Page 2 of Hidden Ink

Callie rolled her eyes before looking around Taboo. “Oh, I love when you decorate for a new season and holiday. You know how to do it so it’s not all crepe paper and hearts dangling from the ceiling.”

Hailey started the pot of decaf and held back a yawn. Maybe she needed some caffeine herself. With a sigh, she poured herself a cup of the regular coffee and set to work adding creamer, whipped cream, and chocolate shavings. It might not be an espresso since she didn’t want to bother making that from scratch just then, but she could still have fun with the toppings.

“I don’t mind the crepe paper and dangling hearts,” Hailey said as she started work on Callie’s decaf. With a little caramel and whipped cream, the sugar would help Callie feel like she was drinking the real thing. Plus, everything Hailey made was all-natural, so there wouldn’t be any extra chemicals messing with the baby.

Callie took the offered cup with a smile. “My precious.”

Hailey rolled her eyes. “Okay, Gollum. Drink up. And take a seat, okay? You’re way too wired this morning, and yet you wanted caffeine. What’s up?”

Callie sat and licked at her whipped cream. “I’m just happy, you know? This time two years ago I was just starting to work for Austin and the rest of the Montgomerys. Austin and Maya took a chance on me. And my sketches. Now I get to tattoo for a living. Plus, my Morgan was my first piece all on my own once Austin promoted me from apprentice to full-time artist. I not only got to ink the best phoenix in the world—because oh my God, have you seen his back? Heck, yeah—but I fell in love with him, too. And he loves me back, even though we’re totally not the same age, and I say totally way too much. Now we’re married and having a baby! It’s unreal.” Callie smiled big, her eyes bright. “Sometimes I feel like I don’t deserve it. Like one day I’ll wake up and everything will be just a dream and I’ll be back working four jobs to pay rent on my ramshackle home. And Morgan won’t be beside me every morning. He’s my everything, and yet he shows me how to be more than that somehow.”

Tears filled Callie’s eyes and Hailey quickly handed over a few napkins. Her heart ached for some reason when it should have been only happy for the other woman. She and Callie were close in age, yet they had gone down such different paths that some days Hailey felt years older. The two of them and Miranda—Austin and Maya’s youngest sister—were the youngest of the crew that hung out together. The Montgomerys and their circle ranged in age from mid-twenties to early forties, and most days, the age differences didn’t matter. Hell, Morgan was in his forties and having a baby with Callie.

Age was just a number.

It was the heart and experience of a person that made things work.

Hailey didn’t have her soul mate, didn’t have that person who would help her find the better Hailey. She only had herself and her drive to keep going. That had to count for something. And she would not be jealous of Callie.

Just because Callie had met the man she was meant to be with and the man actually felt the same way about it didn’t mean that Hailey wouldn’t.

Of course, Hailey felt like she had already met that man, but that was neither here nor there. That man didn’t want her so it was all water under the bridge anyway. What mattered at the moment was Callie and her tears, not whatever the hell was going on in Hailey’s head.

Hailey pushed thoughts of sexy tattooed men who didn’t want her out of her mind and went around the counter to put her arms around Callie.

“Honey, what’s wrong?”

“I’m happy,” Callie hiccupped. “Oh, God. I’m only in my first trimester and the hormones are getting me. How is that possible? I thought the tears and mood swings came in the third trimester and then right after the baby came.”

Hailey kissed the top of Callie’s dark hair and sighed. “I think it depends on the person. I’ve never been pregnant before so I don’t know. You can ask Sierra or Meghan, though.” Sierra was Austin’s wife and Meghan was his sister. The two women were also part of Hailey’s and Callie’s inner circle. “They’ve been through all of this before. Meghan twice in fact. And who knows, with the way she and Luc are trying, she could get pregnant any day now and only be a couple months behind you.”

“That would be nice,” Callie said as she sniffed. The other woman wiped her face with the extra napkins Hailey had handed her and sighed. “This is crazy. I came in here because I love you and because, hello, coffee, and now I’m all weepy.”

“Welcome to being pregnant.” Hailey may not have firsthand experience with pregnancy, but the treatments she’d had in the past caused similar hormonal fluctuations. One minute she’d be happy, smiling away, the next, sobbing uncontrollably before moving on to a rage she’d never felt before. The drugs might technically be out of her system, but if she wasn’t careful, sometimes, she still went through those mood swings.

Hailey had kept her previous diagnosis and past hidden, so she couldn’t tell Callie any of that. She didn’t know why she hadn’t spoken of it before. Well, she knew a little bit. Once someone said the word cancer, she would be stuck with the label for the rest of her life.

She wouldn’t be Hailey, the woman with the platinum-blonde bob and red lips.

She wouldn’t be Hailey, café owner and businesswoman.

She wouldn’t be Hailey, the woman with secrets who had a connection to the sexy man next door, which no one spoke of but everyone knew existed.

She would become Hailey, breast cancer survivor.

Hailey, not whole.

Hailey, not fully a woman.

She mentally slapped herself. It had been how long, and she was still feeling this way? It had been years since the surgeries, the treatments. She was cancer free. Enough time had passed that she was cancer free, not just in remission.

Hailey wasn’t the same woman she was before, but in all honesty, who was the same person they were at age twenty?

She needed to push that aside and worry about Callie right then. One day soon, she would tell the girls about her cancer. She hadn’t known them when she was sick, but keeping secrets like this wore on her. Plus, she wanted to make sure the girls were taking care of themselves. She’d been young when she was diagnosed, way too young for that type of illness, and yet she’d had to go through everything that came with it. She didn’t want her friends to face the same things she had.

No one deserved that.

“I’m happy,” Callie said again, this time her eyes clear of tears. “And Morgan is going to freak when he finds out that I cried today. Because even if you don’t say anything. He’ll know. He’s just that good.”