It Happens

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  “Yes,” I confirmed. “And some of your back. It would normally take seven or eight hour-long sessions since I would split it up for the client’s comfort. I can do the black outlining in about two to three sessions. Then the color. Followed up by the shading.” I paused. “We can do it all in one day, it’s just gonna hurt like a bitch, and it’ll take eight to twelve hours.”

  He studied the picture silently.

  “I like what you did there with the baby dragon,” Jubilee said softly from beside me. “Is that Astrid?”

  Astrid was Rome’s new daughter. Her pitch-black hair and muddy brown/gold eyes would be the same shade on Rome’s back as they were in real life.

  I nodded once and saw Rome swallow hard out of the corner of my eye.

  I decided to look in Jubilee’s direction to give the man a few moments to compose himself.

  “I stole a scene from the movie, kind of, where they’re all riding back from the dragon killer,” I said. “The lighting in that particular scene was intense, and I thought it’d look great on his back. I added the white dragon and the baby dragon, though, despite them not being in that particular movie.”

  “He would’ve adored that third movie,” Rome croaked. “I love it, man. When do we start?”

  I sat back in my chair and pulled the drawing back toward me.

  “I have to take Wednesday Addams to Benton, Louisiana for a few days. When I get back, I’ll have a day or two before I have to be back at work. Or, if you’re up for a road trip, you can follow me down there. I have a guy down there that lets me use his shop when I come that way for business with the big boss. I’d be more than happy to do it there.”

  Rome nodded. “I’ll see what Izzy has planned, and if there’s nothing going on, I’ll come over for the day.”

  He pulled out his phone.

  “I know you don’t usually like sharing your work, but do you mind if I send a picture to Izzy? She’s going to fucking love it.” He wiggled his phone in my direction.

  I pushed the paper toward him. “Sure.”

  Even though it wigged me out to have it happen, I let him do it. I always let them do it.

  It still made me curious as hell to see that people actually liked my work enough to allow me to permanently tattoo it to their bodies.

  “You know,” Jubilee said offhandedly. “I asked him to tattoo me once, and he told me I could go fuck a goat.”

  There was a long pause at the table for a few long seconds before Dad burst out laughing. Pete grinned at his daughter, and Rome chuckled softly, obviously relieved to have something else to think about.

  I knew why she’d done it—to help.

  That was part of her nature to know when someone was hurting and try to help.

  That was why she was so good at her job—selling death.

  I turned to her and glared. “If you hadn’t been making fun of me at the time, I might’ve actually believed you.”

  She frowned, looking offended.

  “I was being truthful,” she countered.

  My brows rose.

  “You know,” Jubilee said softly so that only I could hear. “That coffin was the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. You’ll never hear me admit it again, but I just wanted to tell you it once, just in case you doubted yourself.” She paused, more loudly this time so that the others could hear. “I love your work in general. You’re the master at what you do.”

  I blinked at her in surprise.

  “What?” she asked. “Sometimes I have nice things to say.”

  “Not often,” I countered.

  And never when it came to me or my work.

  “And I really did want a tattoo,” she said. “I’ll never go to anyone else.”

  That surprised me, too.

  “I thought you were joking,” I told her.

  She shook her head. “I wasn’t. I really liked the drawing of their names that you’d done. I wanted them tattooed on my forearm exactly like that.”

  Well, now I felt like shit.

  I’d thought she was joking.

  Now I could see that she wasn’t.

  “If we have time while we’re there, I’ll do it, too,” I mumbled, not liking the thought of hurting her feelings for some reason.

  Which was funny, because I teased and goaded her all day, every day, every time we saw each other. Why would I care if I hurt her feelings?

  But I did.

  Mostly because I knew that this one time, I’d actually accomplished it.

  “I won’t have time,” she said. “I’ll be spending most of my time working. But I’ll take you up on that when we get back.”

  Silence.

  I turned to see both of our fathers staring at us with various shades of disbelief on their faces.

  “What?” I asked the two of them.

  “I’m honestly just shocked that actual nice words can come out of y’all’s mouths regarding each other,” Dad said.

  Rome chuckled and stood up, his hand on the back of his neck.

  “Y’all should really just get with each other,” he said, sounding happy again. “It’s only a matter of time.”

  With that parting bomb of a comment, he walked away and didn’t look back, leaving the rest of the table sitting there in shock.

  Silence commenced as everyone waited for someone to speak.

  My father and Jubilee’s just stared at us while we tried to figure out what in the hell to say to Rome’s parting comment.

  I was fairly sure that Jubilee had the same thoughts that I did.

  Been there, done that. Want to do it again.

  “No,” Pete said, suddenly sitting up straight. “No.”

  My father looked at him, his face a mask of confusion.

  Pete’s eyes were all for us, though.

  “No, what?” Jubilee tried to play it off. “What’s your deal?”

  The only problem with her trying to play it cool was her usually pale skin was a lovely shade of pink, and there was no way in hell her father wouldn’t realize that she was lying.

  Hell, just staring at her, I could tell she was.

  Even if you didn’t take into account her rosy cheeks, there were her eyes that were darting this way and that. Then there were her hands that were ringing away at the paper napkin that was tearing with her efforts to appear calm.

  I pressed my closed fist to my forehead and counted to ten, knowing it wouldn’t take my father long to figure out what his best friend already had.

  It didn’t take long.

  “You…I…what…you’ve got to be kidding me.” Pete was stuttering.

  One second all was calm, and the next my father exploded with laughter.

  Big, braying guffaws of it.

  I moved my fist from my head, dropped my head to the table, and banged it against the cool tile a few times before I straightened.

  My dad was still laughing. Jubilee’s face now resembled a cherry from the roots of her black hair to the base of her neck where her t-shirt broke up the smooth line of her skin.

  Then there was Pete, who was watching us with a look that I couldn’t quite distinguish.

  I sighed.

  Pete’s eyes came to me, and he blinked once, finally revealing what he was thinking.

  He was happy.

  There was no disgust there that I’d start something with his other daughter after previously having a relationship with one of his other children. There wasn’t condemnation that I’d done something I shouldn’t have done.

  What was there was excitement. Happiness. Relief.

  “We should probably get breakfast ordered so y’all can get on the road,” Pete said.

  I flagged the waitress down, letting her know with a flick of my fingers that we were ready to order, and she shimmied over.

  My eyes went down to the menu that was sitting in front of me.

  “Everyone want their usual?” the waitress asked.

/>   I had no clue what her name was, which was likely pretty shitty seeing as she knew everybody’s regular order. But oh well.

  “Yeah, Karm.” My father sat back and clapped his hands together. “I’m having my usual.”

  “Me, too,” Pete said.

  “I want a large water to go, two over easy eggs, and a stack of bacon,” I said when she looked at me.

  I usually ordered them scrambled, but I was feeling off balance today, so why not shake up my usual order?

  “I’d like the waffle with berries,” Jubilee said softly. “And if you have it, I’d like some turkey sausage. But I didn’t get a chance to look at the menu.”

  “We don’t do turkey sausage,” Karm said. “We do have…”

  I tuned her out as I got a message on my phone.

  Pulling it out of my pocket, I glanced at the screen and winced.

  I hit ignore on the phone and tossed it a little hard to the table.

  Jubilee’s eyes snuck up and met mine.

  “What?” she asked.

  She was still flushed red, so I didn’t bother to tease her seeing as she was still flustered.

  Jubilee wasn’t normally a blusher. It took a lot to get her embarrassed, so the fact that she was still showing the signs meant that she was really embarrassed.

  The only question was, was she embarrassed by what we’d done, or me? Or was she embarrassed because her father realized she’d lost her virginity to me? Something that I hadn’t quite come to terms with myself.

  On one hand, I was glad that I didn’t remember that part of our night together. Because if I’d been aware, I might’ve told her no. And at this point in time, I kind of liked the memory—or what I could remember—of us being together.

  On the other hand, I was pissed off that she would allow that to happen with me. With someone that treated her like shit around every turn.

  Granted, she did much the same thing to me, and missed no chance to bust my balls if the opportunity arose, but still.

  Needless to say, since I was so unsure about how to feel about the matter that I’d learned the day before, I decided to just ignore the problem.

  At least, that was yesterday.

  Now I wanted to talk to her. To know what was going through her head. To know if I’d hurt her.

  But not right now, with both of our fathers sitting across from us watching our every move.

  “My ex-wife, Raine,” I muttered darkly.

  “What does she want?” Jubilee frowned.

  “She wants to know if she can have the dog this weekend,” I answered.

  My ex-wife and I had been married for a little over a year. I’d gone into the military to help pay for our lives together. Only, in doing that, I’d left her behind.

  Or so she said.

  Really it was to help pay for the baby seeing as I had zero job prospects at the time. It’d been a way that I was going to provide for my faster-than-I-wanted-it-to-grow family.

  Raine and I hadn’t set out to get pregnant. Married, yes. Kids? No.

  We were supposed to wait at least four years until we could afford to live past one meal to the next.

  I’d been in college, walking on at Northwestern. She’d had a college scholarship to the community college right outside of town. We were both going to graduate, her with her nursing degree and me with my Bachelor of Science so I could be a coach at the school.

  But none of that had happened.

  Her getting a positive pregnancy test had happened two days shy of her turning twenty and a week shy of me turning twenty-one. From then on, life had turned rough.

  In an act of desperation, I’d gone into a recruiter’s office in hopes that I could get insurance for her and the baby. Sure, my dad would’ve helped, and so would her parents, but I’d been stubborn at twenty-one.

  From the moment that Annmarie had died, I’d felt like I lived in a fishbowl. There was constant hovering, never-ending ‘are you okays,’ and then there was Jubilee. Always reminding me of what I’d lost.

  Not intentionally, no. But each time I saw her, I saw Annmarie.

  Unlike Annmarie, I hadn’t been ‘all in.’ I’d been ‘kind of, sort of, in.’ I loved Annmarie…but what I felt for her, I’d never been sure if it was due to me being with her since we were so young, or because I actually loved her.

  When Annmarie and Eitan had died, I’d been prepared to tell Annmarie that I wanted a break. That I wanted to see what college was all about. I wanted to experience life, and I wanted her to experience it, too. Not spend all of her years on me without once seeing what was out there.

  Then she’d died, and not only had my life changed irrevocably, but my outlook on life changed.

  I’d had my choices ripped from me the moment that she was pronounced dead by the paramedics. And when I’d met Raine, I’d finally seen a light at the end of the tunnel.

  Raine hadn’t looked at me like I was broken. She hadn’t thought that maybe I was just a little bit too caught up in my dead girlfriend. She saw me for me.

  At least, I thought she had.

  When we’d gotten married, it’d been almost a spur of the moment thing.

  She’d been almost hit by a car as we were out on a date, about a year into us dating, and I’d seen my life flash before my eyes.

  I’d seen myself, forever alone, because I was too scared to take that next step in case my significant other up and died on me for a second time.

  So, I’d asked her to marry me, right there, in the middle of the crosswalk in the forecourt of her college campus.

  She’d said yes, and about two days later we’d gotten married at the courthouse without either her parents or mine knowing.

  We found out she was pregnant a few days after that, which was when I’d gone to the recruiter and signed myself up for the military.

  “I thought that you got the dog in the divorce?” Jubilee asked.

  “What the hell does she want with the dog? She hated that thing,” Pete mumbled. “Wasn’t she the one that dropped him off at your pop’s place because you deployed and she didn’t want to take him for walks?”

  I nodded once. “One and the same. And Bronco hates her. I’m not sure why she wants him.”

  I’d gotten Bronco, my now thirteen-year-old Golden Retriever, from the humane society about a week before the nearly getting ran over incident and subsequent proposal. Bronco had been mine ever since, and despite Raine putting up a little bit of a fight due to her pettiness and dislike of me at the year mark of our marriage, he’d remained mine.

  “Ask her,” my father suggested. “I saw her and the new guy a few days back.”

  Her and the ‘new guy,’ who was her new husband, moved back to our hometown after my divorce. She’d waited a solid two weeks before she’d started seeing someone else, all the while I had to sign divorce papers while I was deployed and deal with all the guys in my unit tossing me sad faces when they saw.

  “Hear she’s pregnant,” Pete said. “Think she’ll be able to carry this one?”

  Raine had miscarried our baby at a little over twelve weeks gestation. Which I knew was a very solid reason into what started her downward spiral of hate toward me.

  She wanted our life back. She wanted me back at Northwestern, playing football, and coming home at night. What she did not want was me gone for months on end, and her having to pay bills and live in a place she didn’t want to live while she waited for me to come home.

  I’d gotten the message that she’d lost the baby while in the end stages of boot camp, and our reunion after I graduated wasn’t the happy one that I’d expected. It was stilted and awkward.

  The awkwardness continued after I found out I was being deployed to Afghanistan. By the end, I was counting down the days until I could get on the plane and leave her weirdness behind.

  At first, I’d decided that her newfound attitude was due to her miscarriage, but the more time I spent with her,
the more I realized she was relieved that she was no longer pregnant with my baby.

  Needless to say, when I stepped on that plane, I was a different person.

  One that had regrets when it came to marrying a woman that looked at me like she hated me.

  “You say that like it’s happened more than once,” I said, sounding surprised.

  Dad winced. “She has. Four times.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “Really? How do you know this?”

  “Because she announces it far and wide,” he said. “The moment that she learns that she is, it’s like she’s trying to shout it from the rooftops knowing that you’re going to hear. But we don’t pass the message along, and her sails deflate fairly fast.”

  By the way, my ex hated me.

  When she’d moved back to our hometown, she’d turned into the town pariah.

  It wasn’t long in coming, hearing the words ‘I told you so’ coming from every mouth that had the chance to say it.

  By the time that I realized it was happening to her, she’d turned her dislike for me into hate, and never missed the opportunity to tell me how much she despised me.

  Needless to say, everyone and their brother knew that she hated me, knew that it was my fault she’d lost our baby, and still sided with me because of how much of a bitch the woman was.

  “Jesus, you sure know how to pick them,” Jubilee said. “First Raine, and then Zuri? You’re boned all the way around when it comes to crazy exes.”

  I shot her a look that said she wasn’t funny. She returned one that clearly said ‘I think I am.’

  I sighed and leaned my head back against the booth, closing my eyes and trying to decide whether taking this trip with Jubilee was a good idea.

  It wasn’t. I knew it wasn’t. Yet, I couldn’t tell them no. Couldn’t say no to her when I knew she needed the help.

  When she and I had been in the hospital, in rooms that had a curtain between them. She’d been the one in worse shape than me. She’d almost died three times in the bed right next to me. She’d literally been forced to endure so much more pain than I had to, also.

  I could still remember the feeling of watching her code just like it was yesterday.

  Chapter 10

  If my blinkers are on, I’m not asking to merge. I’m telling you. Move, bitch. Get out the way.