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“I like that. I assume you want that somewhere on the sleeve?”
The muscle in his jaw flexed. “I…I… I’m not sure. My dad and I aren’t really tight.”
“No?”
“Nah.” He sniffed, then dragged his tongue along his teeth and clicked his mouth. “He kind of disappeared after my mom died.”
“Like he left?”
“No, no, he was there, sort of. He just…” He shrugged. “We just coped differently, I guess.” He stared at the drawings on the table. “Yeah, probably it should be in there. I mean, it’s in all the pictures, right?”
Kia’s chest tightened. That poor family. “Let me see what I can do.”
“Any chance we could get started on this tattoo soon? I don’t know how all this works for where you’d need to set up and all that.”
“You were hoping to get it done during training camp? I don’t live here.”
“I know and obviously I’d pay for your flight and stuff.” His cheeks turned bright pink and he looked down. “With the season starting soon, I wouldn’t mind getting this done, so I’m not a headcase if my suitcase gets lost.”
“I could refer you to someone local. There are tons of talented artists here in Phoenix.”
“I’m sure there are. I’d just feel more comfortable with you. I saw the work you did on the guys, and I don’t know, it’s stupid and hard to explain, but…” He blushed again. “I think my mom would like the idea of you doing the tattoo. You have a little boy yourself.” He shrugged. “You just feel like the right person. Besides, I already spewed all my embarrassing shit at you. I’d just as soon not have to explain that to someone else.” He rubbed a hand over his eyebrow. “I’m not exactly sure why I told you half of that.”
“I appreciate it. I’d be honored to create something with your mom’s art.” She pulled out her phone and looked at her schedule. At the moment, she only had one client booked so far on Saturday and had Sunday off, so she and Max could probably make the trip back. She could maybe see if Christian would rent her out some space, otherwise she could do it at the house, but that was less than ideal. “Let me see what I can do. Would next weekend work?”
“Yeah, we have a Bi on Saturday, so that’d be perfect.”
“That could work if Jeff can watch Max. Hopefully, I could do all the outlining that day and then we could figure out other sittings from there. It would mean a long seating, so we’ll have to see how you do.”
“Are you worried about whether I can handle the pain?”
“Yeah.” She bit back a smile. People always thought they could handle the pain. In her experience, it was often the cockiest ones who couldn’t.
“No offence, Kia, but tattoo pain is nothing compared to what I’ve already been through.” The air shifted around him and the look on his face was haunted. “Sitting isn’t going to be a problem.”
She didn’t understand what Brandon had experienced, but whatever it had been was dark. The steel she’d seen snap in his face made it clear this would not be a man who tapped out. The mother in her wanted to hug him. The fighter in her respected the hell out of the armor. “That’s good to know. Makes my job easier. Let me grab a couple measurements if that’s okay.”
“Yeah, whatever you need.”
She pulled out the roll of paper she’d brought with her. Looking around the mostly empty cafe, she gestured to an open area behind their table. “Can you just stand over there? And maybe push up your sleeve.”
“Sure.” He stood up and shoved his sleeve up over his shoulder. She wrapped the paper around his arm and put a couple marks on the page to show a few key points: elbow, wrist, shoulder cap. She added a couple of light musculature tracings so she could picture the way the drawing needed to flow.
“Alright, that should do it.” She walked back to the table and set the roll with her other belongings. “Let me make a few phone calls, and I’ll let you know.”
He reached and shook her hand. “Cool. I appreciate you meeting me and getting this done so quickly.”
“Of course.” She eyed the drawings in front of her. “This is going to be fun.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Hoveringontheedgeof sleep, it felt like someone was watching him. He popped one eye open and found Kia staring at him. “Jesus, that’s creepy as fuck. Why are you staring at me?” With a chuckle, he rubbed his hand over his face to clear the sleep away.
“Sorry I didn’t want to wake you, but I also kind of did, and I know when Max watches me, I can always feel it. Weirdly, it’s less jarring to me than when he touches me. I tend to flail when I’m asleep and am likely to hit someone. I figured maybe it would be the same for you.”
He dragged his hand down his face again. What time was it, anyway? “For the record, I can think of several better ways to wake me up than staring at me. And unlike you, I promise not to flail. I’ll just lay there and take it like a good boy.” He waggled his eyebrows at her.
“You’re such a clown.” Kia shoved her hand against his chest. She rolled onto her stomach and propped herself up on her elbow. “So…um…I know we agreed to keep things casual and…well obviously your friends know about us, but Max doesn’t, and yesterday when I met with Brandon he asked, and I wasn’t sure what to say.”
