Chapter Five
The following morning, Ace woke up, and he smiled. He couldn’t recall the last time he had been this happy. Trixie lay asleep beside him, and he reached out, touching her cheek to make sure she was real. She was breathing, and warm, and everything was … perfect.
The sun was shining, and he looked at the clock to see it was a little after seven.
“I don’t want to wake up,” she said, moaning. “I hate mornings.” She shoved her hand beneath her, and those pretty brown eyes looked back at him. “How can you be smiling?”
“Would it be crazy to say that I’ve been dreaming of this moment for a long time?” He touched her shoulder, recalling last night. After their cereal, he’d taken her again bent over the coffee table. Only when she had begged for more and he’d given her a fourth orgasm had he found his own release. Still, he wasn’t satisfied, and he had taken her again throughout the night in this bed.
Never had he been so sated and yet so hungry for more. Stroking his hand from her shoulder down to her hip, he gripped her tightly.
“Do you have any idea what you do to me?”
“I don’t know. Is that morning wood? Or for me?” she asked.
He laughed, biting her neck. “I’ll be right back.” He left the bed, taking care of his business, washing his hands as he did. He spun around and found Trixie there. “I need to use the toilet, and your mom is on the phone.”
“I didn’t even hear the phone ring,” he said.
“It was your cell, and old habits die hard. I answered saying ‘Ace’s parlor’.” She winced. “I’m sorry.”
He pressed a kiss to her head. “I will go and deal with pancakes and my mother.”
Leaving the bathroom, he pulled on a pair of briefs, and grabbed his cell phone. “This is really early in the morning even for you,” he said.
“Did you not want me to know about your girl?” she asked.
“I was worried you would scare her off. What’s up, Mom?”
“You’re not going to tell me who she is?”
“I think you’ve got an idea.”
“The Dean girl?”
“You know it. Keep all of your negative crap to yourself though. I don’t need to hear that she is so far out of my league and stuff like that,” he said.
His mother huffed. “I wouldn’t dream of saying stuff like that.”
“We were in town a long time ago, and you saw her. You leaned down and said that I could only ever look at a girl like her. Girls like her were made of better stuff than me.” He remembered it very clearly. It was one of the reasons he’d never tried to pursue Trixie when he was younger. Of course, this was during that time that his mother wasn’t the best person. It was also around the time his father left.
He heard his mother sniffle. “I was a horrible person. You were right for her, honey. I’m … wow, I’m awful.”
“It’s fine. We’ve talked about this before. I’ve forgiven you. There’s no need to bring it up.”
“She was a quiet girl even then. Always in her own little world. Do you like her, Ace? I know something hasn’t been right since she got back to town. She never talks to her mom or anything.”
“I love her, Mom. I’ve loved her for a long time, and I’m not going to lose her or let her go.” He had been a nervous wreck when she first came into his parlor asking for the ink across the base of her back. He’d nearly screwed the design up just because touching her had given him pleasure.
In the past three years of her working for him, he had wanted to ask her out, to change the dynamics of their relationship, and he hadn’t. He’d held back as he knew she wasn’t ready, or in the right place.
“I’m going to marry her, Mom.”
His mother screamed. “When do I get to meet her?”
“When I know you can keep my own plans to yourself. Give me time with Trixie. I don’t want to lose her.”
He opened his kitchen cupboard taking out the pancake mix he had already made the day before. “Do you think you could give us some space?” he asked.
“Of course, I will. I won’s say anything.”
“And no surprise visits either. Call ahead first, okay? I don’t want to mess this up, and she may freak out if my mother is here for some reason.”
“Consider it all done. I’m so happy for you, Ace.”
He hung up the phone after she said goodbye. It was only going to be a matter of time before she made her appearance.
“Is everything okay with your mom?” Trixie asked, coming out of the bedroom. She wore one of his shirts, and it came down to her knees, making her look sexy.
“Yes, everything is fine.” He didn’t find out what she wanted, but he’d call her back after breakfast.
“I have no spare clothes. Will you drop me off home before we head into work?” she asked, taking a seat at his table.
“Of course. I always have pancakes with bacon and eggs. That good for you?”
“Sounds great. I’m starving.”
“We worked up an appetite last night, and a bowl of cereal wouldn’t cut it.” He whisked the eggs and milk into the batter, and let it sit on the side. “So, I was thinking that tonight I could pick up a movie, a pizza, and we could spend tonight together. What do you think?”
He didn’t realize that he had tensed up waiting for her answer until after she gave it.
“I was going to suggest the same thing.” She stood beside him. “Would you like me to make the eggs? I love scrambled eggs. Do you have maple syrup? I drown my pancakes in the stuff. Totally bad for you, but I think it’s one of the reasons I got these hips.”
“Then I’m going to keep an endless supply because your hips are a thing of beauty.”
****
“This is going to look so sick,” the kid said.
Trixie leaned against the doorframe watching as Ace inked a superhero on the guy’s arm. He was nineteen, nearly twenty, and he had originally asked for a tattoo on his dick. Ace, being the guy he was, told the kid to fuck off. There was no way he was going to touch any guy’s cock.
“It’s going to be something.”
“This man is the rock. I mean totally. My girl is going to love this.”
“You’ve got a girlfriend?” Trixie asked. Ace gave her a smile but said nothing.
“Yep. She’s my rock, and she totally got her own ink as well.” He moved around, and Ace snapped at him. “Sorry, dude, wanted to show your girl a picture of mine.”
Trixie stepped into the room and looked at the picture. The woman had long black hair, heavy makeup, but she also had a superhero tattoo on her stomach. “She’s beautiful.”
“She’s my girl, and has been since we were little kids. She’s like my rib, right?”
“Rib?” Trixie asked, looking at Ace once again. Was this some kind of slang she hadn’t grown up with?
“Like a guy has one less rib than a girl right? Some people think that your rib is attached to your girl. Well my girl is like my lost rib, and she’s totally bitchin’.”
“I have never heard that, but I do think that is really sweet,” Trixie said, handing him back the picture, and keeping her distance.
“I wanted to do something special. I’ve got a ring, but I wanted to show her I mean for life.”
“With the tattoo?”
“Yeah, lady. It says for life, right? Marking your skin, she’ll know I’m not messing around and that I mean forever.”
“You won’t get forever if you keep moving,” Ace said. “I can only do so much, and you keep taking deep breaths.”
“Shit, man, yeah, I’m sorry. How do you tell a girl that you love her and want to spend the rest of your life with her? It’s not something you just come out and say.”
“Why don’t you ask my girl there what she’d like?” Ace said.
“Lady, would you let me on some ideas?”
“Me?” she asked, placing a hand to her chest. “I don’t think I qualify for any of that. I’ve never been married or had anyone want to spend the rest of their life with me.”
“You do now,” Ace said, giving her a pointed look.
Okay, this was getting … yeah, she didn’t know what was happening, only that she was tingling all over.
“If it was me, and I’m a thirty-year-old woman, I’d want to be told the truth. I don’t need anything fancy, no flowers or anything, but you’re young.”
The kid groaned, flopping down. “Do you know how often we hear that? You’re too young to know what you want, and you are just supposed to have some fun. Life is not about taking it too seriously. It drives me crazy. Why do I have to be an old dude to realize that I love someone? Huh? Tell me that. Is a switch magically like flicked when I reach an age that my body deems old enough?”
Trixie shrugged. “You have a point.”
“Love is love no matter what age you are.”
“You can love anyone you want,” Ace said. “No one has the right to tell you who to love.”
“You know a thing or two about love, righteous dude.”
Ace changed the ink pads on his gun. “You see that woman right there?”
“Of course I do, dude, not blind.”
“I have been in love with her since kindergarten.”
Trixie stared at him, shocked.
“No shit! Rock on, lady. Are you two like together?”
“I never told her how I felt,” Ace said.
“No.” He prolonged the word making it last.
“I didn’t tell her how I felt at all. In fact, I didn’t even speak to her at all. I spent a lot of time thinking about what to say and never saying it. Someone convinced me that she was so far out of my league that there was no point in trying.” Ace went back to working on the kid’s tattoo. “Eventually, I got used to looking without saying a word. Then one day, she left. I heard bits of information about her over the years. The college she graduated from. The high-powered job, and then I heard about her upcoming wedding with some guy that thought he was good for her.” Tears filled her eyes at the pain she heard in his voice. “Then one night I decided to stay open late. I don’t even know why I did. I was sketching out some new designs, and lo and behold, she walks back into my life. For three years she has been in my life, and not once have I told her how I feel. What I’m trying to say to you, don’t wait around trying to please everyone else. If you love this girl, really love her, then you need to tell her. Don’t waste any time like I did.” Ace looked at her. “I know I wasted time, and I won’t allow for any more time to be wasted.”
The doorbell went, and Trixie looked behind her. An entire group of bikers had entered. She could neither say nor do anything. She smiled at Ace, and left the room. She was reeling from what he had just said. He loved her? Did he love her, or was he trying to help the kid on the table?
She had so many questions, and none of them got answered straight away. The parlor became busy. It was like someone wanted to torture her by making her wait for the answer.