“I know, I think this may be the best one yet. I’m in love with it.” She beams from ear to ear.
“Hey, are you the one who does her tattoos?” Emma asks the woman with the pink hair.
“Yeah, that would be me. Name’s Maze. You must be Emma.” She reaches out a hand to shake Em’s then looks at me. “And Aubrey, if I’m not mistaking.”
Maze turns to Ronnie. “You said there were two blondes, but this one looks like the virgin, not the married one.” Then cups a hand beside her mouth as she whispers loudly, “Although, not so much of a virgin anymore.”
Ronnie and Emma both laugh while my eyes go wide, and I blush from embarrassment.
“Jesus, babe! How much did you tell this girl about us?” Em asks through her chuckles.
“Everything, she’s told me everything.” Maze winks. “Now, why were you questioning about the tattoos? You interested?”
“Actually, yeah. I have something in mind, but I can’t seem to put it together.”
“All right, well describe it to me and I’ll draw you something up,” Maze offers. “I usually charge for a sketch, but since you’re a friend of my girl here, I won’t.”
“Oh, you can charge her, she’s loaded,” Ronnie tells Maze while winking at Emma who frowns.
Emma and Maze go off to a desk further in the back of the shop while Ronnie and I talk with the man I’m assuming is called Bear. Once Emma’s done explaining what she wants to Maze, she rejoins us. Barely twenty minutes later, Maze comes back with a sheet in her hands and lays it out on the counter before us.
“Now, this is just a rough sketch to give you an idea of what I had in mind. If there are things you want to change, we can do that. And when you’re satisfied with it, I’ll get to work on the real thing,” Maze tells Em.
Emma gasps when she sees it, covering her mouth with her hand as tears fill her eyes. “It’s perfect…”
“May I ask what this means to you? It helps knowing the story behind the artwork, makes it easier for me to connect to it while I’m drawing.”
Em sniffles as she nods. “My husband and I have nicknames for each other. He’s my Wolf and I’m his Bunny”—she points to the wolf and bunny that are touching nose to nose—“my daughter, Gracie, she’s going to be two tomorrow. I’ve called her my Little Tulip from the moment I met her.” Her finger touches the tulip that stands between the wolf and bunny, right beneath their noses.
“And my two-month-old twin boys, Parker and Maddox, are my Little Duck and Little Goose.” Her hand trails to each side of the tulip, where a duckling sits to the right and a gosling sits a little taller to the left.
The rough sketch is beautiful, the two parents with their children between them as the main focus, but the background is what has Emma getting emotional. Behind them seems to be a body of water, like they are standing by it, and the surface of the water is covered in lotus flowers.
Emma’s fingers glide above the lotus flowers in the distance as a tear trails down her cheek. “This is for Maddison, my Little Lotus… She… she wasn’t technically ours, but she felt like it.” Bear hands a tissue to Emma, who quickly takes it and wipes her tears away. “She died of cancer last summer…”
I rub along her back in a soothing way as Maze places her hand above Emma’s. “Give me two weeks, and I’ll bring your vision to life.”
“Maze is the best. You won’t be disappointed.” Ronnie touches Em’s arm then looks over at the giant man. “Sorry, Bear.”
“No offense taken. I know how talented my girl is.” He laughs.
“Thank you,” Emma says with a soft smile.
We leave the shop shortly after and head toward Ronnie’s place. I love how close Ronnie and I live to each other, only eight minutes away by car.
“The boys should be done with their practice soon,” she says from the back seat, looking down at her phone with a smile.
I look through the rear-view mirror and smile at her, but I can’t help the ache of jealousy I feel inside. Dating a coach is not at all the same thing as dating a player. Yes, the players have a crazy busy schedule. But on days when they only have practices, they get to go home to their family and spend the rest of the day with them.
While the coach stays back for a few more hours and often doesn’t make it home before four in the afternoon, leaving us only dinnertime and our nights together. It’s even worse on game days—sometimes I only see Shane for an hour during that time. But the season is almost over, and then we’ll have our whole summer together. I’m excited for that.
“God, I can’t wait to spend the day alone with Grey. We haven’t had sex since the twins were born, and Mama is more than ready to ride that horse.” Em waggles her brows suggestively.
Ronnie laughs. “You mean wolf. Ride that wolf, girl.”
“Ugh! Can we please stop talking about intercourse with my brother!? And why is there so much trafficallthe time!?” I hit the back of my head against the seat then reach into the cup holder for a Twizzlers. Because yes, I have a cup filled with licorice in my car.
“Jesus, what’s wrong with her?” Ronnie asks, popping her head between the seats to look at me.
