My stomach drops, and I move my hand to the very spot she’s inspecting. Wylder didn’t. He wouldn’t. Would he?
“You have a hickey,” she breathes, and indeed, Wylder did, and he would. She gives me a little shove on the shoulder. “Good for you, girl. I hope he’s hot as fuck.”
“Primo,” Timber says as he strolls by and lifts his fingertips to his lips, kissing their tips. “Chef’s kiss.”
Gigi giggles at Timber’s ridiculousness. “I hope I get to meet him.”
“He’ll be here tonight.”
“Excellent,” she says as Pike drops a duffel that must weigh a ton based on the loud thump as it lands on the tile.
“Hey, Tater Tot,” Pike says as he moves in to kiss my cheek. “We’ve missed you. You should come down and visit us this winter. Soak up a little sunshine and shit. Everyone would like to see you.”
“Maybe I will do that.”
I love the Florida side of the family. Part of me wishes they lived here and that we would’ve grown up together. I can’t imagine the amount of fun and trouble we would’ve gotten into. Maybe that’s why the branches live so far apart—they know it would be disastrous.
“Are you ready for this week?” I ask them. “This is a new experience, and you’re both booked almost completely full. I made sure to leave a little wiggle room here and there.”
“That’s great news. I’m stoked for this week.”
Dad stalks into Inked with two suitcases, one in each hand, as they try to roll in different directions at the same time. Somehow, he maintains control of them both and looks effortless doing it, too.
“Hey, Daddy,” I say, giving him my sweetest smile because he deserves nothing less.
“Kiddo.” He smiles back with so much kindness.
He’s set the bar. I refuse to accept anything less than the amount of love he shows me and Tilly. I want it all. The entirepackage. So far, Wylder’s come pretty damn close, but only time will tell if we’re just in the honeymoon period where he’s the best version of himself. We’ll see if the mask slips sometime soon, revealing an entirely different person hiding underneath.
“Let me help you, Ang,” Pike says, taking a suitcase from my father’s hand, along with the heavy duffel. “You wanna show me where we’re staying?”
“I’ll take him,” Dad says before I have a chance to reply.
My father spent countless hours helping me remodel the upstairs so it would be comfortable when family visited. It was a win-win for the entire family. Even if they weren’t doing a guest spot at Inked, they’d have somewhere to stay so none of our lives would have to be disrupted.
Our homes here aren’t like our family’s in Florida. They have huge houses, which are closer to mansions than our small Southside dwellings. They have spare bedrooms, something that is an expensive and unnecessary luxury for people living in the city.
“The shop looks better in person than in photos. You did damn good, girl,” Gigi says as she turns around, soaking in the design. “You really did do copy-paste with a little twist.”
“I had to go edgier.”
“Hell yeah. And it fuckin’ rocks too.”
“Thanks for doing this,” I tell her.
“I was chomping at the bit to get here.”
“I mean everything, Gigi. Without your backing for this shop as a branch of Inked, I don’t know if it would’ve been as big of a success as it has been so far.”
“Are you kidding me? The idea was brilliant. I’m just pissed I didn’t come up with it myself. And everybody is excited to have their turn to come up here to do a spot and visit the family.” She stops in front of a black-and-white I took last timeI was in Florida. It’s of the outside of her shop, with palm trees illuminated by the setting sun. “This is so pretty.”
“I had to have a piece of the original here.”
“I’d like a copy of this for our shop. And if you could take something similar of this location, I’d like a copy of that, too, to hang with it.”
I can’t wipe the stupid smile off my face. “I’d be honored.”
“You have a great eye. You should’ve been a photographer.”
