Skin Deep

Allie finally came to my rescue on the third week that I’d been home with nothing to do. It was Friday night and Luke had a late appointment planned. Brandon had a couple piercings that he was going to do and was going to stick around to ride home with Luke. Jackson had had to go back to L.A. for a couple meetings and wouldn’t be back until late Sunday night. I was almost pulling my hair out with boredom, and even poor Doug had taken to hiding from me because I wouldn’t leave him alone. Maybe I went too far playing dress up with him but, geez! There’s only so much cleaning you can do around a house, only so much thumb twiddling, only so many baths…



So yeah, Allie saved me. I didn’t even care that she was dragging me to a Down & Dirty party to be her assistant, which is something I usually tried to get out of. We pulled up to the house where the party was to be held and I recognized the neighborhood as my sister’s. Speaking of, Jenna walked down the sidewalk, grinning and holding her arms out to hug me as I got out of the car.



“Hey!” I exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”



“Hey, Em, hey, Allie! My neighbor decided to have a fun party and invited me. I wasn’t going to come but then I found out that Allie was going to be the party rep so I couldn’t turn it down. I called Allie last week to make sure she would be the one showing up and she told me she was going to try to get you here, too. I’m glad she did!”



“Me, too. I think I was going crazy. Did you know that Luke and Brandon have exactly 242 DVD’s? I didn’t either. Until I alphabetized them.”



That made them look at me weird for a minute, but it was quickly forgotten as we headed inside and lost ourselves for a couple hours in the land of Nipple Dip, Slick Dick, Jack Rabbits and Turtle Tools.



On Monday, since I wasn’t allowed to go back to work until after my doctor’s appointment the next day, I headed into Skin Deep with Luke and Brandon. The lobby started to fill up with their clients and even a couple walk-ins, so I stationed myself behind the counter and answered the phone, scheduled some appointments, and generally got people where they needed to be, when they needed to be there.



That night while we were lying in bed, Luke turned to me with an earnest look in his eyes.



“Ummm…that look kinda scares me. What’s wrong?”



“Nothing. I was just kinda thinking…it actually helped having you there at the shop today. So, would you maybe think about not going back to work for Floyd and just working at the shop with me? I mean, I’ll pay you, but you really don’t even have to work if you don’t want to…” He trailed off, looking really uncertain.



It surprised me that he brought it up, especially because I had been toying with the idea of asking him if I could help out at the shop. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to work for Floyd anymore; he was a great boss and I really would miss that job. Honestly, it was more just the fact that I liked being there with Luke and Brandon, helping out my boys. And I guess if I was being completely honest, I just couldn’t bring myself to face the parking lot where I was taken yet.



I made a noncommittal sound and turned over, pretending to fall asleep. I had to hold my breath to keep from laughing when Luke let out a loud sigh, muttering to himself about ungrateful women. I fell asleep with a smile on my face, thinking that I’d let him stew for a bit before I accepted his offer.



Chapter 26



“NO!” I screamed. “For the last fucking time, I am NOT, I REPEAT- NOT going to get a tattoo of Luke’s penis on my ass! So QUIT suggesting it, Brandon!”



I glared at Brandon as he leaned against the wall behind the counter, laughing so hard his face was turning red. Luke had been coming up with ideas for my tattoo like I had asked him to back around Christmas, and Brandon had decided to start chiming in with ideas and, let me tell ya, none of them were usable.



It’d been four months since I was attacked outside Floyd’s office. I had never actually went back to work for Floyd, though I did help him out from time to time when he called. He was in the process of trying to find another secretary to take my place, but for now was using the floater pool. I don’t think he was very happy with it, but he couldn’t blame me for not returning full time.



I’d taken Luke up on his offer and now basically was the front woman for Skin Deep. I handled all the scheduling, supply ordering, and even took over the books. The shop was busier than ever and Luke had even hired a couple of the part time guys on for full time. Needless to say, Jadalee wasn’t one of them, even though she was back home again to help her mom. She pretty much stayed away from the shop, although she had actually come and apologized to me for the way she acted. Being the nice person that I am, I graciously accepted it before extending an invitation to my wedding. Where I’d be marrying Luke. (Hee hee hee…)



Allie spent quite a bit of time at the shop and at our house, which was almost a given because she was helping me plan the wedding. We had finally set the date for next spring and I’d even picked out my colors. I was going with hot pink and black with silver accents, and that’s only because I found a pair of stiletto heels that I HAD to have and wanted to wear them with my wedding dress for the wedding (whenever I finally found one I liked). They were hot pink with a black skull and crossbones design on the back of the heel area. The skull had a little silver bow on its head! I loved them so much that I was going to make that my wedding theme but Jenna threatened to disown me if I did. I conceded the theme but I’m still wearing the shoes.



Allie also spent quite a bit of time with Brandon and Jackson, but swore that they were all just friends. I wished she’d finally just come to terms with the fact that she was in love with them both and do something about it. I think she just couldn’t get her mind around the fact that you weren’t supposed to be in love with more than one person. I wasn’t sure how she couldn’t because her parents were major hippies and touted “Free Love” all throughout our childhood…thank God they’d mellowed over the years. I shuddered at the unbidden thought of them having an orgy that flitted through my mind. Ugh.



I shook my head to clear it and grabbed the stack of drawings Luke held out to me. He leaned in and kissed me sweetly on my lips before smacking Brandon upside his head as he walked past him, leading his next client into his studio. I shuffled through them and my breath whooshed out on a sigh as I saw it. It was perfect and I couldn’t wait for Luke to tattoo it!



He’d drawn a single feather with stunning and intricate detail. The top of the feather looked like it was being blown away, almost disintegrating, but instead of there being nothing, a multitude of small birds flowed from it, interspersed with stars of varying sizes. I decided then and there that I would have it put on my shoulder blade, but I wanted the birds and stars to go up over my shoulder.



I looked at the drawing again, and noted that I had missed one small detail. Along the spine of the feather in small script were the words ‘Always Ever’. I felt tears prick my eyes as I realized that Luke hadn’t forgotten the story I’d told him a long time ago about Jarrod when he was little. My mom had told him one day that she loved him and would always and forever. Since he was barely two at the time, he had responded with Always Ever, not getting the for in forever. From that point on, that was the little saying we had all used to say I love you.