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  She stood. “Sorry, gotta get to work.” She hugged Addie, and then on second thought hugged her sister, her mom, and her aunt too, even though the Lanes weren’t exactly the hugging type. Stepping back, she let out a breath, officially hugged out for the rest of the year. She was halfway out the door of the bridal shop when she heard her mom.

  “But seriously, what about Sadie—?”

  She couldn’t hear the rest of the question, but chances were that it was a valid one. No one ever knew what to do with her.

  Three minutes later, Sadie entered the Canvas Shop. Rocco gave a jerk of his head to the back room. His version of asking her to talk for a minute.

  She followed him.

  He leaned back against a counter and stared at her. His black hair was wild as always and months past needing a cut. His jeans were torn up, his kickass boots battered, his T-shirt advertised his own shop, and his expression was dialed to Cranky Ass. Unlike Sadie, who only had a few very strategically placed tattoos, Rocco was inked from head to toe. Tattoos gave a history, a road map so to speak. There were prison tats. Russian tats. Drunken tats . . . Every one of them told a story and Rocco had started young.

  Not Sadie. After high school, she hadn’t been able to get an apprenticeship with a tattoo artist, so she’d gotten her esthetician license instead and started doing permanent makeup instead, working at a spa that did a lot of pro bono work for cancer patients.

  It’d been eye-opening. What she’d heard most often was the devastation of dealing with the aftermath and recovery, including surgical scars.

  When she’d finally gotten a chance to become an apprentice at Rocco’s tattoo shop, she’d jumped on it. She’d worked under him for three years, doing whatever work Rocco had given her before getting her own clients, and she’d made her own niche. Because unlike anyone else in their shop, she specialized in covering scars.

  Rocco was only five years older than her, but besides being her boss, he also considered himself her protector and her very nosy older brother.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  He handed her a brown bag from the coffee shop. It was filled with Tina’s famous mouthwatering muffins.

  “Wow,” she said. “Thanks. Is it Christmas?”

  “They’re not from me.”

  Her heart took a good hard leap against her ribs as she realized they must be from Caleb. The night before he’d had a late work night and he’d needed her to cover Lollipop for him. She’d happily done it and hadn’t expected a reward of muffins, but she would take it.

  Rocco met her gaze. “I thought you learned your lesson with the last suit.”

  He was referring to her very-ex-boyfriend, Wes. She’d dated him for six months a couple of years back and he’d nearly destroyed her. No, correction. She’d nearly allowed him to destroy her. In any case, she had a rule, she didn’t talk about him. Ever. “Excuse me?” she asked in her best PMS voice.

  “Don’t pull that pissy tone, you know what I’m talking about.”

  Yeah, unfortunately she did. All her life she’d chosen the wrong guy. Clearly, there was something in her genetic makeup that made her go for guys who treated her much like her family did, like she was someone they weren’t quite sure what to do with.

  Wes had been a lawyer, of all things. Cool and calm and unflappable. And into her. It’d been that to draw her in, and once he’d paid her even the slightest bit of attention, she’d fallen hard.

  Stupid, stupid, stupid . . . “Actually,” she said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Yeah?” Rocco pointed at her. “So why then are you using your lie voice, the one that’s two octaves above your regular voice? You’re dating Suits, just admit it.”

  “I’m not dating anyone. First of all, men are stupid. Second of all, I’m a new dog mom and holding down two jobs. Do the math. No time for a man anyway. Third . . .” She’d run out of reasons, so she went with a repeat. “Men are stupid.” She jabbed a finger at him. “So you’re wrong.”

  “Old Man Eddie saw you two getting all hot and heavy up against my front door.”

  “That was a week ago. Your news is old.” Crap. “And Old Man Eddie smoked half his brain cells gone. He doesn’t know what he saw.”

  Rocco shook his head. “You swore off men because you make bad decisions in that arena and you made me promise to hold you back.” He snatched the bag of muffins and dug in. “So this is me, keeping my promise.”

  She snatched the bag back and the muffin from his fingers. “I release you from that promise.”

  “Wow,” he said. “Okay, so remind me again, when you get into a mood like this, am I supposed to give you space or attention?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  He tossed up his hands.

  “There’s nothing going on with me and Suits.”

  “Really?” he asked, voice heavy with disbelief. “Because he’s been here every day this week.”

  “To exchange custody of Lollipop! And let me just say, yes, fine, I’ve made some questionable choices, but I own those, okay? I stand by who I am now, and it’d sure be nice if the people in my life could do the same and have some damn confidence in me.” She pointed at him. “And you know what? If you’re in such a chatty mood, how about we talk about you and Tyler? I can see the screen on your phone and he just texted you. Twice. I thought you’d blocked him.”

  Tyler was Rocco’s ex-boyfriend. They’d been together forever and then one day Rocco didn’t show up for work. He’d stayed away for two whole weeks, word being that he’d gone on an epic bender after a blow-up fight and the subsequent breakup. When Rocco had finally showed back up at work, he’d been even more surly, grumpy, and pissed off at the world than usual. And refusing to discuss anything.

  That had been a month ago.

  Rocco’s scowl deepened, if that was even possible. He glared at her. “My personal life isn’t up for discussion.”

  “Ditto.”

  He shook his head. “I can’t out-stubborn you, I don’t even know why I try. Fine, get your heart stomped on again.”

  She shook her head, because that wasn’t going to happen. She was insanely careful about that very thing. Letting people in, letting them get to know her, meant revealing herself. All of herself. And her track record with that, with someone loving her for her, was zip.

  As for why Caleb had gotten beneath her guard, she had no explanation for that. All she knew was that she would have to be even more careful now because no matter what she told Rocco, Caleb was working his way in through her walls with his easy confidence and just-for-her smile. She was definitely in trouble.

  Or at least her heart was.

  Chapter 11

  #TakeTheWalk

  The next evening, when Sadie closed up the Canvas Shop, she was restless as hell. She and Lollipop walked the length of the courtyard in the cold misty night, the dog pouncing on a fallen leaf, barking at a lamppost, making her laugh.

  It felt good to have the three-legged sweetheart for company since her own thoughts skewed dark. But even with all Lollipop had been through, she wasn’t wired for dark. Every walk was exciting, a chance for a new adventure.

  Sadie’s phone beeped into the chilly silence. A missed call and a voice mail. She grimaced. Caleb had tried on more than one occasion this past week to see her for reasons other than exchanging custody of Lollipop.

  She’d evaded.

  Not because of disinterest but the opposite. She was too interested, and that was scary shit. She was working up to facing those fears, she just wasn’t there quite yet, so she brought up the message with her eyes half squinted.

  But the message was from her sister.

  Giving you a heads-up. Mom’s going to ask you to make sure your hair doesn’t have any primary colors in it for the wedding. Also, she wants your tats hidden. Your friend Addie seems to think she can add a lace panel to cover the infinity sign on the back of your shoulder, but Mom’s worried that the ink will make the lac