Tattooed Hearts

by Jessie Cooke

  “It’s…big. Like the size of a ballroom, I’d say.”

  He wants to fill a ballroom with roses? Does he really mean fill and does he know Valentine’s Day is in two days? “When did you need the flowers?”

  “On the fourteenth, and I need them delivered too.”

  I was almost relieved that there was no way I could fill his order. I wasn’t sure my heart could survive seeing him again. It was still relentlessly forcing blood through my veins and my chest almost hurt from the force of it. “Mr.…”

  “Noah.”

  Clearing my throat slightly I said, “Noah.” I would definitely be crying that out later, and it might not even be in my sleep. “I’m afraid I can’t fill an order that size right now.”

  He looked disappointed and I immediately wanted to backtrack. I wanted to tell him I would do it. I wanted to tell him I would do anything to put that sexy smile back on his face. Shit. What is wrong with me?

  “Why?”

  “Why?”

  “Yes, why can’t you fill the order?”

  “I don’t have that kind of stock,” I told him. “The fourteenth is Valentine’s Day and I’ve already taken close to a hundred orders. Most of them are for roses.”

  “Oh, okay. I guess they don’t have to all be roses. Could you fill it with other flowers?”

  I didn’t want to look at his body again. No, that’s a lie. I desperately wanted to look at his body again, but I didn’t really trust myself. I did it anyways. His t-shirt looked as if it had been washed hundreds of times. The black of its youth was faded to a dark gray. His jeans had holes worn in them here and there, and those boots looked like they might be able to walk by themselves. He didn’t look like a guy who could afford a room full of flowers. “I suppose I could manage that in two days.” I was both trying to think of which one of my suppliers could ship a truckload of flowers that quickly, and how I was going to break the price of all of that to Adonis when he smiled again. Jesus, one more time and I might just do it for free. “It would be really expensive,” I forced myself to say.

  “That’s okay,” he said. “I’m not worried about the cost.”

  I should be more worried about it. I should be running his card…Instead I heard myself saying, “Okay, do you want to sit down and look at some catalogs and tell me which flowers you’d like if I can’t get roses and how you’d like them arranged?”

  “I’d rather you take care of that,” he said. He looked around the shop and said, “Something like this would be nice.” My shop is wall-to-wall flowers, literally wall to wall. Lillie and I struggled with making a path large enough for our customers to walk through from the door to the counter.

  “You really want an entire ballroom filled with flowers?”

  He grinned. “I know it sounds ridiculous, right?”

  “No, it’s nice…romantic even. I just want to make sure I do this right for you.”

  “I’m sure you will,” he said. Those blue eyes targeted my lips. My whole body shook. Who is this man? “Do you need me to leave a deposit?”

  “Um, yeah…that would be great, if you don’t mind.”

  “What do you estimate the cost to be?”

  I literally had no idea. It was going to be a whole hell of a lot. “I’d really have to sit down and figure out what we needed and call my suppliers first and…”

  “Would two thousand dollars cover it?”

  I swallowed hard. Sexy and happy to spend money on flowers…I think he just walked out of one of my fantasies. “That would be perfect,” I said. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a much-worn leather wallet. Reaching into it he took out a credit card and handed it to me. I realized I was still just standing there looking like an idiot. I took the card, being careful not to touch his fingers, and wrote up an invoice that stated he paid a two-thousand-dollar deposit with the total itemized cost to follow. I ran the card, half expecting it to come back as declined or stolen. It went through without a hitch. I handed him the invoice and the card and said, “Do you have a photo of the room or the specifications of it at least?”

  “It’s the waterfront space at Forty 1 North in Newport. I’m sorry I don’t have pictures…”

  “That’s fine, I did a wedding there a few years ago so I know it.” It was a five-star resort—my head was swimming. The waterfront space was sixteen thousand square feet in total. The largest area held four hundred people. Once again, who was this man?

  “Good, thank you, Megan.” Oh Jesus, now he’s said my name. I’ll hear that in my head every night right before I scream his out. I was actually imagining that when he spoke again, so it took me several seconds to process what he said next. “We should have dinner.”

  Dinner? Did this man who is arranging the largest flower bouquet for a woman that I’ve ever sold just ask me out? At least it did something to diminish my craving for him. One thing I wasn’t the least bit attracted to was a cheater.

  “Thanks, but I don’t think so. If you’ll just fill in the address and phone number part on the receipt there, I’ll call you as soon as I’ve made all the arrangements.”

  “Why don’t you want to have dinner with me?”

  He was looking directly into my eyes again, and once again I felt like I was being hypnotized. The sound of the door jangling thankfully pulled me out of it. I looked up to see Lillie walk in. “Hey,” she said to me with a smile. Noah turned slightly to look at her, and I saw the change on her face and in her demeanor. I was glad it wasn’t just me, but more embarrassed by thinking my face had given me away as quickly as hers did.

  “Hi,” she said, breathlessly. I could only see Noah’s profile, but when he smiled at her, it affected me as well.

  “Hello,” he said to Lillie and then suddenly his focus was back on me.

  “Where were we, Megan?”

  “We were at I’m going to call you when your order is ready.”

  He chuckled softly and said, “You’re not going to tell me why you don’t want to have dinner with me?”

  “No.”

  Laughing outright he said, “Okay…for now. I’ll talk to you soon, Megan.” I wished he would stop saying my name. He looked back at Lillie and said, “Have a nice day.”

  “Mm-hmm,” was all my best friend could manage. I knew she’d find her voice as soon as he left and want an explanation. I honestly didn’t have one, not for how he made me feel or why he asked me out, or why I was actually sad that I had to say no. Who was this guy?

  3

  “You have roses? How many?” I was on the phone with one of my suppliers in Providence. Miraculously, they just informed me that even though it was the day before Valentine’s Day, they had at least a truck full of roses they could deliver tonight. “They have roses!” I squeaked out to Lillie.

  She clapped her hands. While I finished up on the phone Lillie used a floorplan I’d printed off the Internet and sketched out how we were going to set them up tomorrow at Forty 1 North. I finished up my call and as soon as I put the phone down she said, “You should call Noah and tell him, I’m sure he’ll be thrilled.”

  I rolled my eyes. Lillie hadn’t stopped bugging me about turning down Noah’s invitation to dinner since he walked out of the shop the day before. She insisted that he wouldn’t have invited me out if the woman he was sending the flowers to was his girlfriend or fiancée or wife. I was insisting that it didn’t matter. I had two clear MRIs under my belt since the day Lillie and I sat in the oncologist’s office and he told me I was in remission…but it wasn’t enough. There was no way I’d ever start a relationship and risk being sick and abandoned…again. “I’ll call him when we have a final tally of his bill…or better yet, you can call him for me.”

  “Meggles…”

  “Stop it, Lillie! I’m not going out with this guy. He’s not even my type.”

  She laughed at that. “That man is everyone’s type. I’ll bet little old ladies and straight men salivate when he walks by.”

  I couldn�
��t help but smile. I shook my head and said, “I don’t care what other people do when he walks by. I’m not having dinner with him. He’s a customer, and that’s final. You have your own love life to worry about; you shouldn’t be worried about mine.” Lillie met a man a month after I went into remission. He was a great guy and she was madly in love with him…but she refused his marriage proposal and she refused to move in with him, and I suspected it was because she was afraid to leave me. “You love Dalton and he loves you. He’s a good guy…I know you want to marry him, Lil. You have to stop worrying about me and live your life.”

  She handed me the paper she’d been sketching on. “I’m not worried about you. You’re amazing. You kicked cancer’s ass, and you came out the other side stronger and more beautiful than you went in. What is there to worry about?”

  “Absolutely nothing, so accept Dalton’s proposal.”

  “It’s really not about you, Meg.”

  “Then what is it about?”

  “I’m just not ready for all of that. Look at my sketch.”

  I looked at the paper in my hand. “Oh my God, Lil, it’s perfect.”

  She grinned. “Thanks. I’m kind of excited about it.”

  “We’re going early to set up so you’ll still have time to do Valentine’s dinner with Dalton. It would be the perfect time to accept his proposal and just let him know you’d like to have a long engagement. You could always move in with him while you plan the wedding.”

  She laughed. “Now who’s worried about whose love life?”

  “The difference here is you have an actual love life. Mine is a fantasy you cooked up in your head.”

  “I saw the way Noah looked at you. I’d be willing to bet he has plenty of fantasies of his own.”

  In spite of myself the idea of Noah fantasizing about me sent goosebumps down my spine. I even felt my nipples tighten up a little. Jesus, I’m a mess. “He can fantasize all he likes,” I said. I heard the bell out front; a customer had just come in the door. “It’s never going to happen.” I left Lillie there and went out front. It wasn’t a customer, it was a deliveryman. He had a box in his hand with a bright red bow on top of it. “Miss Brown?”

  “Yes.”

  “I have a delivery for you. Can you sign here, please?”

  “Who is it from?”

  “I’m not sure, miss. There’s a return address but no name.”

  I made a face, and he must have thought I was worried it was a bomb or something from a stalker, because he said, “You can refuse it if you like.”

  I probably should have, but sadly, I’d never received a package in the mail that I hadn’t ordered myself. Curiosity got the better of me and I signed for it. After thanking the delivery man, I carried it to the back room. Lillie looked up and when she saw the package she smiled and said, “Pretty—who’s it from?” I shrugged and sat it down on the table. She looked at the return address. It was mailed from Connecticut. “You don’t think it’s from Tyler, do you?”

  I had honestly not thought about Tyler in a really long time. “I don’t know why Tyler would be sending me something.”

  “Open it and see." She narrowed her eyes. “He’s just enough of a dick that if he heard you beat the cancer he might be trying to get you back.”

  “Surely he doesn’t think I have that little self-esteem.”

  “No, but he does think that highly of himself, though, I’m sure.”

  “Maybe I should just toss it.”

  “No! Open it; I’m dying to see what it is. If it’s from Tyler we can toss it.”

  Laughing at Lillie I began to unwrap the package by pulling at the tape on the sides. I guess I was taking too long for her because she reached over and ripped it wide open. An envelope fell out and a box of expensive chocolates from a store in Connecticut that I loved appeared. I was sure then that it was from Tyler. I picked up the envelope and slid it open. Inside was a folded piece of stationery. I opened it up and read the note in disbelief. I was reading it for a second time when Lillie said:

  “What did he say?” I had lost my powers of speech…again. I handed her the note and she read it aloud:

  “Megan, don’t worry, I’m not a stalker. I saw on your website that you mentioned how much you loved these. I hope you’ve reconsidered my invitation to dinner. I have time tonight. Call me. Noah.” Lillie looked up at me with a grin. I didn’t know what to think. I’d mentioned I loved them in conversation with a customer in the comments section. He had to have read the entire thing to find that.

  “Stop smiling at me like that. I’m not going out with him.”

  “Oh, come on, it’s just dinner.” I picked up the chocolates and the card and tossed them in the wastebasket.

  “I don’t know who this man thinks he is.”

  “Look at him, Meggles. You’re probably the only woman in history who ever turned him down.”

  “So he’s going to harass me into saying yes?”

  She laughed. “Buying you a box of fifty-dollar chocolates is harassment?”

  “It is if I’ve already said no. We don’t have time for this. We still have a lot of work to do.” I sat down in front of the computer and Lillie said:

  “Aren’t you just a little bit curious about who he is?”

  “No, not at all. After tomorrow I don’t plan on seeing him again.”

  “Let’s Google him.”

  Out of frustration I laughed. “You’re crazy. I am not googling him.” Lillie’s laptop was open in front of her.

  “Okay, I will.” I rolled my eyes and turned my back to her. I could hear her fingers flying across the keyboard but I refused to give in to my own curiosity. I began working on arranging delivery for some of the orders we’d taken for Valentine’s Day. Ten or fifteen minutes went by with gasps, whistles, and “Damn!” coming from Lillie’s direction. I still didn’t turn around. “You really don’t want to know who he is?”

  I feigned disinterest as I turned the chair around. “If I let you tell me, do you promise to forget it then and get back to work?”

  She held up two fingers and said, “Scout’s honor.”

  With an exasperated sigh I said, “Okay, dazzle me.”

  “Noah Michaelson is the son of the CEO of Michaelson Electronics, does that ring a bell?”

  “Yes, of course. Their corporate headquarters takes up four city blocks. I guess that explains the money.”

  “Maybe, but I think he might just have his own money as well. Noah was an MMA fighter, a pretty famous one with some big sponsors.”

  “Was?”

  “Yeah, seven years ago he was doing an exhibition fight at Madison Square Garden and the guy he was fighting died in the cage.”

  “Oh my God.”

  “Yeah, this article says the guy had a heart attack. But it looks like the fighter’s family filed a lawsuit later on charging Noah with wrongful death. They lost the suit but they gave a bunch of interviews later on. They allege that Noah beat him in the head and kept beating him until he passed out. They outright accused him of purposefully murdering the other fighter.”

  “Why would he want to do that?” Why did the idea of their saying that make me feel so defensive?

  “The other guy was dating Noah’s sister and they say the two didn’t get along.”

  “But he wasn’t charged with murder, right?”

  “No, like I said, the guy’s death was ruled a heart attack. After the lawsuit, though, it looks like Noah’s life kind of fell apart. His father cut him off financially and his sponsors dropped him. He was drinking and getting into fights a lot and there were rumors he was using drugs. Then he disappeared for almost a year. He was just off the grid completely and nobody was talking about where he was. When he showed back up he had a ton of new tattoos. The speculation was that he was in rehab and the tattoos were to cover up his tracks.”

  “Nice.” I pictured the colorful tattoos that adorned his sculpted arms. They were definitely distracting enough to hide something if h
e wanted them to.

  “Oh. Here’s another article that says he runs an underground fight club in Connecticut now.”

  “Isn’t that illegal?”

  “Not sure, but the reporter says no one he talked to wanted to go on the record.”

  I realized that I was feeding into this. He’s a customer, not my boyfriend. I really don’t care…not much, anyways. “That’s enough, Lillie, thanks. I’m definitely not going out with him.”

  “Aw, you know how tabloids are. They distort the truth or just outright lie. He could be a…a philanthropist…”

  I laughed. “Right, because he seems like the philanthropist type.”

  “You never know,” she said, closing the laptop. “Tyler seems like the philanthropist type and look what an asshole he turned out to be.”

  I ignored that. She was right but I didn’t want to talk about Tyler. I tried to put Noah out of my mind and spend the rest of the afternoon in professional mode. I did okay, but as soon as I got home the curiosity began to eat away at me. As soon as Lillie left to go meet Dalton I fired up my own laptop and began to search.

  4

  Lillie and I arrived at Forty 1 North at exactly nine a.m. on Valentine’s Day. The truck we hired to bring the flowers out was right behind us. We’d left the store in the care of a young woman I’d hired right before Christmas named Patty. She only worked part-time and I was a little worried about leaving her alone today of all days, but I needed Lillie’s creative eye to help me set this up. We should be back in time for the big rush anyways.

  The concierge showed us to the space where he said “Miss Blossom’s” birthday party would be held later that evening. I hadn’t even thought to ask Noah the name of the birthday girl. I didn’t think straight at all where that man was concerned. Even after reading all of those things about him online last night I’d had an erotic dream to rival all erotic dreams, and he was the star. The pictures of him shirtless and in a cage were almost too much for my heart…and then there were the ones that someone had taken of him on his Harley…