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Seb wasn’t particularly athletic. He was okay at sports. Ford had him try out for basketball, baseball, and football. He could make teams but he didn’t enjoy practice or games that much and his grades made it impossible to participate.
The moment he stepped into Broken Wings Tattoo Shop that cool spring day, he knew he was home. In one second his life’s purpose came into sharp focus. After spending the summer as an apprentice/bitch boy, he didn’t go back to school for junior or senior year. He dropped out of school, which his mom hadn’t been thrilled with but Ford had supported him and convinced his mom that it was the right thing to do.
Since then, he’d never looked back. He’d given everything to tattooing. For years he worked sixteen-hour days, seven days a week and loved every minute, every second of it. Losing it felt like he’d lost not just a part of himself, but all of himself.
He did his best to ignore the pit of despair in his gut as he pulled up to his brother’s house. His mom was sitting outside on the front porch surrounded by cats. Ford was deathly allergic to cats, but he was also a big softie, so he’d started feeding one stray and that stray told his friends.
Now, even though he’d moved across the field into Chrissy’s house, he still fed and watered them every day, so they kept showing up. And bringing more friends.
“Thanks for giving me a ride,” Seb’s mom said as she hopped into the Escalade.
She’d called that morning to ask if he could pick her up at two. He’d wondered why she needed him to take her since she was living with the twins who both had cars, and Ford lived across the field and was retired.
Still, he hadn’t minded. He loved his mom and hadn’t lived close enough that he could give her rides since his tattoo career took off twenty years ago.
“No problem. Where are we headed?”
“Downtown,” she responded vaguely.
“Downtown?” he repeated.
“Mmm, hmm.”
From her expression, he could see she was up to something.
“Now who’s acting cagey?” he teased her.
She just smiled and changed the subject, talking about how cute Jasmine and Jackson were. The night before they’d had dinner at Knox and Laura’s. When he pulled up he’d seen Kennedy’s SUV, but by the time he’d taken the food into the kitchen, he was told she’d left.
He’d tried to detox from her this past week after two nights of tossing and turning and not being able to sleep without her. He figured he should go cold turkey. He’d thought that it would get easier, but it hadn’t. If anything, he just wanted to see her more. To get his next fix.
Which was frustrating and alarming to him. He wasn’t someone who got attached to things or people. That was why his nomadic lifestyle had worked so well for him. Sure, sometimes he missed his family, especially if he couldn’t be with them on the holidays or big birthdays and things. But once he sat down in the chair with a tattoo gun in his hand, he was fine.
But without Kennedy, he wasn’t fine. He’d been about as far from fine as he could get. He missed her smile. He missed her laugh. He missed the floral scent of her hair. He missed her awkward waves. He missed the way her eyes widened when she was surprised or unsure of what to say.
And since seeing her sitting in the hospital holding Jasmine, he’d kept having flashes of her in a rocking chair holding their baby, her pregnant with their baby, her walking down the aisle toward him in a white dress, him on one knee proposing.
They were so real, like flashbacks that hadn’t happened yet. They were flashforwards. Except, he knew that they weren’t going to happen.
It was seriously fucking with his already fucked up head.
His mom was still talking as they pulled up to the realty office and Seb saw Kennedy waiting outside. As he parked in the space beside her vehicle, his mom was already reaching for the door and waving at her.
“What are we doing—"
“Hello!” His mom greeted Kennedy as she got out of the car, ignoring Seb’s question.
He got out and walked around to the front where his mom had pulled Kennedy into a hug. The sight of his mom hugging her did something to him. A warmth spread through his chest.
Kennedy looked up at him and she looked just as surprised to see him as he was to see her.
“Hi,” she greeted him when his mom released her.
“What do you have to show me?” His mom clapped her hands together excitedly.
“I have three houses—”
“You’re looking at houses?” Seb interrupted.
