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Her body obeyed him without question and she splintered apart.
***
Noah leaned back in the oversized, leather lounge chair, absentmindedly swirling the amber liquid in his glass. He still had the taste of Lexi on his tongue and was riding the high he could only get with the beautiful redhead.
Instead of being curled in his lap where he preferred after a scene, Lexi sat on her heels on oversized, floor pillows, talking intently with her friend Mia who sat in the same position. They quietly discussed the upcoming event for a return client of theirs. She spoke excitedly about it now, her voice rising with enthusiasm as she went on and on. Lexi had been planning it for weeks, organizing every tiny detail down to the catering, decorations, and music. Noah had often woken up to her typing out a last-minute note on her phone before going to bed. Sometimes popping up in the middle of the night with another idea for this event or an idea for the future. She was always thinking ahead.
Mia listened to Lexi intently with rapt attention, throwing in an occasional comment here and there. “It’s going to be amazing! I’m so glad that we roped Melody in to help us with this event. Baking for three hundred I can do in the new kitchen—as long as the Penelope and Zan are occupied.”
“With the way Zander is going, trying to prove his independence and helpfulness, you're going to wake up to a kitchen filled with Nolan's special breakfast sandwiches. Complete with peanut butter hand prints.”
Her stern gaze fell away and Mia chuckled, putting her head in her hand at the thought. “Penelope isn't going to be crawling for very long before she’s running through the house after her brother.”
With a tap on his shoulder, Nolan stepped into their occupied corner. “Hey. Are we still on for this week?”
Reluctantly, he tore his gaze from her and turned his attention to his friend. “Yes, I have you blocked in for Thursday afternoon. I have a consultation in the morning, but you're my only working client for the rest of the day.” Noah was excited to work on the watercolor phoenix for his friend. His plans included spreading out its wing span to include flames that curled over Nolan's biceps and shoulders.
Noah abandoned his watered-down drink for the fresh one Nolan offered. “Thanks. Did you get the concepts I texted you?”
Nolan nodded, walking toward the girls and handing them each a drink. He kissed his fiancé, Mia's forehead, so as not to interrupt the animated conversation. He returned to where Noah was sitting. “Yes, I am on board with your creative eye and giving you a fair amount of free reign.”
“That's normally dangerous to a tattoo artist, you know?”
“I mean, half my back is covered already, what's more ink?”
“More ink means healing time and healing time means no scratchies,” Mia chimed in, smirking a deeper innuendo over the edge of her glass. “ Daddy .” Nolan’s eyes darkened and Noah noticed his jaw tick.
“Ohmygod,” Lexi's amused gasp broke through their conversation. She held a flier in her hand, holding it out to Mia. “Wait, wait. Don't tell me this says ' Watch the sparks fly this fourth of July!' ?” Lexi chuckled, rolling her eyes. “Who the hell came up with that level of cheese?”
Mia took the flier from her and whacked her friend's arm with it good-naturedly. “Come on, it’s not that bad!”
“Oh, oh. Mia. Don’t tell me you let Zander talk you into that.”
“He's too busy finding new spots to put his Lego's together where his sister won't get to them .” Mia looked toward Noah. “A certain friend of his told him the tub would be a good idea.”
“Hey, there's nothing wrong with that suggestion, Mia.” Noah shrugged as if he had any innocence to stand on. “Traffic-free space with high enough barriers to keep a wandering Pen from grabbing them.”
“Good, so family dinner night you have a date with all the dismembered arms and heads that are currently stuck in the drain that we can't get out.”
“Why did you ever insist that he outgrew the jumbo Duplo blocks?”
“You ask me that as if you've forgotten not one, but the two black eye's my son has given you?”
Amused with the light-hearted conversation, Noah soaked it in quietly, loving the family he'd found himself in for the past two years. Meeting Lexi had changed everything for him, and his course was irrevocably altered.
She'd become his North and home was wherever she was.
“If it’s the last thing I do, I’m marrying her. Come hell or high water and whatever else life throws at us. She’s my beginning and ending.”
Two
Windows down and music volume hovering at an acceptable level, Lexi drove down the sunny parkway. Nearly every light she hit on the way to the restaurant was green and should have her in a good mood. The soreness in her thighs and the bite marks she wore on her breast would typically have her quietly humming with happiness.
She didn’t have those luxuries while she ran a growing business with her best friend. Especially when tasks were outsourced and out of their control.
“Okay, I don’t care who or what happened, it needs to be fixed. No, no way, Jose. Absolutely not. There is no way I’ll eat the cost of these prints when the coloring is off. Don’t even think of asking me to make my clients incur that cost. It isn’t their fault it wasn’t done correctly in the first place. Matty, they look jaundiced. I don’t know how you let that slide. It would have been better for you to tell me there was an issue and you would be late. This is unacceptable.”
Lexi sighed, closing her eyes and listening to the various excuses that the printer gave her.
