My heart melted. I may have had shit luck in the parent department, but she had made up for it tenfold.
Henry sat in the chair in front of me. He was seventy-five if he was a day, and a lifelong bachelor with a chip on his shoulder. “Make me look tough, son. Ladies love a bad boy.” I suppressed a laugh and got to work.
After I was done and Henry went to the front to pay, Franny gave me another hug. “Proud of you, honey. Come by the center next weekend. Agnes keeps winning at chess, and I need another set of eyes to prove she cheats.”
“I will, I promise.”
She patted my cheek, and then she was gone.
Just as I was about to call the next person over, Meredith came bustling past with not only a sandwich board but two bundles of helium balloons.
“Yeah, stick it to ‘em, Mer,” Roxy yelled after her.
I just shook my head and started with the next customer. This was her world, not mine.
By the time I had inked a palm tree on a woman’s ankle and a hockey stick on a man’s bicep, Ivy came barreling through the door again. “Puppies,” she planted her hands on her knees, fighting to catch her breath. “Tat Shack has puppies.”
Meredith appeared, muttered a few choice words and headed out the front door of the shop.
Three tattoos later, I glanced up to see a delivery truck out front. A man with a dolly unloaded what looked like a phonebooth and then drove off. I raised an eyebrow at Dane.
“Free photo booth,” he said. “People can take pics of their new tats, and the machine gives print and digital so they can share them to their socials.”
Okay, I could admit that was a good idea. No sooner had the thought run through my mind when Ivy came running through the door again. “Lattes. They’re giving out free lattes.”
Meredith sank into a chair beside me. “This is not how this event was supposed to go. How do I top puppies and lattes?”
I reached out to touch her shoulder, but thought better of it and let my hand fall to my lap. Having talked to more than one member of my found family, I was in a much better head space. “We’ve had a steady stream of customers all day. That sounds like a success to me.”
Chapter Twelve
Meredith
Ithought about puppies and balloons and lattes, but I also thought about what Luke said. We only had so many artists and so many hours. What was the point in getting a thousand customers if we could only tattoo a small percentage of them?
How much of a circus could we create before the integrity of the work felt like it was in question?
I knew the world of the Huxleys, where people didn’t always mean what they said. Where beautiful suits and dresses could hide the ugliest souls. I’d seen that in the way the Huxleys cared more about how things looked than their daughters’ happiness.
I was done with smoke and mirrors. This shop was going to show exactly who it was.
I straightened my top and stood. I had gone for a rocker-style t-shirt and dark-wash jeans. I walked over to Dane. “How’s it going?”
He smiled. “I’ve offered every customer who has come to pay ten percent off if they leave a review and show me the confirmation screen. So far, no one has turned me down.”
I nodded slowly. “So the point of this event was to raise money for charity and get reviews and so far we…”
“Are doing both.” He smiled again, then nodded to a customer behind me.
I stepped to the side. No wonder Roxy loved him so much. He was so level-headed and calm. Which was exactly what I was supposed to be in this role. I’d have to ask him if there was something in his tea besides honey.
I drew in a breath. Fuck the circus. Fuck the crazy tricks and fuck The Tat Shack. We were going to show every person who walked through the door what Think Ink was all about and earn those five-star reviews.
I shifted my focus to talking to the people who came in, offering them snacks and trying to give them a positive experience. I explained where the money was going, showed off the Wall of Shame, and helped people pick which tattoo they wanted.
The day went by quickly, and I was cautiously optimistic that we had achieved our goal.
“That’s it. That’s the last customer,” I said, closing the door and locking it. It was almost eight thirty now, but we had accepted anyone who came until eight.
