Chapter Two
K ATIE ENJOYED HER little salon, loved the laughs that came from being in a room with a bunch of women. She’d rented a chair in a larger salon for years, which hadn’t been cheap but was a lot less than owning her own place. The problem with renting a chair was that you had no say about who would be renting next to you, and Katie had gotten tired of the backstabbing and client stealing. She wanted to be able to choose who she worked with. She’d always planned on buying a salon someday, but she’d also planned on being married before that ever happened.
So she’d saved every tip, every extra penny to pay for a dream wedding that never happened. Instead of using her money on the perfect dress, she’d put a down payment on her house and rented the salon space from Maeve Kettle, who’d done the rinses and styles of the ladies of Rock Canyon for forty years. Katie had done some painting and updated all the equipment, but it had been hard finding beauticians and manicurists who wanted to work in such a small shop, let alone a small community. After six months, though, she had two other stylists and two manicurists who were all easygoing and worked well together, and she’d just hired Kitty the month before to help organize their schedules. Overall, K.C.’s Salon was doing great.
Katie had a pretty light day on Tuesday and was just finishing up a cut and highlight when Chase walked in. Ducking down and slinking off to the storage room seemed like the best plan, but she couldn’t leave Daphne O’Neal’s hair wet, and with her luck, someone would ask her what she was doing, thus drawing more attention to herself. She didn’t know how she would face him, though, knowing he had probably read every word on her list and laughed at her expense. She was mortified and yet ticked off that he had the nerve to poke his nose into her business.
When Chase caught her gaze, he smiled with so much sexy arrogance her cheeks burned.
“Be right with you!” she called shakily.
Turning her back on him to finish blow-drying Daphne’s hair, her eyes kept straying to his reflection in the mirror. He had on a pair of loose jeans and a blue T-shirt tight enough to show off some very drool-worthy pecs. Jimmy had been short and stocky, whereas Chase was tall, with lean muscle. He leaned over to say something to Kitty, and Katie noticed that every female eye seemed to be watching him, and if the way he flashed that pearly white smile around was any indication, the cocky jerk knew it.
Bigheaded jerk. Showing up here with his charm and his hotness, all to tease her. Well, she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of letting him fluster her. Turning off the dryer, she smiled at Daphne and said, “You’re set. See you back in a couple of months. Make sure the shampoo and conditioner you’re using is for color-treated hair, okay?”
Daphne turned her head from left to right and gushed, “Of course, Katie. You do such a good job on my hair. I love it!”
Katie smiled, although her eyes were on the hunk of juicy male resting against the reception desk, watching her every move. Turning away from the mirror and his blatant perusal, Katie grabbed her broom and started her post-appointment cleanup. Daphne left her tip on the station desk, and despite her resolve to not let him get under her skin, Katie looked over in time to see Daphne flashing him an inviting smile. Chase just nodded at her, ignoring her disappointment, and turned his unnerving gaze back on Katie. He gave her a knowing grin, and imagining what he must be thinking about, she swept harder.
When she couldn’t stall anymore, she put the small broom back and tried for casual, but it sounded a little squeaky to her ears. “Hey, Chase, what brings you by?”
Kitty, always so helpful, answered, “Oh, Chase is here for a haircut. He called this morning.”
Katie’s nerves went from frazzled to haywired. She eyed the already short strands and could tell that it hadn’t been too long since his last haircut. “Looks like you just had one.”
“Yeah? I did a few weeks ago.” He stood up and moved closer to her until she had to look up at him. She tried not to think about how good he smelled as he said, “Is it a problem that I like having my hair cut? For me, nothing feels better than having someone’s fingers run through my hair.” Lowering his voice, he added, “Well, almost nothing.”
At his suggestive words, her heart pounded like a hundred hoof beats and she tried to ignore the way his mouth tilted up in a small smile, a smile that said I know exactly what I’m doing and you want me bad, don’t you? The guy thought he was so irresistible.
Well, he kind of is. I mean, between the eyes, chin, and that body, who wouldn’t go a little gaga over him?
How could she be attracted to the man who had taken something so personal from her last night and was here now, teasing her, taunting her with his presence? When had she gone completely cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs and started lusting after any hottie with a body no matter how despicable he may be?
Trying to regain some composure, she said, “Oh well, sure. Come on back. Do you know what you want to have done?”
“Just short on the sides and a little longer up top so I can spike it,” he said, easing into the chair of the washing sink, his lips still twisted in that annoying smirk.
Sliding the cape over him, she tried to focus on her irritation and not on his very nice lips. She turned on the water to hot, slowly decreasing the temperature until it felt good on her skin.
“All right, just let me know if it’s too hot or cold.” She ran her hands through his already short hair and over the skin of his neck, helping him lean back. She relaxed as those gorgeous eyes closed, no longer looking at her like he could see inside her head, and said, “Feel good?”
“Awesome,” he said.
Filling her hand with shampoo, Katie began to work it into his hair, using her fingers to massage the scalp and give gentle tugs on the strands. She leaned closer to him, watching his handsome face soften, and when she heard a small groan escape him as she found the two pressure points on the back of his neck she tried to remember he had read some very personal things about her and as a result, had come to her place of business to mess with her. Only a mean-spirited snake would harass someone he hardly knew.
Despite her suspicions as to why he was there, she couldn’t help noticing that he was one of the best-looking guys in town. With his mouth slightly open and his full lips looking soft, she wondered if he was a good kisser. Jimmy had been more of a bird with his kisses and it had made her crazy, until she’d finally grab him by his head to keep him still. Somehow she had a feeling Chase knew how to kiss without any direction.
I bet this is what he would look like during sex .
“Holy shit, that is amazing. Where did you learn to do that?” His voice broke into her disturbing thoughts, rough and raspy. It was the sexiest sound she’d ever heard.
What is wrong with me? Stop thinking about him. He’s just another turd with nice eyes ... and lips ... okay, so his chest and arms are pretty great ...
Pulling at his short strands again, she tried to control her hormones and prayed he wouldn’t open his eyes. The last thing she needed was for the man who had already seen a list of her biggest regrets catching her with flushed cheeks and wondering why washing his hair was getting to her. The guy was not a nice man, and he didn’t deserve her lusty thoughts. “In school, and I also got my massage therapist license. Just let me know if the pressure is too much.”
“It’s perfect,” he said, opening his eyes. She silently prayed her cheeks were no longer rosy, but if they were, he didn’t mention it. Instead, he surprised her by adding, “I actually came in to apologize. I didn’t mean to embarrass you last night. I was trying to be playful, and I crossed the line.”
Jerking her gaze up to meet his, there was no mockery on his face and he sounded sincere. Maybe she had been wrong about him and he wasn’t such a bad guy. She felt a little guilty for all the angry thoughts she’d been having about him.
She rinsed the shampoo and rubbed the conditioner in, starting the scalp massage over again. While she worked, she decided to follow her mother’s advice about graciousness and said, “Thank you for your apology. I appreciate it.”
They were both quiet for a few minutes, and she assumed it was because that was all he had needed to get off his chest. But while she was rinsing the conditioner out, he said, “I’ve been thinking about your list.”
The hand holding the sprayer slipped and she gasped in horror as the full force of water hit him smack in the face. She turned off the water quickly as he flew up spluttering, wiping water from his eyes. Grabbing a towel from the cupboard, she started patting his face dry, blurting, “Oh my God, are you okay? I didn’t mean to do that, you just ...”
He opened one of his eyes and grimaced. “I was going to say that if you want to come by tonight, I’ll help you out with number two, but if you’re going to drown me, I take it back.”
She tried to remember what number two was. Then it clicked. Two. Get a tattoo.
She brought down another towel from the cupboard and started drying his face and hair, avoiding his gaze. “I was just playing around when I wrote that list. Things I would never do, you know.”
He blinked both of his eyes open and grinned. “Right.”
How dare he not believe her? Biting her tongue and counting to ten, she finished cleaning him up and said calmly, “Okay, why don’t you follow me, and we’ll get your cut started.”
She walked in front of him to her chair, aware of everyone watching them curiously, and motioned for him to sit down.
“So that list you wrote was just for fun? Stuff you would never, ever do?” he said as he slid into her chair.
“Yeah, that’s right. Just me being a lightweight,” she said, pulling out her clippers and comb.
“Huh. That’s too bad.” She couldn’t stop her head from jerking up and locking eyes with him in the mirror. “A couple of those items I’d be happy to help you out with.”
C HASE CHUCKLED AS she flipped on the clippers, her cheeks bright pink. She worked on him in silence and he decided to bide his time until she finished. Teasing Katie was starting to become one of his favorite activities. She’d been angry with him; even when she’d tried to hide it, he could tell, but there was something else there too. A little spark of interest maybe? Something that made him certain good girl Katie wanted to try her hand at being very, very bad.
His eyes followed the swell of her breasts as her chest came close to his face. They were a great size and shape, just big enough to fill his hands, and those lips were soft, pouty, and had a promise of bliss. He wondered if she’d slap him if he just happened to kiss her right now, in front of everyone in the salon.
Chase didn’t have a shy bone in his body and he especially didn’t mind going after what he wanted. The only other woman in town to tempt him for more than a quick release was Ryan Ashton, but he’d lost that battle. Ryan had been a good girl too, a bit on the shy side, but he had been interested in her because they’d had similar interests. By the time he had met her, though, she was already spoken for.
Despite his efforts to stay away, good girls had always been a huge draw for him, ever since he hit puberty. But those types of girls hadn’t wanted anything to do with trailer-trash Chase. If they had looked at him at all, it was because they had a score to settle with Daddy and he fit the bill of “big mistake.” Those girls may have been good, but they didn’t have a nice bone in their bodies, whereas Katie had this way about her. She genuinely seemed to care about the people in her life, even the ones he thought really didn’t deserve anyone’s consideration. It was like she was constantly trying to dig deep inside everyone else and find the good in them, something he would never dream of doing. He barely knew her, but he found her to be an enigma, a puzzle he wanted to solve.
She turned off the clippers and cleaned him up, styling his hair into short spikes. He watched her in the mirror, her champagne-blond hair in a sassy knot on top of her head.
When she finished, she smiled too brightly and said, “All done. You can just pay Kitty up front.”
Chase pulled out his wallet and slipped her a ten, with his card underneath. “The offer still stands. Come by tonight and I’ll help you out,” he said, his voice lowered, “with anything you might want.”
Those full lips tightened and he saw her hand was shaking as she took his money and card. Tossing them into the top drawer of her station and snapping it closed, she said softly, “Thank you. I’ll see you back in a few weeks.”
“Or sooner,” he said confidently.
Her blue-eyed gaze was no longer friendly as he turned away, grinning his way up to perky Kitty. He was going to get to the real Katie Connors sooner or later. He had a feeling she was going to be a lot of fun.
Once she pulled that giant stick out of her ass.
K ATIE FINISHED HER last appointment and headed to the grocery store to do some shopping. She drove past The Local Bean and Chloe’s Book Nook, and looked to the left at Chase’s place, Jagged Rock Tattoo Parlor. She was still fuming about him coming into her salon and playing with her, even if he had apologized. Telling her he could help her out with anything on her list. Of all the conceited, high-handed, jerky things to say. He obviously hadn’t been too sorry, since he made that outrageous proposition. And after she had just started to think he wasn’t that bad of a guy.
Who did he think he was, Iron Man? That he could just ooze charm and she would fawn all over him because he was handsome, successful, and single?
Like she would ever really do anything on that list, and for him to suggest it made her feel cheap. Like he had no respect for her, or maybe it was just women in general. Was he one of those guys who thought all women were easy prey, just waiting for some big, handsome guy to move in with a few suggestive ideas and they would just drop their panties and say, “ Come on, big boy ...”?
Without really thinking about what she was doing, she pulled around the corner and parked. She slammed her door and marched into the parlor just as he was coming out of the back with a sterile tray. His pleased, lazy smile only added fuel to the fire.
“Hey,” she said, “I don’t appreciate you coming into my salon and baiting me with things you really know nothing about.”
Setting his tray down slowly, he said, “Actually, I know quite a bit about tattoos, and let’s see ...” He pulled something from his pocket and unfolded it slowly. Recognizing the bar napkin, Katie lunged forward and tried to grab at it, but he held it out of reach, reading, “Sex shops, stealing—although I don’t recommend that—drinking, skinny-dipping, flirting, and oh yeah ... one-night stands.” He brought his arm down and she snatched the list from him. Before she could move away, he reached out and grabbed her wrist, running his thumb over her skin slowly.
Attempting to pull away from him, she cursed the tingles his warm hand caused. Glaring, she tried to sound firm. “Let go of me. I’m tired of your games. I don’t know why you think it’s funny to play with someone’s emotions, but I’ve never done anything to you and I find it humiliating that you would make fun of me over something I did when I was having a bad day. It makes you a bully, and I want you to leave me alone.”
Chase didn’t release her, just reached out with his other hand and started to pull her toward him. Her heart pounded as all that mouthwatering muscle drew closer to her and he slipped his arm around her waist. She might think Chase was lower than pond scum, but her hormones sure didn’t agree.
Katie stopped struggling and tilted her face up just as he said, “I can’t do that.”
Letting her wrist go, she froze as he trailed his hand up her arm slowly, making every single cell in her body scream to get closer, but a lifetime of good breeding and manners kept reciting, Good girls don’t ... good girls don’t ...
Still, the part of her that hadn’t been held by a man in a long time wanted him to kiss her until her brain shut up.
He didn’t kiss her like she wanted him to, though.
Chase ran one hand through her hair and cupped her cheek with the other. “Sweet Katie, the last thing on this earth I’d want to do is upset you, but I have to say, it is really hot to see you all riled up.” He slipped his thumb over her bottom lip and continued, “Your mouth purses when someone irritates you and you’re trying not to say anything. I’ve noticed you do that a lot. But your eyes heat up when you’re ticked off, and that’s hard to miss. Like now.”
Katie was holding her breath as she swayed toward him, and he whispered, “Do you know what you want?”
Did she? “Yes.” She drifted a little closer, like she couldn’t resist him. It was his eyes. No, the way he smiled. Maybe ...
“Do you know where you want it?”
His words were penetrating the fog of desire and she blinked at him. “What?”
Sliding his hand from her lip to over her shoulder, he asked, “Do you want it here?”
It finally registered what he was asking and she said, “I don’t want a tattoo.”
“Are you sure?” he said teasingly. “’Cause I have a binder full of things you might like. Of course, there are some things we could check off the list that don’t involve binders, needles, or tattoos. Let me think ...”
She needed to move away from him so she could think. She took a breath, but that was a mistake. He smelled amazing, and she was so tired of being good all the time. She was thirty years old and the man she was supposed to spend the rest of her life with had picked someone else. Maybe if she had been more daring and less rigid, Jimmy wouldn’t have dumped her. She would never know now. She couldn’t change the past, but she could let go now, just this once.
Slipping her arms up around his neck and ignoring his wide-eyed expression, she said, “Chase, if you want to kiss me, will you just do it already?”
O F ALL THE things she could have said to him, that wasn’t what he’d been expecting.
Despite his initial surprise, Chase, never one to disappoint a lady, dropped his mouth to hers and took her lips in a soft, searching kiss.
Damn.
She tasted like peppermint and heat. Using his arm to bring her against him, his other hand slipped to the back of her neck. He liked that she didn’t just let him kiss her, but she kissed back with enthusiasm. Katie’s hands ran over his neck, reminding him of her scalp massage, and he imagined those hands on other parts of his body. The intimate image and the feel of her pressed so closely to him made his cock harden with need.
Her hands traveled over his back, down his sides, and up under his T-shirt. Her nails skimmed his bare skin, sliding around to his stomach and between their bodies. Anyone walking by could look in and see them.
“Maybe I should lock the door,” he said between kisses, “pull the blinds.”
He knew it was a mistake to break the spell the minute he spoke the words. Her eyes popped open and she stared up at him in horror. She tried to move away from him, but he didn’t want her to leave, not yet. “I just didn’t want someone to walk by and see you. This town is like a festering pool of gossip, and I’m not exactly Mr. Popularity.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me ...” she said, fiddling with her cute, lopsided bun, which was starting to come down.
“Hey, no complaints here. You don’t have to apologize for anything,” he said, wondering what exactly she was apologizing for. Asking him to kiss her? Kissing him back?
He would have asked, but he figured it might just tick her off, and right now she looked like she was thinking hard about something. Like whether or not she wanted him to do as he’d suggested and get back to making her soft and willing ...
Her voice was so quiet, he almost didn’t hear her ask, “Does it hurt?”
Kissing? No, wait, not kissing. Oh.
“Getting a tattoo?” She nodded and he laughed. She just kept surprising him. “A little, sometimes a lot, depending where you get it, but then the pain goes away after a bit and it’s just uncomfortable.”
“Hmmm.” She pulled away from him, much to his disappointment, and turned. Katie walked over to the wall of photographs, pictures of women and men showing off his work. He was proud of his art, not just the tattoos, but his graphic novels too. She stopped in front of his framed copy of Destructo Boy , his first graphic novel, and he said, “I did that one years ago, when I was barely eighteen.”
She turned to him with surprised eyes and asked, “You did? Did you do anymore?”
“Yeah, I do artwork for several series, but this one is all me. I do the illustrations and dialogue.”
“That is so amazing. I’ve never met anyone famous before,” she said, adding, “except for Travis Bowers. He’s a country music singer I went to high school with.”
“I don’t know if I’d call myself famous. I just write comics, not like I do cartoons for Pixar or something.” Her inspection was actually making him nervous. He picked up a binder of tattoo samples and held it out to her. “Here. Why don’t you look and see if there’s something you might like while I close the blinds and lock the door?” She gave him a startled look and he teased, “We wouldn’t want everyone in town to know that Katie Connors was doing something so out of character like get a tattoo, would we?”
She blushed and took the binder from him as he walked over to close up the front of the store and turned over the OPEN sign. When he came back toward her, he was dazzled by the smile on her face.
“That’s cute.” She flipped to the next page and made a face, “Ew, who would put that on their body?” She turned the page again, stopped, and ran her finger over a picture with a smile. “This one.”
Coming around to stand behind her, he pressed against her back to see the picture. It was a daisy with a ladybug hovering over it. Very girly, and not his taste, but it wasn’t his body. Leaning over until his mouth barely hovered over her neck, he said, “And where do you want it?”
K ATIE HAD NO idea where to put a tattoo. It had been a fantasy, a rebellious fancy when she was eighteen, but now the warm body of the man behind her and his softly asked question was making it all too real.
Trying not to lean back into him, she said, “Somewhere that no one will see unless I want them to.” There, that sounded safe.
“All right, then. Go ahead and unbutton your pants and slide them down to your hips,” he said, moving away from her.
“Excuse me?” she said, turning around to see him transferring the sterile tray he’d held earlier from the counter to a metal table just behind an armless chair.
“I said, unbutton your pants, slide them to about halfway down your hips, and straddle the chair,” he said, slowly and deliberately.
“Why?” she asked, thinking there was no way she was going to pull her pants down in front of him and show him her butt. Especially under bright, fluorescent lights.
“I was just thinking you’d probably like it on your lower back. That way your jeans will cover it most of the time.” His face was blank, but she could hear the humor in his voice and she felt like an idiot.
Reaching for the button on her jeans, she unsnapped them and eased them down a little, pulling her T-shirt down to cover her skin. He pointed to the chair in front of his stool and said, “Go ahead and straddle the chair while I set up.”
She did as he asked and heard him fiddling behind her. Just the fact that she didn’t know what was coming made her ask, “Are you sure this isn’t going to hurt a lot?”
His hands moved beneath her T-shirt and when they touched her skin, she jumped. “What are you doing?”
Katie was sure she heard a sigh before he said, “It will hurt for a bit until the area becomes numb, then it shouldn’t hurt anymore. And to answer your second question, I am tucking your T-shirt up so I can see where to put the stencil.”
Taking him at his word, she didn’t protest when he stuffed her shirt up under the clasp of her bra, even though she felt awkward sitting in front of him with her butt crack hanging out. She wasn’t even wearing sexy underwear, just a pair of pink cotton briefs. Those big hands trailed across her skin and she felt her whole body tighten at the sensation. Having her back stroked and kissed was one of her favorite forms of foreplay, but Chase wasn’t being sensual, he was just doing his job.
Nothing he was doing was meant to make her heart pound, her stomach knot, or her eyes close; it was all in her head. Her body didn’t know that, though. All it knew was that there was a pair of very rough, strong hands causing some very private areas to throb and dampen. And he wasn’t even aware of the quivery feelings he was eliciting from her. If he had even the slightest clue that his touch was making her hornier than a rabbit, he would have probably teased her about that too.
The instruments of her hormone-induced trip to crazy town stopped their innocent exploration, and he said, “Now I’m going to get started. Try not to tense up.” She heard the sound of snapping latex behind her and a whining buzz.
He ran his hand over the small of her back again and she closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation but knowing that just behind it there was a rapid-firing needle. She felt him lean closer to her and his breath rustled the small hairs that curled along her nape as he whispered, “Are you ready?”
“Yes. I’m ready,” she said. The first prick felt like she’d been burned, and she bit her lip, trying to hold back her cry as her back caught fire with pain. “Owowowowow! Okay, when does the not-painful part kick in?”
“It’s different for everybody. Just try to relax.” Bzzzz went the little gun again and Katie tried to suck it up, but her eyes teared.
Stupid nearly midlife crisis!
All she felt was pain. Pain ... pain ... pain ! It seemed like she’d been sitting there for hours when in reality he’d barely begun.
“I can’t believe you don’t use some kind of numbing agent,” she griped loud enough to be heard over the tattoo gun.
The gun clicked off, and she heard Chase sigh followed by the clink of the tray, the snap of his glove, and his steps behind her. She turned to glance over her shoulder to see where he had gone, winced as her lower back stung and faced forward again. Suddenly, a bottle of whiskey was being held four inches from her nose. “Take a couple of swigs.”
She eyed the rim dubiously and asked, “Really? From the bottle?”
He grinned at her. “That’s good Scotch. I don’t share that with just anyone. Plus it’s not just one of the oldest forms of anesthesia. It’s also an awesome sterilizer. And just to reassure you, I’m clean. I swear.”
She blushed and took a swig, the liquor burning her throat. “Smooth.”
Laughing, he went back to his work, gloves snapping and then that irritating buzzing again. She took another drink of the vile brew, hoping the foul taste and burning throat were worth it.
A moment later she heard the gun click off. “Why don’t you tell me what prompted the list? It’ll distract you from the pain.”
Or just make things worse, sharing my humiliation with a virtual stranger.
But what could be more humiliating than him reading every stupid thing she’d never done and always been too scared to do?
Trying to take her mind off her tender back and said, “I got dumped about eight months ago. We’d been together almost seven years.”
“So why the list now?”
“I just got his wedding invitation in the mail yesterday.”
The bzzzz -ing stopped and Chase slid round on his wheelie stool to look at her face. “Is it the same girl he cheated with?”
“How did you know he ...”
He waved his hand. “Because he’s an obvious douche bag. Only a giant douche sends his ex-girlfriend a wedding invitation, unless they were friends for a long time before or after. Is that the case?”
Katie smiled for the first time since yesterday. “No, we haven’t talked since he left. And yeah, he was pretty much a douche during our whole relationship. I was just the only one who didn’t notice.”
“Then I’m really glad I shared my whiskey with you. Sounds like you needed something stronger than a sissy girly drink.” He slid back behind her and said, “That’s how it usually is. You don’t see how fucked up a relationship is until you’re out.”
“It wasn’t all bad. We really were happy, most of the time.” She didn’t know why she was defending Jimmy, but the whole situation made her feel stupid. How had she not realized how broken their relationship was? How had she not seen that he had one foot out the door and his boots under someone else’s bed?
Chase interrupted her descent into self-loathing when he said, “Any guy who doesn’t marry you after three years isn’t going to. My mom taught me that.”
She took another gulp of whiskey and it no longer burned, just increased the warm sensation in her tummy. “Gee, I’ve never heard of the three-year rule; please teach it to me.”
“After my dad left, my mom had a lot of boyfriends,” he said loudly over the gun. “Some even lasted longer than three years, but once she brought up the word marriage , they were gone. Then she’d lie in her bed for a week or two, crying, and start all over again. By three years you should know everything there is to know about a person, or close to it. And if you know everything and you still can’t take the leap, then you need to get out.”
“What about love at first sight? Or people who fall in love and get married after six months? Do you really think they’re going to last?” she asked, starting to feel a little tipsy.
“As long as they go into it with their eyes open, knowing the other person’s flaws and loving them anyway, who am I to judge?”
Katie, feeling loose, asked, “What are your flaws?”
“Why? You want to know if I’m your perfect match?” he asked, and Katie could hear the humor in his voice.
She scoffed. “No, I was just curious.” Taking another gulp, she marveled as pain-free warmth spread through her limbs, and prodded, “So what are they?”
More whirring behind her until he finally stopped and said, “I’m stubborn as hell.”
Katie rolled her eyes, even though he couldn’t see her. “Most people are stubborn.”
“You’re not. You give in to everybody.”
His words stung. If he hadn’t been jabbing a needle in and out of her back, she would have gotten up and let him have it. Instead she snapped, “I do not! I just pick my battles.”
“I’ve been here less than six months and I haven’t seen you really hold your ground on anything.”
She turned her head enough to look over her shoulder and said, “I’ll have you know, I told Mrs. Andrews we were keeping your booth where it was, next to the kissing booth, and that was that.”
He raised his eyebrow at her. “Where did she want me moved?”
The angle was hurting her neck, so she turned her head forward again. “She didn’t want you to have one at all. Thinks tattoo parlors bring around a bad element.”
Chase was quiet after that, only the sound of the tattoo gun echoing in the parlor. When the gun finally went silent, she felt him dabbing at her back. “All done.” Handing her a small mirror, he helped her stand up. “Here, can you see it?”
Katie looked at her spanking new tattoo, and part of her was excited and exhilarated that she had done it. But the small, sober part of her brain screamed, What did you do, you idiot?
“Just keep a piece of plastic wrap over it for the next three days until it heals,” he said.
Katie heard his coolness and knew something was wrong by the look on his face, but couldn’t really recall what she had said to upset him. She set the whiskey bottle on the counter and the room was a bit hazy around the edges.
Lightweight.
Had it been the thing with Mrs. Andrews? Why would a guy like Chase care what some small-minded woman thought? Still, if that was it, she didn’t want him feeling bad, especially since she shouldn’t have said it in the first place.
“Look, I’m really sorry for what I said. I shouldn’t have repeated that conversation,” she said.
He picked up the tray and his eyes were glacial. With a tone just as cool, he said, “It’s nothing I haven’t heard before.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and said quietly, “Those were her words, not mine. I don’t agree with her.”
He gave her a little half smile. “I appreciate that. Not all people share your high opinion of me.”
The whole conversation was awkward and uncomfortable, and she wanted out of it. “How much do I owe you?”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said, turning his back to her as he went into the back.
She stood there for a minute, not knowing what to do or say to make things better, before pulling out several bills from her purse and leaving them on the counter. She felt awful about hurting his feelings, but she had drunk too much whiskey too fast and wasn’t in control of any of her finer brain functions. Even if she could figure out the right thing to say, she couldn’t stop the irrational urge to giggle, and somehow she didn’t think that would make her apology sound very sincere. Better to wait until tomorrow, when she had all her wits about her.
Katie pulled her pants back up, but when she tried to button them, they dug into her back, making her suck in a sharp breath of pain. So with halfway-zipped pants and a little wobble in her step, she walked out the door and pulled out her cell phone. The warm summer air hit her face but did nothing to sober her. She dialed Steph and cursed when it went straight to voice mail.
There was no way she was driving, even if it was just around the corner. Katie passed by her 4Runner and kept walking down the side streets toward home, her thoughts lingering on Chase. He was weird; there, she said it. One minute he was sticking his nose into her business, then showing up to apologize and two minutes after that he was offering to help her complete her list. It was frustrating to admit when they went at it verbally, he was quick-witted and kind of funny. He acted tough, nonchalant, and carefree, but one negative comment from someone he didn’t even know had shut him down. He was like a big, hot slice of cake with all kinds of yummy layers to savor.
Picturing that cake, she realized she’d forgotten to go grocery shopping. Crap . That would teach her to let Chase Trepasso distract her. It wouldn’t happen again, no matter how good a kisser he was.