* * * * *
Jed’s heart beat just a little too quickly as he guided the Charger down a nighttime street, leaving the airport behind. When Karen had emerged into the baggage claim area, she’d embraced him, and when they’d slipped into the car together, she’d given him a sultry smile that had thrown him into the grip of memories of their night together in the Allegheny West house.
Now he drove, expectation tingling in his veins as a sense of apprehension weighed him down. Karen had been quiet since they’d entered the car – a rarity, for her. “How was the rest of your trip?”
She beamed. “Great. I found the perfect frame for Mina and Eric. It’s in my suitcase, but I’ll show you when we get to my place.”
When they arrived at her apartment, she invited him in first thing, then embraced him again before pulling a silver picture frame out of her luggage.
“Looks great,” he said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
She set it on the kitchen table, reverently re-wrapping it in several layers of paper. “There’s something I want to talk to you about, Jed,” she said when she faced him again.
A weight tumbled from somewhere in his throat to the pit of his gut as a sense of the inevitable settled over him. “Okay. What is it?” He could handle this – he had to. She deserved New York; she deserved the best of everything, including the best possible chance for her career.
CHAPTER 8
“I want you to tattoo me.”
It took a few moments for her words to settle in. “You do?” He searched her face, meeting her unblinking eyes and examining them for any trace of a joke, any evidence that he’d misheard.
“Yes.” She stood with her hands clasped together, her eyes wide. “Will you?”
“Of course.” A fierce wave of emotion flashed through him at the thought of his gloved hands against her uninked skin, his needle poised to leave a permanent mark.
She breathed a sigh, her shoulders relaxing. “Oh, good. I thought you’d laugh at me.”
“Why would I?”
“Because, you know, I’m afraid of needles, and I’ve always said there was no way I could get a tattoo.”
He knew that, of course, and the knowledge only made it that much more gratifying that she apparently trusted him to tattoo her. “I’m not going to laugh. What made you change your mind?”
“I want a tattoo to honor my grandmother. When I was in that frame gallery in SoHo, I found a frame she would’ve loved. It had lilies worked into the design – stargazer lilies were her favorite flower. She loved them. She used to pick up a little bunch from the florist every week and display them in a vase in her kitchen, and I would always give her a huge bouquet of them on her birthday.”
“So you want a tattoo of those flowers?”
She nodded. “I thought of it a little while after I left the frame place. I know that was only yesterday, but I’m sure I want it.” She exhaled, eyes flashing. “Even if that means I have to voluntarily come into contact with a needle.”
“And you need a design?”
She nodded again.
“Do you have a piece of paper and a pencil I can use?”
“Yeah.” She retrieved both items and surrendered them, looking curious.
“Can you bring up a picture of a stargazer lily on your phone?”
“Sure.” She brought one up, and he took the phone, studied the image for a few seconds and then laid the device on the table where he could see the screen easily.
“Where do you want the tattoo?”
“On my shoulder. Here.” She crossed her left arm over her body and touched her fingertips to her back, running them over the area just above her shoulder blade.
“Okay. Now explain to me what you have in mind for the design.”
As she spoke, he sketched, doing his best to translate what she was describing into an illustration. Two lilies and a delicate swirling design behind them, darker than the flower petals, which would be carefully shaded in tones of pink and white. For now, he used the flat side of his pencil to color in shades of grey where the pink would go.
Karen watched with a bright smile as he used the tip of the pencil to add dots to the petals, a freckling pattern like the one belonging to the real-life flower displayed by her phone.
“That looks amazing,” she said when he was done. “Like I imagined, only even better.”
“It’s just a rough sketch. I can take this home and draw up something neater.”
“Really? Thank you. I love it.”
“We can do the tattoo whenever you’re ready.”
“I’m as ready as I’m ever going to be. Whenever you have time will be fine.”