riding is the wave of your jealousy. Admit it—you wish you had my charm.”
“Charm?” Hugo repeats, his smirk widening. “Is that what we’re calling it now?”
Marie bursts into giggles, and I shoot Hugo a glare that’s about as serious as a wet paper towel. “Don’t ruin this for me, man.”
“Ruin what?” Marie asks, still laughing.
I look at her, and for a second I forget how to be funny. How to tease a girl to make her smile. She’s already smiling at me, all bright and warm and completely at ease, and it hits me like a sucker punch.
This. This is what I don’t want ruined.
But I don’t say that. Instead, I lean back against the counter and shrug. “My ego, obviously. It’s fragile, you know.” I wink. “The only thing fragile about me.”
“That makes sense. I didn’t think you could lift me like that.”
“You kidding? I’ve had to lift each of these guys off the side of a?—”
Sam clears his throat.
Right. Not supposed to mention that. She is not read-in enough for the cliff story. I switch gears back to civilian mode. “I’ve had to carry these guys out of bars more times than I care to remember. You weigh practically nothing.”
Odd. I’ve never come that close to spilling an old story before. It’s Marie. She makes me want to share everything with her.
“Do not listen to him, Marie,” Hugo purrs. “It’s him we have carried out of bars. He’s a menace on tequila.”
She laughs, and I take the opportunity to give him a nod of thanks for running with that lie. I don’t like lying to Marie, but these lies keep her safe, and I’ll do anything to keep her safe.
The thing about Hugo, though, is that he doesn’t have to try. The lies we have to tell come naturally to him. He’s smooth and sharp and rich as hell, so as he puts it, he has a passing interest in things like truth and lies. Lying never bothered him. To him, it’s a tool as much as anything else is.
Worse, he’s pretty. Well, pretty for a man. He did some modeling overseas, and we never let him live that down. But the fact remains—women fall at his feet, guys either want to be him or want to punch him, and he’s completely unaffected by it all unless he wants to be.
Why he’s stuck around with me and Sam, I’ll never know.
“Hey, Marie,” Hugo says, leaning against the wall again, that smirk still playing at the corners of his mouth. “What’s next for you?”
“What do you mean?” she asks.
“I mean, what are your intentions?” he says, his voice casual but laced with just enough curiosity to make her squirm. “Going forward. With us.”
Marie’s eyes go wide. “I—I don’t know. I wasn’t really…thinking about the future.”
“Good answer,” Hugo says with a nod. “I usually find that’s the best way to stumble into the interesting parts of life.”
I roll my eyes. “Of course you can say that, Mr. ‘I Own Half the Parish.’ You can afford to stumble into whatever you want. Some of us have to actually work for a living, you know.”
Hugo chuckles, shaking his head. “And yet, here we are, standing in the same room.”
“Yeah, but we got here different ways,” I shoot back. “You rolled up in your fancy truck, and I rolled up on my bike.”
“Both got us here, didn’t they?”
I can’t argue with that, so I just smirk and turn back to Marie.
“What about you?” I ask her. “What’s your ride of choice, Miss ‘I Wasn’t Thinking About the Future’?”
She hesitates, glancing between me and Hugo. “I…don’t know,” she says finally, her voice soft.
“See?” Hugo says, gesturing to her. “She gets it. Life’s more fun when you don’t plan it all out.”
“Yeah, well, not all of us can stumble into things and come out on top,” I mutter, shaking my head.
Hugo’s offered to put me and Sam on salary more than I can count, and we’ve turned him down every time. It’s not that we don’t appreciate it—we do. But it feels wrong.
Before I hooked up with Sam and Hugo, I spent most of my youth on the road, bouncing from one place to another, chasing one thrill after another. I’ve seen enough of the world to know that what I really want isn’t out there.
It’s here. That’s the weird feeling I couldn’t pin down before. I didn’t recognize it until now, but that’s it. I want this. I want us. The four of us together. And now, with Marie sitting in front of me, smiling and laughing like she’s got the whole world ahead of her, I can’t help but think about what that “here” could look like.
I’ve never been good at planning. That’s Sam’s thing. He’s the steady one, the guy who keeps us grounded when Hugo’s scheming and I’m goofing off.
But at the moment, my brain’s doing something it’s not used to—planning for something more. And yeah, maybe it’s premature, but when I think about settling down, I can’t stop thinking about Marie.
Her smile in the morning. Her laugh at the dinner table. Her voice saying something sassy while she helps me with something I could probably figure out myself if I wasn’t so busy listening to her talk.
Maybe Hugo’s right. Maybe the best things in life really do happen when you’re not planning for them. I sure as shit wasn’t planning anything like this. So, if Marie’s one of those things, I’m not about to let her slip through my fingers.
Of course, there’s a catch.
Or in this case, several catches.
The biggest one? Preacher. He ain’t gonna like any of this, and we need him to. Since her mother’s death, Marie has been tight with him, so we gotta figure out how to make him happy about this.
The second biggest one is Sam. He won’t be settled until he knows Preacher is cool, and that’ll take time. But I’m sure we can make it work.
Hugo is obviously on board with all of this, and so is Marie. I think.
The last problem is me. When that thought strikes, it’s another gut punch. Mostly because it’s true. I’m not the kind of guy a girl like Marie ends up with. Not by a long shot.
I’ve done things that would turn her hair white and make her never talk to me again. If she ever found out…that’d be the end of this. I’m not worthy of someone as innocent as Marie, and that gnaws at me every time she smiles my way.
If there was ever a reason for me to turn over a new leaf, it’s her. Maybe that’s how I can justify this. She’s my motivation to stay on the straight and narrow, the reason I can be the good guy for once.
She’s looking at me again, her cheeks pink, her eyes bright, and I can’t stop myself from grinning.
“Guess we’ll figure it out as we go,” I say lightly, though my chest feels like it’s been squeezed in a vise.
“Guess so,” she replies softly, her smile tugging at something deep inside me.
Yeah, I could go good for her. I’d do anything for her.