by Vi Keeland
They went to the same café they had the first time, and Mina ordered the same thing, vowing not to leave it behind this time. “I don’t think there are any open seats,” she said, clutching her vanilla latte and turning to scan the shop’s small interior. Most of the tables were occupied by people with laptops, their bags and coats filling the seats they didn’t. Here and there, couples sat together, and the sight of them made Mina glance toward Eric, wondering if he’d reach across the table to touch her hand or kiss her lightly with lips that had been warmed by coffee. She shouldn’t have been thinking about it, as if they were a real couple like the others scattered around the shop, but she couldn’t help it.
“There are a few tables outside,” Eric said, frowning as he glanced at a man whose computer and accessories took up every inch of a table made to seat four.
Mina nodded as she glanced out the window. All three of the outdoor tables were empty, their umbrellas closed and bound shut. No one wanted to sit outside in the cold fall wind, but it didn’t look like she and Eric had much of a choice.
“So how’s Jess?” Eric asked, settling into his seat across from Mina as he opened his coffee’s lid, letting the steam rise to be blown away by another harsh rush of wind. “Does she still have those stitches?”
Mina shook her head, inwardly pleased that he’d remembered Jess’s injury and cared enough to ask. “The doctor removed them yesterday. The wound has healed nicely. He says it shouldn’t leave too bad of a scar.”
“Great.” Even his short hair was visibly moved by the next gust.
“Yeah.” Mina took a sip of her latte, wondering exactly how red her nose was from the cold. Eric might think she looked as beautiful as her professionally made-up and edited image, but she suspected that she looked more like Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer than the girl on the poster. She lowered her cup onto the table, wrapping her hands around it for warmth as she tried to keep her teeth from chattering.
The knowing look that passed through Eric’s eyes was unmissable. “Look, it’s freezing out here. Would you rather finish your coffee at my place? It’s just a few blocks away.”
Her surprise must have shown on her face, because he reached out to touch one of her hands, just like the guy in the coffee shop had done to his girlfriend. “You don’t have anything to worry about. I just can’t sit here and watch you turn into an icicle.”
Another blast of biting air sent her hair flying backwards, as if she were standing in a wind tunnel instead of sitting outside a café. “Okay.”
Their chairs scraped against the cement as they rose, and Eric walked close beside her, leading her to his place. The butterflies in Mina’s stomach maintained a state of unrest as she imagined his home and what it would be like to be with him inside it – alone. The idea was both unnerving and slightly intoxicating, but at least it took her mind off what she’d have to say to him once they arrived. After all, she’d agreed to tell him what had upset her during their date, and she wasn’t looking forward to confessing.
Chapter Six
“Here we are.” The brick apartment building was thoroughly ordinary, and a rush of relief swept through Mina as they stepped inside, safely ensconced in the narrow hallway, away from the cold wind. Eric led her to the third floor, and her heart beat as if they’d run all the way up the stairs as he pushed his key into the lock and turned it.
The inside of his apartment was just as ordinary as the outside – modest but reasonably neat and clean. Her eyes settled on a guitar propped in one corner, a couple yards behind the couch that sat in the middle of the living room. Did he play?
“I have a roommate,” he explained. “He’s the one who plays guitar, but he’s at work right now.”
She nodded, settling onto the edge of the couch after he gestured toward it. He sat beside her, his blue eyes locked with hers as he opened his coffee again, releasing curling tendrils of steam. “So about last time,” he said. “You’re going to have to explain if you really want me to believe it wasn’t something I did.”
She took a deep breath and wrapped her fingers around her cup, drawing on its warmth for courage. “If it was something you’d done, I wouldn’t have come here with you.”
He waited patiently for her to explain, his blue eyes locked on her.
“I agreed to go on a date with you because, well, I really like you, but I figured that it would be our last, after I told you about my family situation.”
“Family situation?” He blinked, like he thought he’d missed something.
She looked directly into his eyes, doing her best to ignore the way her heart fluttered as she did so. “You know – that I’m Jess’s guardian.”
He still didn’t look like he understood. Mina repressed a frustrated sigh. How could she possibly make it any clearer?
“So let me get this straight. You thought that I wouldn’t want to continue dating you because you’re caring for your little sister on your own?”
She nodded, clutching her barely-touched latte. The cup wasn’t as warm as it had been. Soon her drink would be cold, wasted like the first one. She forced herself to take a sip, and the sweetness felt alien on her tongue. All she could think about was bitterness – she’d be up to her eyeballs in it once Eric confirmed her theory and turned her away.
“That’s ridiculous.”
She snapped her gaze back to his face. “What?”
“I can’t believe you thought I wouldn’t be interested in a relationship with you because of that.”
Relationship. She took another sip of her drink, just to hide her face, lest it betray the sudden sense of hope that had risen up in her. “Are you telling me I was wrong?” It sounded blunt, even to her, but she didn’t think she could stand her emotions being toyed with. Not by him.
“Of course.” He cocked a dark brow at her again. “I don’t know why you thought that would deter me.”
She sighed. Maybe he just didn’t realize what her life was like. She glanced around the room, where all signs indicated that it was home to two single men. He just couldn’t understand the responsibilities of caring for another person – a person who needed her help for even some of the most basic things. Not that she could blame him, but… She steeled herself for disappointment all over again as she looked him directly in his amazing eyes. “I don’t think you understand. Eric, I love Jess, and I wouldn’t give up my guardianship of her for the world, but I have a lot of responsibilities, and they might make dating difficult at times. Jess will always take priority over any man – or anyone else in the world, for that matter. I know a lot of guys can’t handle that.” She’d learned that firsthand – the relatively few times anyone had shown interest in dating her over the past few years, they’d backed off quickly after learning how much of her time and energy was devoted to her little sister.
He took one of her hands in his. “Mina…”
She held her other hand up, imploring him to let her continue. If she was going to get this all off her chest, she was going to say it all at once, not dole out her discomfort in little doses, extending the heartbreak of separating herself from Eric. “My life is more like the existence of a middle aged mom’s than a twenty-four year old’s.” At just fourteen, Jess would need Mina for years to come. “Sometimes I look at other people my age, and I can’t believe they’re supposed to be my peers. I don’t have their freedom, and I don’t have as much to offer someone like you.” She clutched her coffee cup with her free hand, still meeting Eric’s gaze. If that hadn’t been direct enough, nothing would be.
His expression was unreadable. “Is that everything you wanted to say?”
She nodded silently, her heart in her throat as she awaited his response.
“Good.” He squeezed her hand as he leaned forward and pressed a kiss against her mouth. It was soft and, in comparison to the way they’d kissed in his car several nights ago, light. His lips were hot from his coffee, just as she’d imagined them. Something inside her wavered as his heat suffused her, warming not just
her lips, but her entire body. Maybe she should have resisted, but the rigidness she’d mustered up had gone out of her spine and shoulders and all she wanted to do was melt against him. When he pulled away, it was too soon. Left to face reality instead of focusing on the perfection of his touch, her mind whirled with confusion.
“Mina, I want to keep seeing you. I don’t care if our relationship isn’t your top priority – I don’t expect it to be. I think what you do for your sister is amazing.”
The defenses she’d quickly erected in preparation for his rejection crashed down, leaving her feeling exposed and stunned. “Really?” She hated the hopefulness that tinged her voice, but she couldn’t help it. Of all the reactions she’d imagined he might have to her words, this wasn’t one of them. Amazing? Could he be serious?
“Yeah.” He leaned in – not kissing her, but close. “I can’t believe that’s what this was all about. I didn’t contact you after I took you home that night because I really thought you weren’t interested in dating me.”
She knew her confusion showed on her face as she replied. “Why would you think that?” After all, she’d responded to his advances with alacrity until she’d gotten a rein on herself and allowed him to drop her off at her apartment.
He laughed softly. “I didn’t know, but I had a few guesses. Believe it or not, tattoo artists aren’t exactly at the top of most women’s lists for potential boyfriends.”
She couldn’t help but smile. “Like I care about that. I love what you do. And besides, I’m just a bank teller. Well, an ex-teller.” Her expression rapidly turned into a frown. Back at Ruby’s, when he’d said that life had gotten in the way of the education he’d dreamed of as a child, she’d known exactly what he’d meant.
His smile reached his eyes. Had he really thought she’d fled his advances despite her attraction because of his job? Maybe she wasn’t the only one who’d harbored some major misconceptions until now. The thought threw her mind into a spiral of doubt. Before, she’d taken comfort in knowing what to expect, even if it had been painful to imagine Eric rejecting her. Now, she didn’t know what to think.
He loosened his grip on her hand a little and began to massage the back of it in a comforting gesture. Her muscles were stiff beneath his fingertips, knotted with anxiety. “Mina?”
She raised her gaze – she’d lowered it into her lap, lost in contemplation as she tried to wrap her mind around the concept that Eric thought the fact that she cared for her sister was ‘amazing’. “Yeah?”
“I mean it, you know. The fact that you’re responsible for Jess isn’t going to cause me to lose interest in you.”
The uncertainty she felt must have shown on her face, because he continued.
“I had a little sister,” he said, his eyes a shade darker than usual. “Amanda.”
Had. The word tripped some internal alarm inside Mina, and she braced herself for whatever he was about to say. The faraway look in his eyes told her it wasn’t going to be a happy story. Her heart wrenched a little in premature sympathy. She knew all about tragedy.
“She was killed in an accident,” he said, “when she was about Jess’s age. She and my brother were in the car when it slid on an icy road and rolled into the median. He only suffered minor injuries, but her side of the vehicle was obliterated. I like to think that if she’d survived, I would have done whatever I could have to make her life whole again, even if she’d been badly hurt or disabled. So when I see you taking care of Jess, I think of her, and I know that I would have done the same if I’d had to. If I’d had the chance.”
Mina swallowed, trying to ignore the way her throat had tightened. Eric didn’t know how close to the truth he’d come, but she couldn’t tell him that now – there was enough sadness in his story to last a lifetime, let alone a day or a single conversation. Hers could wait. She really was lucky to have Jess, and apparently, she’d underestimated Eric. She was lucky to have him, too. “I’m sorry,” she said, clasping his hand tightly.
He shook his head, as if shaking off the sorrow of his sister’s death. “That was years ago. I’m not trying to depress you; I just wanted to let you know that I could never fault you for caring for your sister.” His smile returned, and his eyes were the color of a summer sky again. “Actually, I don’t know if you’d noticed, but…” He pulled off his shirt in one smooth, unexpected movement.
Mina’s heart went crazy, fluttering like a caged bird as she eyed the broad expanse of his inked shoulders, all fair skin and contrasting dark ink. And then – oh God – there was everything below that: the arms she hadn’t been able to stop eyeing since the day she’d met him and his flat stomach…
“This was my first tattoo.” He indicated the design on his upper arm, and Mina noticed for the first time that he was pointing at something.
She dared to lean closer, her pulse quickening as she examined the design up close. The tip of his index finger rested on a place where the spiraling ink formed an ‘A’ that blended seamlessly with the rest of the design. “Amanda,” she said. “You got this tattoo in memory of your sister.”
He nodded. “I had it done a few months after she died, and that was when I started seriously considering tattooing for a living. So I took up an apprenticeship, and the rest is history.”
Mina touched her own side lightly, trailing her fingers over her ribs. If that poor little girl hadn’t died, Eric never would have done her tattoo. She probably never would have met him. The thought twisted her heart. She reached out to touch Eric on the shoulder, but he seemed to have moved on.
“So if you really thought I wasn’t interested,” he said, “what in the world were you thinking when I kissed you after dinner?”
Heat rushed into her cheeks. “I figured you were interested…for the night.” She tried not to eye his perfectly toned torso as she said it, but that proved impossible.
“That wasn’t the case.” He was silent for half a moment. “Though I guess I can’t blame you for thinking that after the way I acted. I’m sorry.” He was so close his breath rushed across her lips, warm and tempting.
“Don’t be.”
“No, really. You deserve to be treated much better than that.”
She would have pinched herself if she could have gotten away with it without Eric noticing. This was all going so differently than she’d imagined. She’d entered his apartment with a storm cloud over her head, and now she felt like she was walking on air instead of sitting on his couch. His lips brushed hers, and she was more than ready for another kiss. Unfortunately, the door swung open as soon as she parted her lips, ready to admit his tongue.
She and Eric pulled apart, though he still held her hand, and turned to face the front door. A tall man who was perhaps a few years older than Eric had walked in, and the expression on his face was one of surprise. “Sorry. I didn’t even realize you were here Eric, let alone that you’d brought someone with you.” He eyed Eric’s cast-off shirt dubiously, looking increasingly embarrassed as he took in the scene.
Eric’s expression was wry as he turned his gaze back to Mina again. “Mina, this is my roommate Garret. Garret, this is Mina.”
They exchanged cordial hellos, and though there was a certain air of awkwardness in the small living room, it couldn’t douse the inner glow that Eric’s words had sparked in Mina.
“You want me to, uh, leave?” Garret asked.
Eric shook his head. “No, you’re fine. I was just about to take Mina back out anyway.”
Garret shuffled back to a room that was presumably his bedroom, leaving Eric and a mildly disappointed Mina alone. Now that she knew Eric was really interested in a relationship with her – the real her, not the girl on the poster – she wasn’t exactly eager to go home to wallow in the loss of her job.
“I hope you don’t mind,” he said, “but I have an idea, and if it sounds good to you we’ll need to leave here anyway.”
She looked at him, curious. “What is it?”
“About your job –
I’m sure you need a new one, and I might be able to help. The pay’s nothing to brag about, and I don’t really know how it compares with what a bank teller makes, but if you need a position fast, this would definitely be that.”
She tried not to sound too desperate at the thought of possibly finding a new job so quickly. With the crappy economy, thoughts of a months-long job search had been tormenting her ever since she’d walked out of the bank. She had no savings and the rent was due in two weeks. She’d be willing to at least consider almost anything. “Oh yeah?”
He nodded. “We normally have two receptionists down at Hot Ink, but one of them quit a few days ago and Jed needs someone to take her place as quickly as possible. He’s been having the other girl work crazy hours and filling in himself when she’s not there. Is that something you might be interested in?”
The mere mention of working not only at a tattoo shop, but the same one as Eric, had immediately kindled her interest and her curiosity. “So I’d be at the front counter answering phones and scheduling appointments?”
He nodded. “That and answering some clients’ basic questions, selling the little bit of merchandise we carry, handling payments and stuff like that.”
She loosened her hold on her coffee cup just as the liquid was about to spill over the top. “That sounds great. Do you think Jed would be interested in hiring me?”
Eric grinned, and it fueled her enthusiasm to see that he seemed just as pleased at the prospect of her working there as she felt. “I’m sure he would be. You have experience with customer service and handling transactions, plus your image is already being used to advertise Hot Ink. I’d say that makes you perfect for the job.”
She beamed back at him. Maybe she wouldn’t have to tell Jess she was unemployed after all. “Do you think you could recommend me to Jed?”
“I can take you to talk to him right now. I wouldn’t be surprised if he hired you on the spot – he’s working the front desk and he hates it.”
