As Jayne returned to the living room, she overheard her mother say, “No, Grace. Jayne hasn’t showed me her tattoo yet.” She nailed her daughter with her blue-green eyes and arched her eyebrow. “But I’ll be sure to ask her about it.”
Jayne thought she heard Grace’s faint voice on the other end of the line, saying, “Oh, crap.”
Her mom chuckled, and they chatted for a minute longer before she ended the call. “So…Can I see?”
“Yes, but it’s not completely healed yet.”
“Where is it?”
Jayne cringed. Practically everywhere!
Somehow, she’d thought that this bit of body art wouldn’t be of any interest to her family members, but she should’ve known that was a mistaken assumption.
Evidently, her face gave her away as her mom said, “Wherever it is, it must be spectacular, if you’re blushing like that. I wanna see.”
She followed Jayne into the bathroom and gasped melodramatically when she revealed it. “Holy crap! I want one!”
“Mom!” Jayne pulled her T-shirt back down and zipped her jeans.
“It’s fabulous! I want a tattoo.”
“Dad would shoot you with a bazooka. You know that.”
“How much?”
Jayne paused for a second and then giggled at her mom’s shocked expression. “He’s not charging you?”
“I don’t know. In our sessions, the price never came up.”
What a dolt! Never once did you think of the cost? I wonder why he never said anything.
“Wow, he must be really, really good if he keeps you so distracted that you never asked how much he’d charge.”
“It just never came up in the conversation.”
“Is he expecting sex from you in return?” Her mom’s eyes went steely in a heartbeat.
“No!”
Jayne’s cheeks filled with heat, and her mom, with her quicksilver moods, switched right back to doting-but-slightly-inappropriate-Mom.
“Oh, you’re still saving it.”
“Mom!”
Her mom hugged her gently. “I’m proud of you for waiting. You won’t regret it. I just took one look at Seth and figured that you might not have been able to resist. He’s hot.”
Kill me now. “Mom! Holy crap! How long are you here for?”
Her mom snorted with laughter. “Okay, I’ll behave. I couldn’t help it. I may be your mom but I’m not blind.”
Chapter Nine
Seth smiled Friday afternoon when he saw the caller ID on his cell phone. “Hello, Jayne.”
Thunder rumbled faintly in the distance. Because of daytime heating, they’d experienced thunderstorms nearly every evening that week.
“Hi, Seth.” Her voice sounded muffled as something rustled in the background. “I miss you. How’s your week been?”
“I miss you too. It’s been okay. Lucy wants to meet you. I told her you were busy with your mom.”
Customers had kept him busy all week, and his houseguest had kept him occupied in the evenings. He was happy to spend time with her but also frustrated. He knew it was much the same for Jayne with her work and her mom, who was evidently a pistol.
“Busy doesn’t begin to cover it. She’s redecorating, Seth. While I’ve been at work every day she’s been redecorating. She says it’s to make up for not coming to see me when I moved in or a latent nesting instinct. I think my mother’s a pod person.”
Seth chuckled, drawing Lucy’s attention from where she was perched on a stool behind the reception counter, leafing through a fashion magazine. “What?”
“She’s a pod person. Not my mom. Some other chick. I swear it.”
“Why do you say that? Has she wrecked your house?”
“Actually, she’d done a pretty good job. She used to never be interested in home fashions but she’s coordinating things and matching things…and accessorizing. I stopped her from painting, since I’m renting, but sheesh.”
“Sounds pretty good to me. So why is she a pod person?”
Lucy arched her eyebrow at that comment, and Seth had a sudden thought that Lucy and Jayne’s mom would probably get on famously. Lucy was all about the accessories. Maybe they’d hit it off if he and Jayne introduced them, opening up a little free time for him and Jayne to see each other.
“She’s…” Something rustled again, and he thought he heard her chewing. “Ow!”
“Are you okay?’
“Yeah, I poked myself.”
“She’s what?”
“She’s all…sexy.”
“What?” Do I want to know?
“She’s sexy. I called Dad.”