“That was probably the hottest, most beautiful thing I have ever seen.” He sounded gruff and a little winded.

I didn’t know what to say to that, never did, so I put my cheek on the hard curve of his pec and told him, “We’re getting really good at h**ing s*x while you’re still wearing your pants.”

He laughed drily and ran his hands softly up and down my spine. He didn’t call me on it, but I knew it bothered him that I never responded to his compliments. I wasn’t sure I was ever going to know how, that we were ever going to see the same person he saw when he looked at me.

CHAPTER 11

Nash

“Wow, dude, this place … it’s epic.”

Rule let out a low whistle as we walked through the empty space that was going to be the home of the new shop. Time just kept rolling on, and before I knew, months had come and gone and I still hadn’t been to the place. Now I felt like a loser because it was epic and it was sandwiched between two of the busiest restaurants in LoDo, across the street from a popular sports bar, right around the corner from all the coffee shops and boutiques that drew people to LoDo in the first place. It was right in the heart of the thriving city and way more stylish and trendy than the Marked was. I felt seriously out of my depth here.

I rubbed the back of my neck and looked at Rule out of the corner of my eye. We didn’t exactly fit in here, and I had no idea how he and I, two beer and chicken-wings dudes, were supposed to make a place that looked like mimosas and caviar a moneymaking business. I felt like we were scaring the locals just by being here, and there was so much work to be done. All of it was overwhelming.

Before Phil had tied us into the place, it had been some kind of exotic tea and coffee shop. It wasn’t in any way set up to be a tattoo parlor, which is why Rule and I had taken the afternoon off to get the lay of the land and meet Rowdy’s friend so he could look the place over and tell us what he thought about it all. I thought it seemed like a long shot, but Rule was intrigued by it and he was totally on board with Rowdy’s idea about expanding what we did and turning the upstairs into a retail store. Besides, I owed Phil nothing less than making his dream a reality.

“We are going to turn this into such a badass shop.” Rule sounded so sure of that.

I wish I had his enthusiasm, and admittedly some of my hesitation came from the fact that Phil’s health was steadily declining. I was watching the disease wither him away, and there was nothing I could do about it. So investing in this shop, getting excited about it the way Rule was, seemed to me like I wasn’t even waiting until Phil was gone to act on his wishes. Plus he was still pushing me to ask my mom for answers to all the questions I had, and I didn’t want to waste any of the time we had left arguing about it with him.

“I feel like we’re going to need to offer our clients infused water and hot towels, as swanky as this location is.”

Rule laughed and walked to the glass door at the front to let in the guy who knocked. They shook hands, and now that I could put a name to the face, I knew I had seen him in Rowdy’s chair more than once. Zeb Fuller was a big dude with dark hair and a serious, unsmiling face. This wasn’t a guy that looked like he had ever lived life easy and carefree. He had Rowdy’s signature old-school style of tattooing scrolled all along both sides of his neck and peeking out of the sleeves of his long-sleeved shirt.

He walked over and shook my hand as well and let his gaze search the mostly empty space. He totally looked like the kind of guy that could tear the place apart with his bare hands and then build it back up. I could see why Rowdy recommended him.

“Swanky digs.”

I chuckled at hearing my thoughts spoken aloud.

“Yeah.”

“So you want it gutted and made to look like the other shop? What exactly is the idea?”

Rule and I shared a blank look and then I shrugged.

“I have no idea. It needs to be a functional shop. It has to have room for at least six artists to work and a piercing room that’s closed off from the rest of the space. We need a front desk and a waiting area and upstairs is offices, but we were thinking about turning it more into a store.”

He didn’t say anything, just kept his eyes moving around the space. I looked at Rule, who looked back at me and shook his head. I snorted out a laugh.

“Is it obvious we have no idea what we’re really doing?” I felt like I had to ask.

Zeb cracked a grin, which made him look less intimidating. “Well, with a cherry location like this, you don’t really have to do much. People will come in and check it out just because of where it’s at, and if you add shopping to the mix …” He whistled through his teeth. “You’re gonna make bank.”

We walked with him through the rest of the space, and I was blown away by how much of it there was. The Marked was a pretty big shop. I mean, none of us ever tripped over the others and the waiting area comfortably held up to ten people at a time, but this place doubled that. I had no idea how I was supposed to manage something like that, let alone remodel and staff it. I felt a slow burn work up the back of my neck.

At the end of the tour, we ended back on the main level of the shop, and Zeb was writing things down on a pad of paper he had produced from out of nowhere. Rule was asking him questions and I was just standing there feeling useless and panicked. Zeb looked up and took in my expression.

“I’ll draw some stuff up, put together a couple quotes. What’s the time frame?”

I sighed. “Well, Cora’s gonna have to be in on the hiring and the actual business setup and she’s due fairly soon, so like maybe May?” I didn’t even know when I needed to have the place open by. I sucked at being a business owner. “That gives her time to be at home with the baby while remodeling is going on.”

Rule nodded. “Yeah, I would think May would be good, we would be open for a lot of the summer tourist business then.”

Zeb made a couple more notes and muttered something under his breath. He gave a quick nod then stuck the pen he was using behind his ear.

“It’s gonna be some work, not gonna shit you, but this is a great space and I think with minimal effort I can give you something that reflects what you guys are about but also fits in with what the downtown crowd looks for as well.”

“Sounds perfect.” Rule and I agreed.

“I’ll touch base after I get some ideas on paper, and we can talk firmer time lines and budgets. I know Rowdy threw my name in the ring, but I appreciate the shot.”

Rule lifted the eyebrow that had the studs in it and ran his tongue over his lip ring.

“Any friend of Rowdy’s …”

Zeb barked out a laugh that had no humor in it. “Yeah, Rowdy’s a good dude and I appreciate he doesn’t hold my past against me. Neither does Wheeler.” He dropped the mechanic’s name as I tilted my head a little to consider the common connection we shared.

“The past?” I had to ask.

He sighed and that massive chest that looked like he regularly did bench presses with a Buick rose and fell.

“I shouldn’t say anything because it’s cost me more than one job, but if we’re gonna work together, you might as well know that I served time. I got out over two years ago, but I have a record.”

“Served time for what?” Rule’s tone was sharp, but we both knew Rowdy wouldn’t send us anyone that was a danger to the business or anyone’s safety.

“Assault. I made some bad choices, and I paid for them.”

Well, that wasn’t awesome, but none of us were strangers with the other side of the law. Hell, less than a year ago Jet had gotten locked up for a day for beating the crap out of his dad. Granted, the old bastard deserved it and way worse, so the lot of us tended not to pass judgment when it came to past mistakes.

I told him simply, “As long as you can do the job and the price is fair, I don’t care about what happened in the past. Our working relationship is all about what’s going on in the here and now.”

He seemed to take my words at face value and we all exchanged business cards. He left and Rule and I walked out to the front of the building so I could lock the door.

“What do you think?” Rule’s tone was curious.

“I think I want a cigarette.”

He cut me a dirty look and followed me to where the Charger and his truck were parked on the street.

“Seriously?”

“I think that I don’t know what I’m doing. I look at that space and can’t even imagine tattooing there or the kind of clients we might have. I think I have no idea how to run a business, or how to get Phil to tell me the truth, and I think I’m falling for a girl who can’t seem to trust me fully, and as a result won’t let me get nearly as close as I want to. Do you know how much that sucks? I never wanted to get this close to any girl, ever.”

“Whoa …”

He laughed at me a little and reached out and clamped a hand on my shoulder.

“Chill out, brother.”

I swore and propped a hip on the fender of the Charger and crossed my tattooed arms over my chest.

“Seriously, Rule. I feel like I’m losing control of everything. The ride can stop anytime and let me off. Being dizzy sucks.”

Both his eyebrows shot up and he took up a spot next to me, his pose almost identical to mine. “Listen, Nash, you need to breathe. You have a lot going on right now, and trying to deal with it all at one time is going to make you flip the f**k out. Phil won’t tell you what you want to know, so go talk to your mom. Seriously, that’s the easy solution, and if Ruby the Great won’t tell you what you need to hear wait until Cora’s dad gets here for the birth of the baby and ask him.”

It made sense. I just wished I could do it without the talking-to-my-mother part.

“As for the shop and being a business owner, you are not in this alone. I’m here, Cora is here, Rowdy has your back, and we still have Phil. The success or failure of this shop will not be solely on you, Nash. We all want it to succeed, we all want to make Phil proud whether we do it in time for him to see it or not.”

He was right … more than my future was at stake here and I needed to remember that.

“As for the girl …” He bumped me in the arm with his fist. “There is no falling. You fell. She’s got you and there is no getting loose from that. So she’s guarded, so she’s hard to figure out … did you stop and think maybe the reason you like her, that she matters, is because she isn’t easy like all the rest? Easy is very forgettable, my friend, complicated and difficult stays with you forever. Believe me, I married it.”

I looked at him and tried to think of something to say that could refute what he said. There wasn’t anything.

“We were all a bunch of pricks back then; it took finding the right person to make me not want to be that guy anymore. You, well, you were always the nice one, but even the nice guy can have a bad day. Eventually she’ll get over her hang-ups over the past, and if she doesn’t, you move on because that means she’s not into the guy you are now.”

I huffed out a breath and watched it turn into vapor in the cold in front of me.

“When did you turn into the relationship sensei?”

“All my friends and family are falling in love around me, I’m just trying to keep them from making the same mistakes I made with Shaw. I wouldn’t waste any of the time I did getting to her if I could do it all over again.”

I would’ve made fun of him for being sappy and sentimental, but I had been there for the journey he took to get to his girl. It wasn’t always pretty and they had both hurt more than they needed to along the way, so discounting his words of wisdom didn’t seem very smart.

“All right. I guess I’m gonna cruise up the mountain and try and see if I can have a conversation with my mom without strangling her or trying to choke myself out.”