Because, Jesus Christ.
“He’s wearing a wedding ring,” Kulti’s low voice murmured from right next to me.
“That doesn’t mean I can’t look,” I muttered right back, noticing that, yeah, he was wearing a shiny yellow-gold wedding band right above a tattoo of what looked like a letter.
Something came down over my eyes, and I realized the German had pulled his beanie down over my head. “Hold this,” he said, continuing to tug the material down over my nose.
“Hey, man.” A voice that I knew had to belong to the tattooed, black-haired guy, sounded closer. The sound of two palms slapping together was right by my head as I rolled the dark green beanie up over my forehead.
Sure enough, Kulti and the other guy were right in front of me, shaking hands. The German was only slightly shorter than the man, who was probably just a little younger, but as I took in their differences, Kulti looked down at me and gave me a look that had me smirking. His face was one I was nearly as familiar with as my own, so good-looking and stubborn and proud.
I’d still stare at Kulti over the tattooed guy any day, every day.
“You wanna look at the sketch one more time before we do thetransfer?” the tattoo artist asked, taking a step back and not looking down at me once.
“Yes. How long will everything take?”
The dark-haired man shrugged. “Couple hours.”
The German nodded before speaking to me, his hand resting on my shoulder. “Schnecke,I’ll pay you to?—”
“Shut up and get your tattoo fixed. I’m not taking your money anyway, loser.”
He looked at me for a second and then pulled the flap of his beanie back down over my eyes.
By the time I managed to roll it back up, the wet-dream-worthy men were walking toward one of the work areas behind the front desk. I settled back into my seat, prepared to watch some Netflix on my phone while I waited, when the tattoo artist made his way back to the desk.
“If Ritz isn’t back in ten minutes, give her a call,” he said to the redheaded guy.
“You got it, Dex. She sent me a text twenty minutes ago saying she was on her way, so I’m sure she’ll be back in no time.”
The dark-haired guy grunted, and before he got a chance to reply, the door opened and a girl around my age came in carrying a car seat in one hand and a diaper bag in the other. The guy named Dex immediately came around the desk, scowling.
“What the hell are you doin’, babe? I told you to give me a fuckin’ call when you parked so I could help you out,” he snapped in a harsh voice, taking the car seat from her with a heavily tattooed arm. He held the seat up to face level and peered inside, what looked like dark blue eyes narrowing before a smile broke across his harsh face. “How’s my little man?” he whispered, dipping his head even closer into the cocoon of the seat and making an audible kissing sound.
Dear God. A man like that making kissing sounds at what I could only guess was his baby. My vagina… my vagina didn’t know what to do with itself.
The girl smiled, not even remotely fazed at the way the guy had been talking to her or by the way I sat there in awe looking at them. “I’m not going to call when I know you have an appointment, and I scored a spot on the street, so it’s no big deal.” She was still looking at the man with the baby before adding, “Hey, Slim,” with a glance at the redhead behind the desk.
The ginger blew her a kiss. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too,” she said.
Dex lowered the baby carrier back down and frowned at the girl. “Give me a fuckin’ kiss, will ya?”
She rolled her eyes and cut the distance between them, coming up to her toes to plant her lips against the dark-haired man’s. He wrapped his free arm around her waist and pulled her right into the broad frame of his body, deepening the kiss even though he was holding a baby carrier in his free hand.
I had to look away.
Maybe it was time I started looking for someone to let into my life. It’d been five years since the last time I’d had an honest, real boyfriend, and I wasn’t traveling as much anymore.
I could make it work. Couldn’t I?
My stupid eyes moved over to Kulti’s direction for one split second before I forced them down to my lap. I slipped my headphones on, peeked up again to see Dex holding the baby carrier in a hand as he and the girl walked to the back, and then started up a movie on my phone to keep me busy until the German was done. Sometime later, a hand waving at me from the front desk caught my attention. It was the redheaded guy.
“Hey,” I said, taking my headphones off and pausing the movie.
The girl from earlier was sitting next to the desk with him, no baby seat in sight, but there was a baby monitor on the desk. “I don’t usually act like a fanboy,” the man said, his voice a whisper, “but… is that Kulti?” His face was really hopeful.
