Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 73884 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73884 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
When the doorbell rings, I groan and my wife chuckles. “You need food.”
“I was holding my food,” I counter.
“Your food is hungry.” She kisses the corner of my mouth and pulls away to get the door.
I tug her back into me and crush my mouth to hers. The doorbell rings again, and I force myself to release her. “What about now?”
“What?” she asks, dazed.
“Are you still hungry?”
She nods. “Pizza. Right. I have to get the pizza.” She pulls away, and this time, I let her go. I grab us drinks, paper plates, and napkins so we can eat in the living room and start that new series she’s been talking about. We talk and laugh, and eat way too much, and it’s the best night. One I hope we’ll repeat over and over again.
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
Brogan
“Ready?” Maddox asks as we pull in front of the building and park. He’s practically bouncing in his seat.
“I’m ready.” I smile at him and his enthusiasm. He reminds me of the girls at Christmas or their birthday.
“I can’t wait to show you.” He reaches for his handle and looks back at me. “Stay put.”
I salute him. “Sir, yes, sir.” I laugh.
His eyes heat. “You can’t get me all turned on before I show you around,” he says, before climbing out of the truck and skipping to my side. He literally skips to get to my door, and his smile is infectious. “I can’t believe this is the first time you’re seeing it.” He nods toward the new Everlasting Ink building we’re parked in front of.
“Well, I’m here now, and I’m excited to see it.”
He grins, links his fingers with mine, and leads me inside. “Where is everyone?” I ask him.
“We’re early. Like an hour early.” He chuckles. “I just wanted time with you to show you around. So, this is the entrance.” He grins, waving his hands around the grand waiting room. “That’s where Drake and Lyra will work. We’re probably going to need to hire more people, considering we have more space for guest artists to work.”
“How does that work?”
“The shop has gained a lot of recognition over the years. We have artists reaching out all the time wanting to do a guest spot. It’s more to help get their name out there. We require them to submit their work, and we vet them before agreeing to let them come to work in our shop. We’ve built this place on blood, sweat, and tears, and we aren’t willing to let someone who is shit at tattooing come in and tarnish our name.”
“So, they come and work for an undetermined amount of time?”
“Sometimes it’s a day, a weekend, a week, or even longer. It just depends on the situation. We didn’t really have room for it at the current shop, but we built extra rooms to allow for it here. We get a lot of walk-ins, and our lists are out six months and longer, so having guest artists come in helps keep that under control.”
“That’s amazing, Maddox. I’m so proud of you. Of all of you.”
He pulls me into his chest and wraps his strong arms around me. I feel his lips press to my temple. “Thanks, babe. Come on. I want to show you the rest.” He leads us down the hall, pointing out offices, and the guest artists' offices. “This is the kids' playroom,” he says, pushing open a door.
“You have a playroom for the kids?” I ask, surprised.
“Yeah, I mean, our family is growing, and if the guys ever need to bring the kids to work with them, we wanted a safe place for them to be. It has its own bathroom and tub. That was Roman’s idea. Something about diaper blowouts.” He chuckles. “Through that door there are a couple sets of bunk beds and some baby beds too. This is the play area.”
“Maddox, this is incredible.” I walk over to the three small vanities that I know my nieces would love to play dress-up at.
“That was Emerson’s idea. She thought Lilly, River, and Rayne would enjoy dressing up.”
“They’ll love it. You all have embraced them as a part of your family. I can’t tell you what that means to me, and I know Briar too.”
“They’re Forrest’s daughters. Of course they’re family,” he says, not missing a beat. “The workbench is for Kane, and I’m sure we’ll need to add more as we add babies.”
“You’ve thought of everything.”
“We tried to. We put a lot of time and thought into this. Come on. There’s more.” He leads me down the hall to a large meeting room and another break room. “This is the family break room. The guest artist and staff use the other one. This is a place our wives and kids can be. It’s a little extra, but we wanted it to be our space, if that makes sense.”