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“The military. What you’ve been doing these last ten years. Us.”
I wasn’t the only one not dicking around. I could appreciate Charlee not playing games or being coy about what she wanted.
But I also wasn’t ready to jump back into something with a woman who’d essentially agreed I wasn’t good enough for her.
“My life circumstances haven’t changed all that much,” I warned her. “Just the other night I had to fish my dad out of a bar he refused to leave. I’m just an Army grunt who’s about to raise hell in a town with little interest in being home to my tattoo parlor. If anything, I’m stepping in more shit now than before.”
We moved to the side of the dance floor.
“I don’t care about any of that,” she said.
“No? Then maybe enlighten me. Why exactly did we break up?” Then, to drive home my point, I leaned forward to whisper into her ear. “If memory serves, the night before you ditched me, you had, and I quote, ‘the best come of your life’ as I fingered you during the Movie Under the Stars. No one else knew what was happening under that blanket, but I did. And you certainly felt it.” I stood back up. “The next day? ‘Sorry Lucas, this isn’t going to work.’”
If I’d thought it was clever to bring that night up, it was less so now that I had major wood thinking about my fingers in her pussy. How wet she’d been. How much I’d wanted to be inside her, having fully thought someday I would be.
Really clever, genius. Who exactly are we punishing?
“One night,” she said. “One explanation. If you never want to see me again after that, I will avoid you at all costs. You walk into a bar, I leave. Just give me one night to explain.”
No fucking way I was going on a date with Charlee. I had discipline, yes. That kind of willpower? I didn’t want to find out. Something less intimate? Minus drinks?
I expelled a breath. “Come to the shop tomorrow any time. I’ll be getting ready for the opening.”
“Maybe you can give me my first tattoo. I could be your first customer.”
My eyes narrowed. Was she screwing with me?
“You aren’t a tattoo kind of girl.”
She shrugged. “Maybe I am and don’t know it.”
“Mommy and Daddy will not be pleased.”
That didn’t endear me to her. Which was fine. We needed some space.
“I am a thirty-year-old woman. Not an eighteen-year-old recent high school graduate who didn’t know her ass from a hole in the ground.”
Laughing, I had to give her some credit here. “Look who’s not holding back now?”
“I can promise you one thing, Lucas. Whatever happens here, I definitely am not planning to hold back. I’ve waited too long for this moment to do that.”
Despite myself, I asked, “What moment is that?”
She didn’t hesitate. “The opportunity to talk to you. To explain. To see you again.”
Fuck.
I’d only come over here for a drink, to say hello to Mazzie, and planned to head back next door. Now seemed like the perfect time to exit.
“I’ll be at the shop all day,” I said.
Then, before I grabbed the woman and full-on kissed her in the middle of the bar, I pivoted and left. It was only when I was back in the shop, attempting to concentrate on a new design idea, that I realized I never did say hello to Mazzie.
Back to work, Lucas.
But getting Charlee out of my mind proved impossible. Questions were, did she really want a tattoo? And to be my first customer? If so, what would Charlee think of my design? Would she really go through with it?
I had my doubts. But if nothing else, tomorrow would prove to be an interesting day.
