He paused and kissed her. “Me too. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He said good-bye to her parents and she walked him to the front door. “Night, Shorty. Dream of me.”

She would.

21

Brody looked up to catch the sight of her walking through the shop’s front door. He smiled, because how could he not? She caught his eye and motioned that she’d leave, but he shook his head and motioned her over. Puhleeze, as if he’d give up any opportunity to be with her.

Anyway, he’d been working on a half sleeve for the last three hours and he was near the end of it. More than that, the woman he was working on needed a break too. His client nodded enthusiastically when he suggested finishing for the day and having her return one last time.

Elise walked to him, straight to him, her gaze locked with his. He felt such a deep sense of belonging when he saw her. Instead of freaking or feeling suffocated, it rested him, soothed that spot inside that he hadn’t known he needed to fill until she came into his life.

“I can come by another time. I figured you’d be busy but I was over at the café and wanted to stop in and say hello.” She looked smart and confident with her hair up and wearing a pair of trousers and a wine-colored blouse. “I don’t want to interrupt.”

“Why don’t you take a look at where we are?” he said to his client. She got up and stretched before heading to the mirror to check out the work he’d done. “You’re not interrupting at all.” Damn, she was fine to look at.

“I want you to give me a tattoo,” she said without preamble. “Hang on a sec. Sit right here and don’t go anywhere.” He gently helped her into his chair. “Be right back.” He went to his client to speak to her about when to come in again so he could finish the last detail work. He knew he wore a smile, but he couldn’t help it. Elise asking for him to mark her touched him, made him happy.

He returned, kissing her for good measure. “Stay in the chair. I’ll sit here.” He hopped up onto the table. “Of course I’ll ink you. I’d be pissed if you went to anyone else.” He wanted to mark that pretty skin himself. “But before we go there, what brings you here? Just the tat request?”

“I met with the lawyer. But I don’t want to talk about that here and now. I wanted to stop by and thank Erin for some brownies she made for a bake sale at Rennie’s school, and since I was next door, I thought I’d stop in and see you.”

Man, he was a lovesick fool. She came to him to tell him about the meeting, to share with him. He liked that a lot. “You better have. I’d be really jealous if you played with my sister but not me.” He grinned. “That sounds dirty.” One of her eyebrows rose, and he only barely resisted the urge to lean toward her and kiss it. Christ, she wrecked him sometimes. “We can talk details about the meeting later on when we’re alone. For now, back to the tattoo. Do you know what you want? Where you want it?”

“I want to start small. To see if it’s something I can commit to first. I’d like to get a larger one, but not on my back because I want to look at it. This one would be a test.”

“Nothing wrong with that. So you want a starter tattoo?” He laughed. “Okay, that’s actually not a bad idea.”

“I want something small here.” She turned her wrist over. “It’s going to sound really silly, but I want a bee, a bumblebee.”

He kissed her wrist where she wanted the tattoo. “Rennie.” He smiled up at her and he saw her face change, her eyes soften and well up with unshed tears. Guilt hit him; he’d wanted to comfort her, not upset her.

“I . . . It leaves me speechless when you get me the way you do. When you get Rennie. It’s . . . Well, it means a lot. She’s my most special thing, that you see it . . .” She shook her head, blinking away tears. “Thank you.”

The knot of concern he’d had at her upset loosened, turned into more feeling for her. More love. “It leaves me speechless to get you that way too. But I’m glad I do and I think a bumblebee is perfect. You want it now?”

“I don’t want to interrupt. I know you’re like the big in-demand tattoo dude, so I don’t assume I can just flounce in and demand you do it right now. You must be tired. I saw that tattoo you were doing on the lady here when I arrived. How long were you working on it?”

“You didn’t flounce, although if you wanted to, that would be aces, since your boobs would jiggle and you know I like that.” He said it low so only the two of them could hear, and she blushed, wearing a sweet smile with a hint of naughty. “You can be at the top of my client list, so be quiet about that. I can always squeeze you in at my house or after hours too. But that’s not an issue right now. Lastly, the half sleeve I was working on earlier? That was three hours. It’s going to be spectacular when it’s finished.”

“It’s spectacular now and you know it. But spending three hours hunched over has to be tiring. I can do it another time when you’re not tired.”

He couldn’t help the flush of pride that she’d liked his work. That she’d come to him for her first tattoo, trusted him to do it right. “Shorty, just looking at you energizes me. It really won’t take me very long. Why don’t you go and have something to eat at the café and I’ll come over with a few designs. It shouldn’t take but a few minutes. Do you need to run to get to Rennie? Or to get back to your students?”