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“Mom?” That only made her blush deeper. There was something vulnerable in her pout and the hopeless confusion in her eyes as she glanced at me for an answer.
“Yeah. Elijah mentions your family quite a bit.” Wendy piped in while tattooing someone.
“You got time to tattoo me?” her friend asked, looking at Lance.
“Sure, what are you looking for?” he asked. I caught her friend tapping Hadley’s shoulder and nudging her closer to me as she sauntered off with Lance. Hadley stiffened.
“Sorry about them.” I ran my hands through my hair and frowned. “I do mention you guys a bit. Your kid has somehow weaseled her way into my circle,” I admitted. “She’s not so bad for a kid.”
Hadley laughed. “I’m glad you’ve changed your opinion about kids.”
“Don’t get crazy now. I only like your kids.”
I shouldn’t have said that. Her mouth fell open, those rosy cheeks became rosier, and she looked down at her toes.
Changing the subject, I asked, “So what brought you here?”
When Hadley lifted her head, I saw hurt shining in her gaze. Even the wrinkling of her nose screamed that somehow I’d offended her. “How come you didn’t tell me how well-known you are?”
“What do you mean?” I was confused as hell.
“Your Instagram page for the shop has a million followers. When I mentioned to Holly that we were friends, she told me how popular your tattoos and drawings are.”
A little uncomfortable with Hadley’s words, I pointed out, “Like you said, it’s my designs, not me.”
“You created them,” she informed me.
“You never ask anything about me. I wasn’t sure you’d want to know about my work,” I admitted while rubbing my neck.
Her eyes widened as she processed what I had just said. “I guess I haven’t…”
“Hey, Elijah. You got a piercing,” Waldo hollered from the front, eyeing Hadley’s ass as he did.
It shouldn’t piss me off but it did. Waldo was closer to her age than I was, but I couldn’t fucking see her with the scrawny kid. I thought no one her age would know how lucky they’d be if they had her.
“It’s one down below,” he added.
Hadley’s mouth fell open, and I realized why the fucker said it. Not only because of Hadley, but I’d also have to warn him of saying shit like that. Some of our customers were private and didn’t want that shit said loudly. Luckily, this particular one simply laughed with her friend.
Hadley turned around and saw the girl signing papers at the front. She glanced back at me. “Does he mean…” She waved her hands between her legs.
“Yeah, a clit piercing.”
Her mouth fell open. “You do those?”
“Yeah… We’re both a tattoo and a piercing parlor.” It wasn’t uncommon which proved the naivety of my cute mom friend.
“Isn’t that odd?” It was adorable the way she scrunched up her nose.
“It isn’t any different from tattooing body parts. Just doesn’t take as long.” I shrugged. Her smile was more of a frown by the time her mouth closed. “Are you afraid of me becoming the guy from Idle Hands?”
Hadley flinched when I spoke in a low voice.
“Oh, shit!” I grabbed my hand ready to imitate the character from the nineties flick about a man with a possessed hand. I pretended it had a mind of its own, and I was trying to hold my limb back. “Whatever shall I do? My hand is bound to do something inappropriate.”
She scowled. “That wasn’t what I meant.”
I smiled as she stormed away and stood beside her friend, picking out a design. Did I tease her too much? When Wendy shook her head, I dropped my hand. Did I just fuck up?
