“Clarissa.” She closes her eyes and shakes her head. When she opens her eyes, she pulls me into a hug. “I love you so much. I’m not sure about your sanity, enforcing manners on some tattooed giant, but I love you,” she says, squeezing me before Biscuit strains the leash and jerks me forward.
“I love you, too.” I smile.
“Have you told your dad?” Margot asks, taking the lead back from me.
My stomach clenches. I know I should, but it’s the last thing I want to do. I’m so tired of my dad’s judgment, and me not having a post-graduation planalready has my father on edge. What I want is to try new things and see what I find. I’m not unhappy with my life, but there’s a voice inside my head saying there is more to the world than what my father wants for me.
I look at the kid on the playground. He has the pinwheel above his head now and is running with it. I wish my life could be so carefree again.
“No. Not yet, and I’m not sure I want to. He’d lose his mind, Margot. His daughter working for a guy covered in tattoos who looks like—” I stop.
“Like what?” It’s not a question.
“Nothing.”
“Clarissa.” She pulls her sunglasses off entirely. “Like what?”
The path curves around the pond. Biscuit strains toward a duck, and Margot loosens the leash. “He has this tattoo that goes up the side of his neck. And when he turned around after the guy left—after he’d scheduled his appointment, after the whole shop exhaled—he looked at me and said,‘You good?’And his voice was—” I swallow. “And I couldn’t breathe. Like, I actually couldn’t get a full breath.”
“Oh my God.”
“It’s been three days.”
“Oh myGod.”
“I know.” The leash cord is cutting into my fingers. I unwind it. “Every time he walks past the desk I can feel it in my—Ifeelit. He has these hands…”
She is grinning. I can feel it without looking. “Hands? Anything particular you want him to do with these hands?”
“Shut up.” I laugh, fighting the fierce blush flooding my face and neck. “His tattoos… they’re so sexy. I’ve never particularly thought about tattoos before, but they’re so personal. You’re putting what you love out on display for anyone to see. He has ink all the way down to his wrists. And when he reaches across me for the appointment book, I stop thinking.”And my core floods with heat that makes me want to squirm. “My dad would put me in the ground.”
“Your dad would send you to a convent.”
“This is not funny.”
“It’s a little funny.” She bumps my shoulder with hers. “You got a job at a tattoo shop and fell for your boss in seventy-two hours.”
“I didn’t fall for him. I’m… noticing him.”
“You can’t breathe when he’s around you and you think his tattoos are sexy.” She ticks them off on her fingers. “Girl, you’re falling for him.”
Maybe I am.
“Does he know?”
“God, no.”
“Are you sure?”
I think about the way his eyes always drop to my mouth when I’m talking. I’m still not sure if that means anything, but I know I don’t look at a man’s mouth unless I want him to kiss me.
“No,” I say, then hesitate. “Maybe? I’m not sure. You know I don’t have much experience with guys at all.”
She loops her arm through mine and squeezes. “If you like him, you should do something about it.”
“He’s my boss, Margot. My father is a pastor.”
“I didn’t say it was simple. I said you’re allowed.”
