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“Yes. That’s good. Autumn.” I looked up again just as the bell jingled over the door. Hannah walked inside, holding Lily on her hip, her sunglasses propping back her long fall of hair. “Hey, babe, come look at this.”
I didn’t know why I called her babe. I also didn’t expect her eyes to widen at the sight of me as if she’d forgotten entirely who I was. Then she pressed her lips together and rushed off with Lily in the direction of the restrooms. Somehow she knew where to find them.
Women were geniuses.
“Yeah, she’s smokin’. Got some curves on her too.” At my narrow-eyed look, Lance cleared his throat. “Just saying. I could see tattooing her name on my branch too.”
I choked out a laugh. “Jesus. But yeah, let’s get it started today. If she won’t look at the sketch, she can at least see the outline.”
“She has a problem with ink?”
“Some needle phobia. Since she’s pregnant, hope she gets over it.”
“Oh.” Lance nodded knowingly. “Kids, huh? Don’t blame you. I’d want to get that one on lockdown too.”
I frowned. “It wasn’t like that. It was just a…” Dr. Ellis’s phrase came back to mind. “Happy accident.”
“Good for you, man. Let’s get this ink started then before we get swamped.”
I tried to shift to see Hannah and Lily emerge from the bathroom, but I was positioned wrong. In no time, Lance had a good bit of the main trunk done, with the climbing branches extending up my hand. Some of them were knottier, the ink dense and dark in spots. Other spots had room for the names. He put them down in thin black ink for now, with the idea to add highlights and color shading during the next visit.
Billy.
Gran.
Lily.
Hannah.
And the word Happy.
Just…happy.
“Oh my God. That’s—” I turned my head and glimpsed Hannah standing a few feet away, her hands up to her mouth. “Holy shit, that’s hot.”
Lance looked up from his work with a smirk. “Somebody’s getting lucky tonight.”
With effort, I tried to keep my face sober as I spoke over the noise of the tattoo gun. “You like it? Come closer. There’s—”
“I see.” She pointed at the sketch book that had fallen off the table and landed face up on the floor. “You have all of our names. And…happy?”
“Yeah, since we don’t know the gender yet, and we won’t for a while, we can’t pick a name. So, happy accident seems to fit, right?”
Hannah moved forward and cupped my cheek, leaning down to give me a hard kiss. “Yes, we can find out next month. No, you didn’t outwit me. Yes, I know you’re conning me. No, I don’t care.” She stepped back as my head revolved off my shoulders—not from the effect of the tattoo either—and smiled at the receptionist, currently carrying a giggling Lily. “Thanks for watching her for a minute.”
“Oh, no problem. Your baby is an angel.”
Hannah’s gaze met mine as she answered softly, “Yes, she is.”
Twenty-Four
“I hate when he’s right.” I juggled my phone with my iPad as I tried to keep my video call going with Gabby.
“No, you don’t.”
“I so do.”
I brought the phone up to meet her gaze. “Especially when I wasn’t prepared for the influx of orders.”
