Chapter 34
34
brYCE
I’ve just finished cleaning up my station when a key jiggles in the door and Shade saunters inside. He keeps his hood up as he closes the door with his foot and carries the pizza boxes and a white bag of food to the front desk.
“Oh honeys, I’m home,” he calls like a douche.
Daisy drops from the table to her feet and turns to face him, grinning. “And you brought food.”
Still only in her panties, I have to distract myself with putting all of my supplies back so I don’t force her into her pants before she has a chance to see the tattoo. The thought of her half-naked in front of anyone but me feels like a sucker punch to the gut, but it’s only Shade. Even if he is one flirty fucker, he won’t try anything with her. Not like he would have a shot, anyway. She made that more than clear to him.
“Hope you like pizza and wings. That’s just about all we’ve got in this town.”
“I love both.”
I tug my gloves off and crumple them into a ball before asking him, “Did you remember my order?”
He shakes his head in disbelief. “You’ve been gone a couple of months, Bryce. Not years. So yeah, I remembered, and I even got the extra blue cheese ranch that you love.”
“Blue cheese ranch?” Daisy asks, nose scrunched.
Shade winces, setting the bags down and beginning to rifle through them. “Uh-oh.”
“I hate blue cheese,” Daisy says like that is excuse enough.
I make a pained noise and roll back on my stool to toss the gloves. “No fucking way.”
She gapes at me. The irritated, red skin around her new tattoo is angry in the fluorescent lights, but fuck me, it’s a good tattoo. So completely her.
“Don’t tell me that’s a deal breaker?” She balks.
“Normally, I’d say it would be. But that art on your leg tells me that you might stand a chance, little devil,” Shade says, butting in with a loose grin.
I catch her stare and wink, loving the way she doesn’t bother hiding the flush that smears across her cheeks. “Go look at your tattoo.”
With a skip in her step, she moves around me toward the wall of mirrors. I fight off the blast of nerves that hits me the moment she props her leg in front of her and fixes wide eyes to the reflection of the wrapped design.
It’s some of my best work, despite the simplicity of it. Two long black stems crossing at the middle and topped with yellow daisies. Script isn’t my specialty, but the Daisy written in cursive along the left stem was an impulse decision. Once I finished the initial outline, it was like my hand had a mind of its own.
“It’s beautiful,” Daisy murmurs.
My heart smashes against my ribs. “You like it?”
Nodding quickly, she catches my gaze in the mirror. “I love it. It’s so freaking perfect.”
“Bryce is one of the best I’ve ever come across. Obviously, she’s not as good as me, but it’s a fucking shame she isn’t in a space of her own like this one,” Shade says with a pointed look in my direction .
I wet my dry lips and flip him off. Daisy answers him before I can.
“Would you ever share this place with her?”
The question takes both of us by surprise. Shade cocks his head and stares at me with those dark eyes of his. We’ve joked about it before, but he knows just as well as I do from all of my complaining about my parents that it wouldn’t work.
As fucked up as it may be, the moment I cut that last cord, I’ll free myself from them entirely. It sounds like everything I should and often do want, but at the same time, they’re still my parents. Shitty ones, but parents nonetheless.
Who am I without them? Would I regret my choice years down the road?
It’s why I’ve put up with my mother’s shit for so long. If I stop, I know what will come next. The family I’ve made over the course of my life will be all I have left.
Daisy, having pulled her pants back on, abandons the mirrors and starts my way. Once again, it’s like she can see straight into my head and the thoughts that run rampant within it.
Shade carries all the boxes of food over to the couch and sets them on the floor in front of it. “There’s been a station waiting for her here for years. She’s just got to claim it.”
“You make it sound so easy,” I mutter.
Daisy reaches me and kisses the top of my head. “You deserve to do what you love for a living. Your talent should be seen by everyone. Not just those who call you over in the middle of the night.”
“That office job you’ve got is a waste of time, Bryce. You’re wasting the best years of your life and what could be a fucking incredible career behind a desk doing your mother’s bidding,” Shade adds with a flip of the first pizza box lid.
The longing I felt the moment we stepped into this place returns with a vengeance. It takes too much effort to keep my face blank.
“What is this? Gang up on Bryce day? ”
“Sure, if that will help you take us seriously,” Shade states.
I stand and kick the stool to the side before turning to Daisy. She doesn’t budge from where she stands, concern lining every inch of her face.
“You deserve the best of everything, sweetheart. That’s all.”
I’m at risk of falling in love with this woman. It’s already right there, so close I can touch it with my fingertips.
Fuck, what if I’m already there?
“What she said. Now, sit your asses down and eat dinner with me. I’m already beginning to wither away,” Shade huffs.
“You’d be the last person to wither away from starvation. What do you weigh, two fifty?” I ask.
He flops onto the floor with his back to the couch and grabs a slice of meaty pizza. With a leg pulled toward his body and an arm slung over his knee, he looks unbelievably large.
“Two thirty,” he corrects me before flexing beneath his hoodie. “And it’s pure muscle, baby girl. Wanna see?”
“No.”
He shifts his stare to Daisy, but I’m already moving in his direction. Once I’ve joined him on the floor, I smack him upside the head and snatch a buffalo chicken wing, covering it in the special ranch.
Pointing it at him, I drop my voice into a growl. “Don’t even think about it.”
“Are you threatening me with a chicken wing?”
Daisy’s laugh steals my attention. I watch her sit beside me and criss-cross her legs before taking a honey garlic chicken wing and sinking her teeth into it.
She’s immediately fit in with Shade, like she hasn’t only just met him today. It’s a superpower of hers. No matter where we are or who we’re with, she can become a member of their circle with a smile and a few honest words. Everyone loves her and doesn’t for one second hesitate to accept her.
I wonder what that feels like. To make such a good first impression on everyone you meet to the point they’re accepting you into the fold with no hesitation.
When I was younger, it was easier to make friends. We didn’t know better back then than to take every smile and hello as an olive branch. But as an adult, friendships have been far and few between for me. People can be judgy and cruel but also completely opposite of you in views and dreams. It’s a miracle to find even one person that you connect with, and that’s not even the hard part.
It’s keeping them around once you’ve started letting them see who you are past the surface level.
I found Shade when I was in my late teen years and let arrogance convince me to pop into this place with a pile of angst and anger and demand the best artist in this part of the country ink me up. If he hadn’t taken one look at me and recognized my pain as a similar kind to the one he knew, we wouldn’t be here right now.
Anna and Aurora were driven to Cherry Peak with suitcases’ worth of their own pain. A cheating ex-fiancé and secret celebrity father. It wasn’t a coincidence they were both led here and that we stumbled upon each other when we did.
Daisy . . . she’s something more. A blessing from the universe that I know I won’t get lucky enough to receive twice.
Every friendship I’ve made in the last few years has stemmed from a shared experience of pain and anger. All except for the one I’ve found with my sunshine.
Ours is full of light and excitement. A deep yearning and desire. It’s the first ray of sun streaming through the clouds of a lifelong rainstorm.
When I zone back in, it’s to the sight of Shade reaching across my body to show Daisy photos on his phone. I blink at the bicep in my face and then lean into Daisy to see the photo on the screen.
“How many of Bryce’s tattoos have you done?” she asks, swiping to the left and rolling her lips to hide a smile when the python with its fangs in the peach on my thigh appears.
Shade looks at me, twisting his mouth as he thinks. “What would you say? Eighty percent?”
“Around that,” I confirm.
“And that hasn’t been weird? I’m assuming you did the bull piece on her chest?” Daisy asks, hesitation mixing with something else in her voice.
“I did. But no, it’s not weird. It’s work. We take that shit seriously,” he answers between bites of pizza. I shove his arm away, and he drapes it over his knee again.
Daisy brings her eyes up to mine and holds them there, searching for whatever she didn’t get from Shade. It takes me a moment to realize what it is.
I stroke the inside of her arm and bring my mouth to her ear. “No, Daisy. It’s never been like that between us and never will be. You’re the only one I’ve ever shared an intimate experience with while giving or getting a tattoo. Only you.”
She shudders as my words drift across her skin. I take the shell of her ear between my teeth and apply soft pressure before releasing it.
“Okay,” she whispers.
“Have you ever asked to tattoo Bryce?” Shade asks, attention fixed on Daisy.
“You mean, like, I would tattoo her ?”
I take a bite of chicken wing to keep from laughing at her surprise.
Shade swallows a bite of pizza. “Yeah. I let her do it to me the first day she showed up here. It should be a tradition or something. You come here, you get some ink. Every single time.”
Licking the hot sauce and ranch from my lips, I quirk a brow. “I already put everything away.”
“Okay, so next time you come here, we’ll let the little devil give you a piece of her own. Nobody leaves this place without some ink, yeah? ”
“It’s only fair, I suppose,” Daisy agrees easily.
I’ve never had many traditions in my life. But this one could be my new favourite.
“You know he’s saying that you’ll have to get a tattoo every time I bring you here, right?” I ask to be sure.
Her eyes brighten. “I can agree to that.”
“Don’t let him pressure you. You’ve only just got your first piece,” I add, ignoring the pressure swelling between my legs at the picture in my mind of her with a tattoo gun in her hand.
“And I loved it. A lot.”
“You heard her. Stop trying to change her mind,” Shade scolds me.
I let it go for now, but considering I’m going to do everything I can to make sure I get the chance to bring Daisy back here, it’s not the last time we’ll be talking about it.
She’s not going to be forced into liking something just because I do. Not when a hobby like mine is the permanent kind.
“Fine,” I relent.
Shade tears his pizza crust in half. “And while we’re on the topic, you’re not staying away for months again. I’m not the clingy type, but I nearly spam texted you to come visit me.”
“I’ll make sure she comes back soon,” Daisy promises.
Yeah, I’m falling in love with her.