Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Lachlan
“You’re all set.” I place my tattoo gun on the small rolling tray, and wipe off the excess ink before standing and offering my client a handheld mirror to assist her in seeing her new back tattoo, in addition to the mirror hanging on the wall.
“I love it!” She smiles widely, and I nod.
Another satisfied customer. It’s hard to believe this is how I get to make my living. Sometimes it feels like I’m living in a dream, but I guess in a way, I am. I’m living my dream, doing what I love, and it never feels like work.
“I’ll walk you out. Lyra’s working the front desk. She can get you all cashed out.” The girl gives me a smile, one that says she’s interested. I’ve been on the receiving end of those types of looks many times in my life, and normally, I’d flash her a grin or give her a wink, but not today.
She does nothing for me.
In fact, it’s been almost two months since I’ve done either of those things. Not since the night I spent wrapped up in Maggie. It was supposed to be a one-off, and it was, but here I am, still thinking about my time with her.
Her high heels clack along the tile floor as I lead her back to reception. Who wears high heels, Daisy Duke cutoff jean shorts, and a tight-ass tank top to get a tattoo? Am I getting old and changing my mind about what I find sexy? Is it watching my best friends’ wives and how they carry themselves that’s changing my thoughts? Sure, high heels and booty shorts are sexy, but there is a time and place for that, and apparently, my old ass thinks this isn’t the place.
I’m thirty-three, not seventy-three, but it still irks me all the same.
“Lyra, this is—” Fuck, I can’t remember her name. I turn back to my client and she bats her eyelashes. Her very fake, very long, spider-leg-looking eyelashes.
“Sasha,” she purrs.
I barely contain my eye roll when I turn back to Lyra. “Sasha.” I hand Lyra the checkout receipt, and turn to leave, but squealing stops me in my tracks. Four other ladies join us one by one, each of the guys trailing either in front or behind them. It takes seeing all of them to remember they’re all friends and booked the same appointment time, one with each of us. On a rare day, we’re all five here at the same time. They all five got the same exact design in the same exact place.
The ladies smile and laugh and look at each other’s tattoos, while Lyra rushes to cash them out. Legend gives me a look that says he’s not impressed, which means his client must have hit on him. One way to piss him off—hell, piss off any of them—is to hit on them when they’re all four wearing wedding bands.
“I struck out.” I hear one of them say, and sigh. What is it about women and men who have no care that the other person is in a committed relationship, married or not? I mean, if they’ll cheat on the person with you, then they’ll cheat on you. At least that’s my theory.
“Me too,” the other three say, and I can actually hear the disappointment in their voices.
“Not me. I’m going for it,” my client, Sara, no wait, Sasha says.
I kid you not. This woman lifts up her boobs, licks her lips, and saunters over to me in her high heels. I think it’s supposed to look sexy, but I promise you, it’s not. It’s more like a newborn baby deer trying to find its footing. “Thanks again, Lachlan,” she purrs.
Side note: the purr is meant to sound sexy, I’m sure, but instead, she’s coming off sounding like a two-pack-a-day smoker. “Why don’t we go celebrate with a drink, and then—” She shrugs. “—whatever else we can get ourselves into.” She licks her lips and bats her spider legs at me.
“I’m working,” I reply, deadpan. I’m happy to report that the eye roll is swiftly contained, but internally, I’m rolling my eyes hard at this chick. I mean, come on. Read the room, Sally.
“I can wait.” She licks her lips again.
“I work until late.” I’m showing no emotion. I’m not even really being nice to her, and she’s not taking the hint.
“You have to eat, right?” she asks.
I blow out a heavy breath. I’m going to have to dumb this down for her, and I hate being a dick, but I’m just not interested.
“Lachlan, you’re still coming to the house tonight for dinner, right?” Forrest asks. “You know the kids will be disappointed if Uncle Lachlan doesn’t show up.”
I smile at Forrest, making a mental note to offer to watch the girls for him soon. “Yeah, I have plans.”
“Tomorrow night then?” she asks, just not getting it.
I hear one of the guys groan and mumble something under their breath from where they’re standing behind me, but I can’t make out what they’re saying. “Look, Sandra.”
“It’s Sasha.” She’s still smiling at me as if I’m going to take her up on her offer.
“Sasha. Right. I’m not interested.” I blurt the words because this girl can’t take the subtle hints I’ve been giving her.
“Are you married?”
“No.”
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
“No.” She opens her mouth to, I’m sure, grill me even further, but I hold up my hand to stop her. “Thank you for coming in. Be safe getting home.” With that, I turn on my heel and stalk toward the break room, removing myself from the situation.
I know it won’t be long and the guys, and maybe even Lyra, will be on my heels wanting to know what’s up. What’s up is that I had the best sex of my life with their wives’ friend, with my friend, and we promised it was a onetime thing.
I stalk toward the refrigerator, and I pull open the door. I grab a bottle of water, twisting off the cap and drinking the entire thing. The guys walk in as I’m tossing the empty bottle into the recycling bin.
They form a small circle around me, and I’m leaning back against the counter. “What?” I ask. I know what they want, but fuck me, I don’t want to talk about it. I can’t talk about it. I made a promise to Maggie, and I intend to keep it.
Roman crosses his arms over his chest. “What’s up, Lach?”
“Just grabbing something to drink.” My tone is clipped, and I take a deep breath and slowly exhale. I can’t take this… frustration or whatever this is out on them.
“We can see that,” Legend says.
“That back there.” Forrest points over his shoulder. “That wasn’t you.”
“I don’t know what you mean.” The lie tastes bitter on my tongue.
“You’ve got more game than what we just saw out there,” Maddox explains.
Running my hands over my face, I take a few seconds before dropping them and giving them as much as I can. “I’m over it,” I tell them. “I’m over meaningless.”
“You got someone in mind?” Roman asks.
I huff out a laugh. “No, but I’ve watched the four of you, and let’s just say, I can see the appeal. That girl, she didn’t want me. She wanted the bad boy tattoo artist she sees when she looks at me. She wanted one of the owners of one of the top tattoo shops in Tennessee. She didn’t see Lachlan. Not in here.” I tap my hand over my chest.
“Makes sense,” Legend says.
“So, we need to find you a wife,” Forrest adds.
“We should ask our wives to help,” Maddox agrees.
“No. No. No. I don’t need help. I’m just… in a funk, I guess.”
“How long has it been?” Legend asks.
I don’t need to ask him what he means. “Over a year,” I confess. All four of them whistle. “Yeah,” I agree. It’s a little white lie because it’s been less than two months, but that night was different. It wasn’t meaningless, not to me. So yeah, it’s been well over a year since my last meaningless hookup. From how my head won’t forget about my night with Maggie, it’s shaping up to be a hell of a lot longer than that.
“I don’t miss it,” Maddox tells me. “Not for one second do I miss random hookups.”
“Agreed,” the other three sound off at the same time.
“It’s so much better,” Legend chimes in. “You get to know her, and she you, and everything is just better.”
“It’s the love,” Roman adds. He glances over at Forrest and smirks. “Makes the sex better.”
“Ack.” Forrest places his hands over his ears. “My baby sister,” he says, and we all laugh. We’ll be eighty, watching our grandkids, hell, our great-grandkids run around the yard, and Forrest will still react that way when it comes to Roman and Emerson.
“It’s more than sex,” Forrest adds, once he’s removed his hands from his ears. “It’s the connection that goes beyond… well, beyond anything I’ve ever known. I can’t even explain it to you, Lachlan, but I promise you, brother, when you find it, you’ll know and when you do, you’re going to want to hold on tight with everything you’ve got.”
“I’ll find her,” I agree. In the back of my mind, an image of Maggie with her long blonde hair splayed out on the dark sheets of my bed at the cabin filters through.
Could it be her? Could Maggie be my person? Is she feeling this… loss the same way that I am? I know I could just ask her, but we promised each other it would be one and done. I don’t want to break my promise, but the idea that we could possibly be more, well, that sparks something inside me that’s been dark for a long damn time.
The intercom beeps, and Lyra’s voice comes through the speaker. “Legend and Forrest, your next appointments are here.”
“You good?” Legend asks me.
“I’m good.” I nod. He claps me on the shoulder and leaves the room. Forrest, Roman, and Maddox all do the same before leaving me to my thoughts.
Today has been one of the longest, and it’s only a few minutes past five as I start my truck and head toward home. However, going home alone suddenly doesn’t appeal to me. Not after opening up to the guys and the thoughts of Maggie running constantly through my head. So, instead, I turn right and head toward my parents’ place. It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve stopped in, and I think some of Mom’s home cooking is exactly what I need.
The house is all lit up when I pull into the drive. After grabbing my cell and my keys, I make my way to the front door. I rap my knuckles a few times before turning the handle and calling out. My parents assure me I don’t have to knock, but there have been a few times I’ve walked in on them a little disheveled, and yeah, I don’t want to see that, so I always knock, call out, and walk slowly through the foyer and into the living room giving them time to get themselves together.
“Hey, Lachlan, what brings you by?” My dad stands from where he’s sitting in the recliner and pulls me into a hug.
“Just getting off work. Where’s Mom?”
“She went shopping with Cassie. They’re stopping to grab dinner and then heading home.”
Cassie is Maddox’s mom, and I love how our parents became friends because of our friendship growing up. “You had dinner yet?” I ask him.
“Nope. Have you?”
“No. Come on, old man. I’ll buy you some pizza and wings.”
“Don’t tell your mother. I’m supposed to be watching my cholesterol.”
I pause. “Everything okay?” Rodney Noble is not my biological father. That man I’ve never met. He found out my mom was pregnant and bailed. She met Rodney two years later. They married, and he adopted me. He is my father. It might not be his blood running through my veins, but this man raised me and loved me. Loves me like it is.
“Everything’s fine. I had a checkup and my numbers were slightly elevated. I’m not even taking medication. Your mother is just taking good care of me.”
There is a twinkle in his eyes that tells me he’s loving every minute of Mom fussing over him. “All right, but if you get me in trouble, I’m telling Mom you gave me my first beer at fifteen.”
“Hey! That’s between men.” He laughs. He holds out his hand. I place mine in his, and we shake on it. “Deal.”
The drive to Dough Daddies in town is short, and Dad catches me up on how work is going. He owns a small plumbing company, and he’s made quite a name for himself. Mom works for the city of Ashby in the title office. They’ve both had the same careers for as long as I can remember.
Once inside the restaurant, I lead us to a small booth in the back of the room. It’s the middle of the week, so the crowd isn’t nearly as heavy as it is on the weekends. The server rushes over, takes our drink order and scurries away with a wink in my direction.
“That still happens everywhere you go, huh? It’s the eyes. The ladies love those eyes.” He chuckles.
“Unfortunately,” I mutter.
Dad's grin grows wider. “Getting old, is it? All the female attention?”
“You could say that.”
“Does this mean your momma and I are going to get those grandbabies she’s always asking for?”
Dropping my menu to the table, I sit back in my side of the booth and sigh. “One day, I hope so,” I admit. “It was fun for a while, but watching the guys get married and have families, I can see the appeal.”
“I was just like you when I was younger.”
“What?” I’m shocked.
He nods. “I never wanted anything permanent. I had my heart broken in my early twenties, and I swore I’d never do it again.”
“What changed your mind?”
“I met you and your mom. It took me a while to understand what I was feeling, but the minute I met her, and then you, I knew my life was changed. For the better,” he adds.
“I didn’t know that about you.”
Dad waves his hand in the air. “Kids aren’t necessarily supposed to know those things about their parents. Not until they’re ready to hear it. Parenting is hard, Lachlan. You hope that you’re giving your child the guidance and knowledge to make good choices in their lives, but ultimately, once they turn eighteen, it’s all out of your control. Your mother and I got lucky. You were a good kid. Some foolishness from time to time, but we are so damn proud of the man you’ve become.”
“I had a great role model.” His face blushes, but his eyes soften with love. I’ve seen that look from him, directed at me my entire life. “Why didn’t you ever have more kids? You and Mom together were a great team. I know the story you’ve told me repeatedly that I was enough, but there had to be another reason.”
“It was my choice.” He pauses to collect his thoughts, and I give him the time he needs. “I loved you both fiercely, Lachlan. I never wanted you to feel otherwise. I was worried that if your mother and I had more children, you might think I loved them more than you, which would never be the case. As you got older, we considered it again, but the age gap would have been too steep, and you were enough for us. You are our son, and we love you.”
I blink hard a few times, because my own emotions are getting the best of me. “I would have known,” I tell him, my voice cracking. “There wasn’t a single day in my life that I didn’t feel how much you loved me. I would have known.”
He nods. “I know that now, but back then, the thought of you not feeling equal to a sibling, it gutted me. My buddies tell me I went soft when I met you and your mother, and they’re probably right, but I’m telling you, son, there is not one single second of my life I regret. Loving you and your mother was as easy as breathing and just as essential for me. I want you to find that person for you. I want you to know what that feels like.”
“I want that,” I admit. “Hopefully one day I’ll find her.” My mind instantly goes to Maggie and the night we shared together.
“What’s that look?” Dad asks, pointing at my face.
“What look?”
This time he’s the one to fold his arms over his chest and freezes me with the intensity of his gaze. “You already found her.”
“W—What?”
He smirks. “You already found her. You found someone to make you stop and think twice about the time you spent with her.”
“We made a deal,” I confess. “We promised one night, no strings. Our friends are friends, and it’s a tangled mess.”
His grin grows even wider and I realize my mistake. My parents know who I spend my time with, and they’ve met them all. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out I’m talking about Maggie.
“It’s okay to break a promise if that broken promise leads to more happiness.”
“But will it? Or am I just hung up on her because she’s forbidden?”
“She’s only forbidden because the two of you made her that way. Change the narrative, Lachlan.”
“You make it sound easy. I’m sure it’s just me, and I’m in a funk. It will pass.”
“Take some time to get your thoughts together, but don’t ignore this in the process.” He taps two fingers on his chest over his heart. “Pushing past my doubts led me to a life of love and happiness.”
“Can I take your order?” the server asks, placing our drinks in front of us.
We order, and thankfully, the topic turns to a lighter subject. I’ve had more heart-to-heart conversations today than I have in my entire life. Okay, that’s not true, but I’m mentally drained because of them, and part of that is all about me. I need to get out of my head and let this go.