Dalton
~
I knew that I was being rather harsh, but Leandra had no business getting a tattoo and marring that flawless skin of hers.
Whatever she was upset about, a tattoo wasn’t the answer.
Now, had she mentioned a tattoo a few months ago and had given it some extensive thought, then I’d be all for it.
However, in all the years that I’d known her, she hadn’t ever mentioned being interested in getting a tattoo, and she hadn’t even said anything when Rya and Koen had gotten theirs.
So, whatever this was, I was not about to help her make a huge mistake.
“You think I’m clueless?” she echoed. “Because I want a tattoo?”
After a few seconds, I said, “Okay, so you say that you want an inspirational tattoo. Do you have a saying in mind already? Do you have a mockup of the design that you want?”
“Well...no,” she admitted. “I was...I was kind of hoping that you’d help me with that.”
Truth be told, if she left it up to me to design her tattoo, it’d be something with my goddamn name on it, and I was fairly certain that she wasn’t here for that.
Plus, when it came to inspirational quotes, the saying had to speak to the client, not the artist. I had no idea what Leandra was experiencing right now, so how in the hell would I know what she needed to make her feel better?
I let out a heavy sigh as I shook my head. “Leandra, I’m not about to create a spur-of-the-moment tattoo because you’re feeling impulsive. Tattoos are forever, and so they should be personal.”
“Quit talking to me like I’m stupid,” she snapped. “Do you think that I don’t know that?”
“Leandra-”
“I know that, Dalton,” she said, cutting me off. “I know how important a tattoo is.”
“If that’s the case, then come back when you’ve given it more thought and know what you want,” I told her. “If you’re insisting on one now, I can’t help you.”
Her blue eyes looked wounded as she asked, “You’d really let someone else give me my first and possibly only tattoo?”
As much as the thought pained me, I was not about to let her emotionally blackmail me. “Yes.”
“Seriously?”
I nodded. “I am not giving you a tattoo until I feel like you’ve given it proper thought.”
Leandra didn’t say anything for a long minute, but when she finally spoke, it took everything in me not to cave. “Then I guess I’ll just go somewhere else. I wanted the best, but...well, beggars can’t be choosers, right?”
“Or you can wait,” I pointed out. “If you really want one, then where’s the harm in waiting a couple of more weeks?”
“Because I want it now,” she replied stubbornly, proving my point.
“Spoken like a true entitled brat,” I retorted.
However, before she could say anything to that, Lynne was peeking her head into my workstation, saying, “I have some free time, Leandra. I can give you a tattoo if you want.”
I shot her a look, and though I knew that she wasn’t offering to step on my toes, I still didn’t appreciate her getting between me and Leandra. “Oh, really?”
“Would you rather she end up at Chaps or Inkers?” she shot back.
Now, while there was nothing wrong with Inkers, the artists there had a tendency of talking their clients into designs that they preferred, not their customers. Yeah, they turned out exceptional, but that went against what we stood for as artists.
As for Chaps, the artists there were also good, but the place had a shady reputation for not sanitizing their workstations and supplies. They’d already been shut down twice for health code violations, and so you only went there if you were tight on money.
“She needs to think about it some more,” I told her, refusing to back down.
“She’s a grown woman, Dalton,” Lynne pointed out. “Plus, it’s better than getting her banned from this place.”
Lynne wasn’t joking about that. If our conversation was getting loud enough for Lynne to feel as if she’d needed to interfere, then it was safe to say that it wouldn’t have taken long for it to get back to Ricki, possibly getting Leandra banned from this place altogether, and that wasn’t anything that I wanted for either of us.
Even though Leandra knew better than to venture to this side of town on her own, I had too much respect for Ricki to intentionally cause drama in her shop.
It was also quite possible that she’d ban Rya just to be on the safe side, and I refused to let that happen.
“Thank you, Lynne,” Leandra said, though she was looking at me. “I’d really appreciate that.”
“You’re making a mistake, Leandra,” I told her.
“Actually, I’m not,” she replied. “And if you’d just quit treating me like I’m stupid, you’d see that.”
“You know what? Get the damn tattoo,” I told her bitterly. “Just don’t ever say that I didn’t try to warn you.”
Her blue gaze looked wounded again, and it was so hard to keep up with her sometimes. “Are you serious? You’re really not going to do it?”
“Fret not,” I huffed. “Lynne’s more than capable of scribbling on you.”
“You’re being a dick, Dalton,” Lynne said, the reprimand clear in her voice.
“Well, I needed to go stretch my legs anyway,” I lied. “So, I’ll leave you both to it.”
If I were a lesser man, the look in Leandra’s face would drop me to my knees.
She looked like I was abandoning her in the woods to die, and it was killing me.
However, I wasn’t going to give her a tattoo, no matter how upset she looked.
She was making an emotional decision, and I wanted no part of that.
I mean, even though I was shit at showing it, I did care about her.
“Look, how about we go get something to eat, and then you can tell me more about this tattoo that you want,” I said, relenting a bit.
However, because Leandra would rather be stubborn than wrong, she said, “I know you, Dalton Summit, and you’re not offering to talk about it, you want to talk me out of it.”
“Okay, fine,” I said, frustrated all over again. “Do what you want, Leandra.”
Turning away from her, I went back to wiping down my chair, and it was a good thing that there wasn’t anything else left to do after my last client had left. I needed to get the fuck out of here because I wasn’t sure that I was strong enough to keep my mouth shut once Lynne’s gun started buzzing.
So, without another word, I left the shop, but as soon as my feet hit the sidewalk, I pulled my phone out, then dialed Rya.
If Leandra had mentioned a tattoo to Rya, then I’d reconsider and go back to talk to her some more.
However, if this was the first that Rya was hearing about it, then I’d know for sure that this was an emotional decision for her.
When Rya answered on the fourth ring, I got straight to the point. “What do you know about Leandra wanting a tattoo?”
“Huh?” she asked, and I cursed when I realized that it was past ten.
“Sorry for calling so late, but Leandra came into the shop, wanting a tattoo,” I explained.
“Really?” she asked but sounding a little more awake.
“Yeah, really.”
Confirming my suspicions, she said, “She never said anything to me, but I do know that her mother visited her earlier today, so I could see her wanting to do something impulsive to help her forget about the visit. Her mother’s awful.”
“Well, I suspected that she hadn’t thought this all the way through, so I wanted to call you in case I was wrong,” I confessed.
Rya let out a long sigh. “Dalton, sooner or later, you’re going to have to get a handle on this thing between you and Leandra. The back and forth isn’t healthy, and you both are driving me crazy.”
That got a chuckle out of me. “I’ll get right on that.”
“I’m serious,” she said. “I’ve never been around two people who needed to hate-fuck more than you two do.”
“Because you’re saying that she’d be okay with that?” I laughed, but her momentary pause had me stopping in my tracks. “Rya, what aren’t you telling me?”
“Nothing,” she lied.
“Rya...”
After a few seconds of silence, she said, “Do you honestly think that I’d be...be encouraging you if I really believed that she’d reject you?”
“I think that you have a lot of fucking explaining to do, babes,” I huffed.
“Hey, her secrets deserved the same amount of privacy that yours do,” she chided. “The only reason that I’m even saying anything now is because you two really are driving me insane.”
“We’re going to talk about this more later,” I warned her.
“No, we’re not,” she replied primly. “You’re either finally going to do something about this situation or you’re going to learn how to stop being a dick.”
Well, okay then.