AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Then I stalk off to get the car loaded up. I look down and realize I’m sweating.
Jesus, it’s fifty-five degrees out and I’m sweating through my shirt just being around her.
It’s gonna be a long day.
After getting the car loaded up, I climb in the front of the truck and find Zoey reading on her phone. I can’t help but smile. If she’s not writing romance, she’s reading it.
She quickly tucks her phone away. “All good?”
“Yep. So, what do you think? Lunch before we head back to the shop?”
“Sounds perfect.”
I navigate the truck out of the parking lot as she turns to look at me.
“So, why are you driving trucks for Mikey? I’m surprised you have time,” she says once we’ve been on the road for a few minutes.
She’s not wrong. While I used to drive trucks for my brother when he first opened, a few years ago I was finally able to step back and do what I love full time—be a tattoo artist. I spent one semester at college studying art before I switched my major and got an associate’s degree in business. I’d also started working as a receptionist at a tattoo shop. The owner there was cool and liked some of my art. He taught me the essentials, and I was hooked.
When Mikey opened the garage, he had an apartment above it where he and George used to live. There was also a separate storage space above the garage. He let me turn half of that into a small tattoo shop. My sister was in high school when all that was happening and she’d become obsessed with jewelry. She started designing her own, and I had trays of it in my shop. Slowly, people started showing interest in it. By the time she graduated from high school, her interest in jewelry had only grown and so had her interest in piercings. Right out of high school, she did an apprenticeship to become a certified body piercer and teamed up with me.
We worked out of that tiny storage space for years until we’d built up enough client base to afford a shop of our own. We opened four years ago and have grown exponentially. We have a receptionist now, recently hired another tattoo artist, and have someone training with Cece in piercing as well. All in all, I think we’ve done pretty well for ourselves.
“Well, I finally hired another tattoo artist. I was going to use this as an extra day off to do some errands and focus on some of the business end of things. But one of Mikey’s driver’s is out on paternity leave, so he asked if I could fill in here and there.”
She smiles wide. “I never would’ve expected that Mikey would’ve instituted paternity leave for his guys, but it’s a great idea.”
“I’m pretty sure Mom would’ve killed him if he hadn’t. She always says how important a father is in a child’s life. Helps that my dad was always around too.”
She sighs. “If they’re a good dad, they’re important.” Then she scrunches up her nose in the cutest way. “Sorry. You don’t need my single-mom baggage.”
“Hey, it’s not baggage. Tad’s still a douche, huh?”
She laughs loudly. “You all hated him. Why didn’t anyone tell me? Red flags are a thing!”
“Hey, goes both ways.”
She bites back a smile. “Yeah, we both chose shitty people to marry.”
We share a laugh. Then she says, “Honestly, I bet Mikey just came up with paternity leave because he’ll want to do it whenever he and Trishy have kids.”
“You are probably right about that. I’m surprised that hasn’t happened already.” As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I’m kicking myself. I know better than anyone that making babies isn’t as easy as some people think. I look back at the road.
“Hey, you okay?” Zoey asks, gently running her hand down my arm.
“Yeah. I just, uh… shouldn’t have assumed—I know having kids doesn’t always come easily.”
She nods in understanding, which surprises me. I never told her—or anyone—about the trouble my ex, Tara, and I had conceiving. She always saw it as something ugly that shouldn’t be talked about. I hated it because I’ve always been close with my family, and I wanted their support. But she would’ve flipped if she knew I’d told them anything about it. She saw it as a failure. And once the IVF didn’t work and they couldn’t find anything wrong with her, she saw it asmyfailure. Maybe she always did. It wasn’t long before she left me. Don’t get me wrong, she did me a favor. Nothing I did for her was ever enough. She talked down to me and clearly did not respect me. I’m better off, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have scars from all of it.
“I get it,” she says softly. “It wasn’t easy for me to get pregnant. I have PCOS, which basically means my cycle can be erratic at best. I got lucky both times. I found something that helps me stay a little more regular and it managed to work out. I know I’m one of the lucky ones. Tad might suck, but I’ve got my boys. They’re the best thing ever.”
I smile at her, using everything inside me to mask my pain. Being a dad was number one on my priority list. My father was active in our lives and my parents built an incredible life and family together. I wanted to do that too. It kills me that I won’t get to have that. At least, not how I planned. “Your boys are pretty great. Especially when they’re giving sass even better than you.”
She rolls her eyes. “Okay, I don’t love that part. They’re too damn smart for their own good.”
“Just like their mama.”
She squints at me, then shakes her head. “Maybe.”
