London watches her, too, with a sly interest on her face. “You ever think about getting a tattoo?” She asks Lacey, hands deftly loading needles and setting up bottles of ink.
“Maybe. I don’t know.” Lacey flips another page.
The alarm on the back door beeps, and Lacey drops the album as though the sound has spooked her.
“Sorry,” Avery announces. I hear the beeps of the keypad and the alarm stops. “I know. I know,” she’s apologizing as she breezes toward us, sucking down an iced coffee.
“You look like shit,” London tells her.
“Yeah, well, that’s what happens when you catch your boyfriend with his hand up the skirt of some groupie skank.”
“Jesus,” I mutter.
“It’s whatever. I’m already over it. I got him back by hooking up with his bassist and his drummer.”
“At the same time or…” London presses, and if I had a gun right now, I might stick it in my mouth to keep from knowing this shit.
“Stop talking. I don’t want to hear another fucking word out of your mouth.”
“I’ll fill you in later,” Avery says, smirking at London.
I shake my head. “Our mother is turning over in her grave as you speak.”
“Isn’t she alive?” London questions.
“That’s not the point.”
The pair of them burst out laughing, and even Lacey is fighting a giggle.
“Oh shit. I didn’t see you sitting there,” Avery tells Lacey.
“Avery, this is Lacey. And this is my pain in the ass, baby sister.”
“Your brother found this one on the beach and she has amnesia.”
“The fuck? No way.”
“Now that you’re here, you can get to work. Ivan and Dee should be in later, and if it gets busy call EJ.”
“What about you?”
“I’ve got plans. Come on.” I hold my hand out to Lacey. “Let’s do a little shopping.”
I can feel London and Avery’s gazes on us and already know they will gossip about this shit the second the door shuts behind us.
“This really isn’t necessary, you know.”
“I’d do the same for anyone in need. Now get your toiletries or whatever girly shit you need.”
“Only if you’re sure.”
“I wouldn’t tell you to if I didn’t mean it.” My phone buzzes with a call from Blood. I walk to the end of the beauty aisle and accept the call. “Yo.”
“Where are you at?”
“Shopping.”
“That chick with you?”
