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“You should’ve told me!” Raven exclaimed. “I would’ve delivered them and given you a discount.”
“No fuckin’ way.” Bea waved her off. “That family discount stuff is shit when you work as hard as you do. I’m happy to pay full price. Though, I ain’t sure why you ain’t doin’ his tattoo yourself.”
Over the top of Raven’s head, I caught the wink Bea tossed in Declan’s direction, and he grinned. Conniving little shits.
“I’m not trained to do tattoos.” She laughed and looked at Declan. “Besides, the last thing he wants is me going near him with a sharp needle.”
“I’m magic, baby!”
“I’m not.”
“My tools are magic, baby girl,” Bea told her. “You don’t need magic to use them. Hell, I sell magic sets here and there to shifter tattoo artists. Can you imagine gettin’ a Woods Art original inked on you? Fuckin’ magic, I tell you.”
I loved how she used magic so readily to describe things. It was fun. She was a fucking riot in the best way. Ultimate hype girl right there.
Before Bea could say more, Raven dug through her purse and came out with a handful of paintbrushes. What the fuck?
“Can you magic these for tattoos?” she asked with excitement.
“Do you carry fucking paintbrushes around with you?” I demanded.
“We have eight small canvases in the truck,” Declan said casually as if unfazed by the unnecessary travel items. The look on his fucking face as he said it was as if he adored carrying around all that shit for her. “And a pile of sketchbooks. And paints in the room.”
A sketchbook I could see, sure. But the rest? That was fucking excessive. But I wasn’t Declan, and I didn’t look at her the way he did. Fuck, if Genevieve asked me to cart around her books, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
“You want her to do your tattoo, darlin’?” Bea glanced at Declan. “If you do, I need… maybe like fifteen minutes to make all these work for her. I’ll give you a copy of my swatch pads too.”
“Of course, I do,” Declan answered without hesitation.
“Then that’s for you, baby girl,” she said and handed Raven the tattoo sketch, trading it off for the stack of paintbrushes. I tried to catch a peek at it. Okay, my nosy fucking ass wanted to know what the hell Declan was getting tattooed and where. “I’m goin’ to add a nice pen in here for you. You know, somethin’ you can do the outlinin’ with. These’ll be good for colors and such. Oh, I’m so damn excited to see what you do to him.”
I stifled a laugh as she hurried away. I’d been around the two of them for all of two days. It wasn’t hard to figure out the list of things Raven would do to my brother was fucking long as shit. And there were no boundaries on where she’d do it either. Damn horny fucks.
We fucked around, shooting the shit, while we waited for Bea to get back. Raven barely contributed to the conversation as she fussed around with the sketch of Declan’s tattoo. I watched with mild fascination as she transferred the design into her notebook, scribbling notes and making it her own. By the time Bea returned to set her up, Raven was completely gone. Declan got comfortable, left forearm resting outward for her to do her thing.
“So, you want to tell me why you’re following me around like a fucking puppy?” Declan asked, giving me his full attention. I glanced around him at Raven, who hadn’t flinched from her spot. Her earbuds were in, her hands were occupied, and shit, her brows couldn’t get any fucking closer in concentration. “Oh, she won’t hear you. Once those headphones are in and she’s in the zone, nothing on God’s green earth can disturb her. I once had a whole conversation with her only to find out she hadn’t heard a fucking word I’d said. We’ll be here for a while.”
“I can leave you two if you want,” I offered. “I know she doesn’t like me.”
“It’s not that she doesn’t like you,” he said. “It’s that she doesn’t like being forced to choose. She wanted to get to know you, she wanted to spend time with me, and she wanted to be there for Ginny. Raven’s not good with people telling her what she can and cannot do.”
“Makes sense.” I mean, I fucking fought back like a motherfucker when anyone told me what to do.
“So, you want to talk about it?” Declan prompted once more.
“Fuck me.” I ran my hands over my face. “I just need to get away from it all.”
“The drinking or Ginny?”
“All of it?” I muttered. “Definitely all of it. They don’t drink that fucking much usually, you know? Fuck, I even fill in at the bar for Roan and Maverick when they need it. I can be around alcohol. I’m damn good at being around alcohol. But this…”
“… is hard,” he finished for me. I nodded. So fucking hard. I worried about how the hell I would make it through two more stops on this trip, especially with the added stress of returning to Cedar Harbor. “Would a sober buddy help?”
I fucking grinned. Declan had been reading again. I liked that about him. If someone he cared about was struggling, the man deep-dove the fucking internet until he figured it all out.
“You don’t have to do that, Dec. I can fucking do this.” Maybe.
“Please,” he scoffed. “You’ll be doing me a fucking favor. I’m too old for this shit. Do you know why we took today off?”
