I drop my gaze to the counter.“Got work to do.”
When they finally leave me alone, I sit there in the quiet hum of the shop, staring at my ink-stained gloves.
Zora has a kid.If that kid is mine, which is a big fucking if, I’ve already missed years I can never get back.First steps.First words.First everything.Gone.The thought hollows me out, leaving me raw.And for the first time in years, I felt something close to fear.
There’s also the possibility that the kid isn’t mine which guts me in equal measure.The thought of her loving someone enough to have a child with them, hurts me, even though I know I have no right to feel that way.
Not of losing her.I’d already done that.But of finding out I’d left more behind than just the woman I couldn’t forget.
Chapter Six
Little Girl
Zora
By the time I pull into the driveway, Ivy is already waiting on the porch, her curls haloed gold in the evening light.She bounces on her toes the second she sees me, waving a piece of construction paper in the air like a victory flag.
“Mommy!Look what I made!”
I barely have the car in park before she barrels toward me, shoving the drawing into my hands.A stick figure with wild curls stands beside another with too many tattoos drawn up its arms in jagged black lines.Both are holding hands under a sun so big it takes up half the page.
I freeze, heart clenching.
“Is this you and me?”I ask carefully.
Her grin stretches wide.“No.That one’s not you.That’s my daddy.”
My stomach drops.I force a smile that doesn’t reach my eyes.“Sweetheart, we’ve talked about this.It’s just us two.”
She tilts her head, stubborn in a way that is all too familiar.“I know.But sometimes I think about what he’d look like.And he’d have tattoos.Like everyone at the shop.”
The shop.House of Ink.My chest aches.She sees him in everything, even without knowing.
I tuck the drawing under my arm, scoop her up, and kiss her forehead.“You’ve got quite the imagination.”
Inside, the house smells faintly of pasta sauce.I frown.“Did you cook?”I ask tickling her until she giggles uncontrollably.
