Page 13 of Midnight Ink

Noah takes out a little journal from his bag and opens up to a page.

“What are you doing?” Julian asks.

“Writing down the title and who’s borrowing it.”

“That’s pretty serious.”

Noah snaps the book closed. “I take book borrowing very seriously.”

“I’ll protect it with my life.” He smiles then looks to me. I love his eyes. Warm and soft. It’s not the first, third, or millionth time that thought has crossed my mind.

Warmth pools in my belly.

“Pathetic,” Jamie whispers.

“What?”

“Just ask him out.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I ignore him. Clearly, he’s delirious from pain. I focus on finishing while Anna and Julian both have Noah distracted.

“Your hot coworker you keep undressing with your eyes.”

“Shut up.” I’m not doing that. Yes, Julian is very fucking hot. I have eyes and they work perfectly. It’s not even his looks, really, it’s . . . everything else. He’s a bit of a nerd, he’s funny, and just has this easy way about him.

He’s also insanely kind. He just has this warmth about him.

Without sounding super fucking cheesy, Julian lights up this shop.

I was drowning before I met him, and now I can’t imagine my life without him—I mean this shop, working here without him.

“It’s okay, you know—fucking son of a bitch!” Jamie’s fingers ball into fists at his sides.

“What’s wrong?” Noah’s head perks up.

“He said I was a fine son of a bitch,” I joke.

Noah’s green eyes narrow behind his glasses. “Don’t make me fight you!” His lips purse. “I wouldn’t win, but I’m scrappy!” He holds his hand up with the band on his ring finger. “I don’t share.”

“Message received.”

“You’re an idiot,” Jamie grunts as I finish up the piece. “I’ll drop it for now, but don’t think I’ll forget how much your ass is pining after him.”

I grab the green soap solution, and I really shouldn’t take as much pleasure in this next part, but he’s irritating me. “Ready? This is going to suck.” Jamie cries out as I spray down his tattoo and clean him up. I wipe off the blood just as Noah comes over. Thankfully, it’s clean just in time.

“Holy shit.” Noah’s alarmed eyes look to me. “Are you okay?” he bends down to Jamie’s level, giving him a forehead kiss.

“I’m alright.” He’s a little breathless now. I help him up and kind of second-guess this entire thing. I mean, it’s a little too late with the outline finished, but he can always stop at any point. It looks a little swollen, but even with the sharp pucker of scars it looks amazing. It’s going to look sick. I wouldn’t have even started it if I wasn’t confident.

“Here.” I help him off the bench and walk him to the floor-length mirror, holding up a smaller mirror so he can see behind him, and I laugh when I see the penis tattoo on his chest. A little over a year ago, I tattooed this ridiculous cartoon penis that Noah drew on him.

“Holy shit, Ian.”

“Yeah, huh?” I wink. The bird’s outstretched wings go shoulder to shoulder. There are some smaller details I want to add, but we’ll see where we are when the bird is done. Jamie normally prefers black and grey tattoos, but I convinced him to go color on this one. “Not as good as Maddy, but I still got it.”

I watch Jamie swallow. “This is incredible. He’d be fucking proud.”

I’d like to think so, but honestly, I’m struggling. Tattooing is my life, don’t get me wrong. I was born to do this shit. Ink is in my veins. However, there’s a lot of shit that comes with owning a business that I didn’t want. It’s the side Maddox assured me I wouldn’t have to worry about.