She grabbed the mirror from my hand and used it to look at what I’d done. She squealed and said, “Oh my goodness, Dax! I love it. You’re so good. Thank you!”
“You’re welcome. Here, let me cover it before you go.”
I got her all covered up and sent her on her way. I heard her and Sheriff Talley talking out in the lobby while I was cleaning up. I thought back to a time when the sight or the sound of a law enforcement person or a siren would set my teeth on edge. Eight years later, it was what it was…a group of people who were on their way to try and straighten out a mess that some other people made. Some are good and some are bad, on both sides. I knew that I hadn’t done anything that would interest them, but there was also no one around who may have made them think I had.
I washed my hands and went out front. The sheriff was still waiting for me.
“What can I do for you, Sheriff?” I asked him.
“My boy wants a tattoo for his twenty-first birthday. I said no and I had a big old fit about it just to throw him off. But I wanted to see if you had a gift certificate I could buy to stick in a card for him so it’s a surprise.”
“Absolutely,” I told him. I laid a folder on the counter with a list of the sizes and body parts and prices and asked, “Do you have any idea where he wants it, or what he wants?”
“No idea,” he said.
“You want to just get one for what you’re planning on spending then and if he picks out a smaller one, I can reimburse him or you…”
“That’ll work,” he said.
He paid me and I gave him the certificate. Then he spent another fifteen minutes talking about anything and everything in town. He was a great guy, but he was worse than a lonely old woman when it came to gossiping.
At last, he looked at his watch and as if I were the one keeping him he said, “I’m sorry Dax but I’m going to have to cut this short. I have a staff meeting at one.”
“All right Sheriff, thanks for the business.”
“Just make sure and give him something that’ll make me proud,” he said with a wink as he went out the door.
I couldn’t help but smile again. Sometimes it was like living in Mayberry around here.
I was finally able to get my lunch out of the fridge and take it out front to the little bistro table. I had bought it at a yard sale and set it up in front of my place. I sat down and opened my iced tea, took out my sandwich and began to eat. As I ate, I looked around at the little stucco buildings around me and the hills that looked like they were draped in a thick carpet of color. The wildflowers were in full bloom across them. On the other side of me was a rocky, rugged mountain with no pretty flowers but some awesome hiking trails.
The first time I saw that place, I didn’t think it was pretty at all. All I saw was the dust and the tumbleweeds. Because the sun was already going down behind the mountain, the mountain ranges were dark and the flowers were closed up for the cool night. I was always shocked the next day when I looked at the same mountain and it was bursting with color. The lack of plants and trees had been an illusion as well. They were everywhere, they just looked different there.
I began to like to get up early. I took a hike up to the Lost Horse Mine and made the six and a half mile walk or if I had more time I’d go up further to Carey’s Castle. It was a bunch of old abandoned caverns and walking around them and exploring the area brought the little boy out in me. One day, I’d bring my own kids up there. That’s why I was there mostly, it seemed like it would be a great place to raise a family. So far, after being there six years I hadn’t discovered anything that said otherwise. The people were nice, the landscape was beautiful, my tattoo shop was thriving and for the first time I felt true peace in my heart.
Joshua Tree didn’t have any outlaw biker clubs. They had one that was made up of a bunch of working class guys who liked to ride over to Nevada and gamble for a weekend every now and again. They did toy runs at Christmas and they had Easter Egg Hunts in the spring. It was a whole different world there from where I grew up, but that was exactly why I was there.
My dad didn’t do any jail time over the shooting of Blake. Enough of what happened was on the tape and Blake had also fired his gun three times and my dad fired his only once when the D.A. investigated. They filed it under self-defense and slapped a few fines on him for not having a permit for the gun.
Terrance and Brock both turned state’s evidence against their brethren. They both only ended up doing a couple of years in prison, but in the meantime, the club was completely dismantled. My mother told my dad that it was time for him to retire. He was tired, and the club was a mess so he didn’t argue with her. After I moved, they sold the house and bought an RV. They spend their time traveling the United States together. My dad still rode. He’d die the day he had to stop, but at least he started to just take the bike off the trailer and ride until he was tired and then he got back in the RV with my mom. My mom was happier than I’d ever seen her. She finally didn’t have the sins of my father and his two sons weighing her down.
Olivia’s uncle actually kept the Smokin’ Jokers name alive. He stepped in and took over for my dad, and then he appointed his own officers and they began recruiting. He turned it into a respectable club that didn’t even dabble in anything illegal. Instead, they volunteered for community service activities and they worked with foster kids and the elderly. He fixed up the bikes and as they’re out on their runs, they’re a living advertisement for the work he did. People brought their bikes in for modifications from all over the state and his little business throve.
I was just finishing up my lunch when my phone rang. I looked at the face and saw that it was my mom.
“Hey Mom, what’s up?”
“I was just letting you know we’re getting closer. We just pulled into Colorado. We’ll be here a few days and then keep on trekking west.”
“That’s good, how’s Colorado?”
“Oh it’s gorgeous, your father loves it. If we weren’t coming to see you, he’d make me stay here longer. We shouldn’t be more than a few more weeks,” she said. They had gone all the way to the East Coast and they were on their trek back.
“Okay Mom, looking forward to seeing you. Drive safe and have fun.”
“We will. I love you, Dax.”
“I love you too, Mom.”
I ended the call and packed up the trash from my lunch just as my next appointment arrived. This guy wanted a Gecko on his arm…there was no accounting for taste.
“Hey Frank, how are things at the pharmacy today?”
“Busy, busy,” he said. “How about you Dax, how’s business?”
“It’s great,” I told him, honestly. It really was.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
OLIVIA
I loved my job, but what I loved even more was quitting time. It was my week to close the clinic. Our last patient of the day ran late and everyone else had already been gone for a while. I shared the office with two other nurse practitioners and a doctor. We were all equal partners. That day was actually my first day working as a partner rather than just an employee. It was a day I had hoped for but I had been afraid would never come. I finished making sure all of the lights were off and then I finished locking all the doors. It was just after five. I would get to the day care in plenty of time.
I got into my jeep and drove the ten minutes over to the school where they had a little area for the day care. There were only about twenty kids under the age of four on any given day. I remembered the first time they told me that and the number overwhelmed me. I thought it was an outrageous amount of kids. I supposed it was because the thought of the love of my life not being given one on one attention was disturbing to me at first. I found out that when you’re a new mother there are a lot of things that are disturbing.
As I approached the playground, Little Joey saw me. I could never get enough of the way his little face lit up when he looks at me. I thought I knew a long time ago what unconditional love was. I didn’t t
hink anyone truly knew that until they had a child.
“Mama!”
“Joey!” As soon as I stepped through the gates he was on me. His chubby little arms wrapped tight around my neck. I kissed his face and carried him inside to sign him out and get his backpack.
The lady that stepped in behind me said, “Oh what a beautiful boy.”
I smiled, I never got tired of hearing that, and I heard it a lot. He was a lot more than beautiful, but it was the first thing everyone noticed about him.
“Thank you,” I told her. “His mama thinks so, that’s for sure.”
“How old is he?”
“How old are you Joey, tell the lady.”
“I’m free,” he said, holding up three fingers.
“Wow, what a big boy,” the lady said. She wasn’t kidding. He was a big guy.
I loaded Joey into his car seat and strapped him down tight in the back seat and he talked non-stop on the drive to his Daddy’s shop. I loved the sound of his babble. It was like music to my ears after I’ve missed him all day.
“Here we are kiddo,” I told him as we pulled up in front. I unstrapped him and helped him out.
As soon as I got him out, he wanted down too. I sat him down on his feet and he took off. I wasn’t worried because he was on the sidewalk and I knew he couldn’t open the door. The knob was too high.
“Mama, come on!” he yelled at me over his shoulder.
“I’m here, Mr. Impatient.” I pulled open the door and Joey ran straight to the back. That door was too high for him to open too but he knew here he could press his little face into the partition and see inside.
That was what he was doing when Dax looked over the top of it and said, “There’s my hot wife, but where’s my boy?”
Joey was giggling and pressed up against the corner of the partition. He thought that Dax couldn’t see him there.
“Oh my goodness, I have no idea. Where’s Joey? He was just here.” More giggling and then at last Dax reached over and grabbed him into his arms.
“There he is!” he shouted before tickling him all over. Sometimes when I watched the two of them together my heart felt like it was going to explode. They looked just alike. I had two Dax’s to love. I was the luckiest woman in the world.
I let myself into the back through the door. Dax gave Joey some new stickers he’d gotten for him and while he was putting them all over the chair he’d almost completely covered with stickers Dax said, “So, how was your first day?”
I laughed. “Well, since it wasn’t technically my first day it was surprisingly easy.”
“You know what I mean. How did it feel to walk in there this morning and know that you own a piece of the place?”
“It felt awesome,” I told him. “I stared at my new business card every chance I got today.”
He hugged me and said, “Olivia Turner, Registered Nurse Practitioner, and now a partner in the Joshua Tree Clinic. I’m so damn proud of you.”
“Thank you, baby. I’m so happy.”
“Me too. You ready to fix that tattoo?”
I shrugged out of my top shirt. I was wearing a camisole with spaghetti straps underneath it. Dax said he could get to it from there. I checked on Joey and he was playing blocks. I turned on his little tune box that made music for him so the tattoo gun noise didn’t bother him and I went back and sat down on the table.
Dax was grinning at me.
“What?”
“Nothing, just you,” he said.
“Well now you have to tell me.”
“It’s just that what I’m doing to the tattoo will not even take as long as all of that took you. I think you’re stalling.”
“I am not,” I said. He was right, I was.
“You don’t want our initials in your heart?”
“I do, I just don’t want it to hurt.”
“I’m magic, remember?”
“Yeah, but it’s been a long time since we started this. I think I was tougher back then.”
He kissed me and said, “I have never met a tougher and more capable woman than you are at this very moment.” That did it. Now I had to let him work on the tattoo.
“Okay,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Let’s do this.”
Dax had everything ready. He turned on the gun and he put D.T. in the left corner, O.T. in the right corner and J.T. right in the middle. The heart was solid red and the initials were white. He made them pop out and I loved it.
“I really like it,” I told him.
He kissed me and said, “Good, I love you, Olivia Turner.”
“I love you, Dax Turner.”
“I love you both!” Joey asked from behind Dax’s legs. We hadn’t even realized he was there.
Dax and I laughed and Dax reached down and picked him up and we all three hugged. Little Joey was going to have a good life. His daddy and I were always going to make him and each other a priority. We had finally made it to happy.
The End
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