Priceless Ink: A Small Town Romance

  “I’ve been trying,” Kat insisted. “I’ve been teaching her to cook.”

  “Yeah, you’re really nice to her face. You put up a good front, but you’re not actually trying to make her feel welcome, are you?” I looked at all of them and shook my head. “If this is what family is like, I don’t want it. I’d rather be on the outside with her than stuck with all of you that can’t stand by your own damn family.”

  I went into the other room and grabbed Alessa and her diaper bag. I was out of here, but before I could make it to the door, Josh was by my side, taking the bag from me. As I looked up at me, he nodded, pride showing on his face. He was with me on this one, but then we always had each other’s backs. We walked out the door, letting it slam behind us. I strapped Alessa in the back and then got in the front with Josh.

  “Where to?”

  “Joe’s apartment.”

  Eric

  Fuck, I was so disappointed in myself right now. The way Carly just put us all in our place, it made me wonder why I had failed my own brother so damn much. She was right on every count. It didn’t matter what we thought of Sofia. It was our job as Joe’s family to support him in his choices. Honestly, I had been nice enough to Sofia. I had laughed when she was here and got drunk, but did I go out of my way to try and make her feel welcome? Not at all. I did the bare minimum, and I was sure that she could feel that from all of us.

  Sighing heavily, I turned to my family, seeing the same looks of regret on their faces. All except Andrew. He still looked smug as ever. “She’s right about everything. We let Joe down big time.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Andrew muttered. “You don’t have to live with her.”

  “Yeah? And is she really that bad?” I asked. “Does she treat Joe badly? Does she talk shit about him behind his back?”

  “No,” he grumbled.

  “Is she sitting around acting like a princess, relying on Joe to do everything for her?”

  He rolled his eyes, sighing slightly. “No.”

  “Then what the fuck is your problem with her? What the hell is wrong with us? Joe made it perfectly clear that he loves this woman and all of us, including me, haven’t treated her like a sister. Why?”

  “She’s just not one of us,” Robert said, shrugging slightly.

  “Really? That’s priceless coming from you. You’ve lived the same life as her, and none of us turned our backs on you. We made fun of you, but none of us ever decided that you weren’t one of us.”

  “Yeah, but I’m your brother.”

  “And she’s going to be our sister,” I snapped. “Joe is going to marry this woman. If you can’t see that, then you’re just as blind as I’ve been. It’s time we stop acting like this woman is just a fling and start accepting her into the family, if not for her, then for Joe. Because if we don’t, we’re not going to see him anymore. He’s not going to come here for poker night when we can’t make room for Sofia. He’s not going to want to see us anymore. Is that really what you want?”

  I looked around the room and saw that none of them wanted that to happen. I wished that I hadn’t been so blind to begin with. I wished that I had seen it sooner. I wished it hadn’t taken Carly speaking up on her behalf to open my eyes.

  “Here’s what’s going to happen from this point forward,” I said, becoming the older brother that I should have been all along. “We are going to open ourselves up and welcome Sofia into our family. We are not going to make any more judgements about her or act like she’s temporary. From this point on, Sofia is family, and we will treat her like it. Am I clear?”

  They all nodded, and Charlie just stood there with a sly grin on her face.

  “Do you have something to add?”

  “Oh, no,” she grinned. “I was just waiting for all of you to come to this conclusion. I can’t believe it took you so long.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything?” Will asked her.

  “Point out that someone in this family is wrong? You’ve got to be joking. I wouldn’t want the Cortell brothers to think they were being knocked down a peg.”

  I laughed at that, because she was right. We all thought we were so damn special, but we really weren’t. We were all just normal people that fucked up like the rest of society.

  “Andrew, get on the phone with Derek and tell him to get his ass out here to meet his sister.”

  “Why do I have to do it?” he whined.

  “Because you’ve been the shittiest to her.”

  He sighed and pulled out his phone, and it didn’t take long for everyone to put their heads together and figure out a game plan. We had really fucked up on this one. Now we just had to hope that it wasn’t too late to fix it.

  Joe

  I looked up from my work station, grinning when I saw Sofia walking toward me. The shop wasn’t open today, but I came in to do inventory and make sure my station was in order for tomorrow. I hated taking the time away from Sofia, but I couldn’t let things like this slide. Maybe someday I would make enough money to hire a manager for the shop, but I wasn’t there yet.

  “Hey, what are you doing here?”

  She sidled up to me and wrapped her arms around my neck before sitting down in my lap. “I was lonely upstairs by myself.”

  “I’m sorry, Princess. I still have at least another hour down here.”

  “What if you had longer?”

  I shook my head in confusion. “You don’t want me to come home?”

  She bit her lip, shaking her head slightly. Standing, she pulled her shirt up over her head and then unclasped her bra, letting it slide down her arms. She stood in front of me, breasts so perfect right in front of me. I was mesmerized by her.

  “I want something from you.”

  “Anything,” I croaked out.

  She grinned and then laid down on the table, face down. Turning her head to me, she said, “I want you to give me a tattoo.”

  I looked down at her back and then ran a hand over her smooth skin. I had actually been thinking about this for a long time. Ever since we talked about this, I had been drawing different designs to come up with something perfect for her. I still didn’t like the idea of marking her beautiful skin, but if she really wanted it, I wanted to be the one to give it to her.

  “Do you have any ideas?” I asked, hoping she left it up to me.

  “You know me best.”

  She said it as if the answer was so simple. I nodded and swiveled in my chair, pulling out the file that I had specifically made for her. I had even had a stencil made up so that it was ready when she was. Pulling it out, I placed it over her right shoulder blade, positioning it just as I wanted it. It was a fairly simple design, a feather blowing freely in the wind. There were wisps of air moving around the feather, making it look like it was dancing on the breeze. It was perfect.

  “Are you sure about this?”

  She smiled up at me. “Completely. I trust you.”

  I pulled out all my equipment and got set up for this. I wanted it to be perfect. Sofia was patient as I went through my routine, through stenciling the design on her, and eventually, getting started. I hated that she flinched from the sting of the gun, but it was inevitable. But she never once asked me to stop. In fact, by the end, she looked like she had done this a thousand times.

  “Are you ready to see it?” I asked hours later.

  She smiled up at me as I walked her over to the mirrors and stood next to her. Slowly, she spun around and looked at her shoulder, gasping slightly when she saw it. It was all red and wouldn’t really look the way I wanted until the irritation died down.

  “It’s perfect,” she grinned. Spinning slowly in my arms, she wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me. “Thank you.”

  “You’ll always be free now.”

  * * *

  I was just curling my body around Sofia’s at the end of a very long day when my phone buzzed. I ignored it, soaking in the smell of her skin. I was already dozing off when my phone buzzed again. Groaning, I
rolled over and looked at the message on the screen. I sat up, rubbing my eyes, sure that I was seeing things.

  Derek: Landing at the airport at 0700. Be there and bring my sister so I can meet her.

  Why the hell was Derek coming out here? And why the hell did I have to pick him up? Fuck, it was already two in the morning. I didn’t want to get up that early, and Sofia wasn’t going to be too happy about it either.

  Joe: Fuck off. Have somebody else pick you up. I’m just going to bed.

  Derek: Take off in twenty. I’m flying to fucking Minneapolis just to catch a connecting flight. You can get your fucking ass to the airport in time so I can meet your girl.

  Was that seriously what this was about? He just wanted to meet Sofia? I found that hard to believe. It didn’t seem like anyone was actually interested in getting to know Sofia besides Josh and Carly. I was shocked as hell when they showed up on my doorstep right after I unleashed my anger on my family. But Carly just acted like this was no big deal at all. Apparently, Carly had been meeting with Sofia ever since she shoved her face in blueberries at the grocery store so that Sofia could spend time with Alessa.

  I dropped my phone back on the nightstand and pulled Sofia into my arms. It took forever to fall asleep and when I woke up to the alarm, I seriously considered leaving Derek at the airport. Shaking Sofia, she mumbled something, swatting at my hand. I would wake her the way I normally did, with my face between her legs, but we didn’t have time for that.

  “Sweetheart, wake up. We have to go to the airport.”

  “What?” she asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “Why do we have to do that?”

  “Because my brother is flying in and he texted me to bring you.”

  “Me?” she asked, her eyes suddenly wide open. “Why would he want to meet me?”

  I hated that she seemed shocked by this. If my whole family wasn’t acting like a bunch of douchebags, then she wouldn’t be so surprised when one of them reached out to her.

  “Apparently he’s flying in to meet you.”

  “Meet me…” she said warily.

  I just shrugged. “We have to leave soon.”

  She groaned and rolled out of bed, flopping down on the floor like a pancake. Chuckling, I walked around the bed and hoisted her up by the waist. “Come on, let’s go take a quick shower.”

  She snorted. “Yeah, like we’ve ever showered quickly.”

  “There’s a first time for everything.”

  Twenty minutes later, true to my word, we were walking out the door. It had been hard to keep my hands off her in the shower, but I managed to control myself.

  “So, why does your brother want to meet me?” Sofia asked curiously as we headed to the airport.

  I had been wondering this myself, but I still hadn’t come up with any answers. “I don’t know, but if he’s flying all the way out here, it’s gotta be for something else.”

  She nodded like that’s what she had figured. I didn’t want to disappoint her, but Derek didn’t just drop everything and rush out here. There was always a reason behind it. The drive took about two hours, and in that time, Sofia fell asleep against the window. I wanted to talk to her, but I just couldn’t wake her up. When I finally pulled up to the airport pickup line, Derek was already waiting outside for us.

  Sofia yawned, stretching as we came to a stop. “Sorry I fell asleep.”

  “It’s not a problem, sweetheart.”

  The back door flung open and Derek tossed his bag inside. “It’s about time you showed up. I’ve been waiting for like two whole minutes.”

  “Ooh,” I taunted. “I’m sure those two minutes were life altering.”

  “I’ve been up all night. You want to lay off?” Then he turned to me and grinned. “And you must be the beautiful Sofia that I keep hearing about?”

  I frowned, wondering how he kept hearing about her when I hardly spoke to him. Sofia blushed and held out her hand.

  “It’s nice to meet you.”

  “You too.” He flashed a megawatt smile at her as I pulled away from the curb.

  “So, what brought you to town?”

  “I came to meet my sister-in-law. Is that alright?”

  Sophia gasped in distress and I shot him a what the fuck look in the rearview mirror.

  “Um, I think you’re mistaken. Joe and I aren’t engaged.”

  “Yeah, but that’s gonna last what, maybe a few more months?”

  This was really fucking weird. “I haven’t even spoken to you since Sofia came here, so where the hell is this coming from?”

  “Josh called,” he nodded. “Told me that you found your lady love, so I thought I’d better come out here and see what’s what.”

  “Josh called you,” I said curiously.

  I saw him roll his eyes and sigh. “Fine, it was Andrew.”

  “Andrew called you?” No, there was no way that Andrew called. “What’s really going on?”

  He sighed heavily and stared out the window as we continued to drive home. “Look, you guys all came out when I met Claire. I wanted you to get to know her and I thought I would do the same for you.”

  Okay, I was a little shocked by that, but what the hell. He was reaching out, and I would take it. A phone rang, but it wasn’t mine. Sofia pulled her brand new phone, that I had just gotten her, out of her pocket and frowned.

  “Who is it?”

  “Um…I don’t know.” She put the phone to her ear and answered. “Hello?” Her gaze shot over to mine and she looked…confused? Worried? “Um…yeah, we just picked up Derek…Uh-huh…Okay.” Frowning still, she hung up the phone and turned to me. “Um…that was Eric.”

  “He called you? What did he want?”

  “He invited us to breakfast.”

  What the hell was going on? “Why didn’t he call me?”

  She shrugged, obviously just as baffled as me. “I don’t know.”

  “Cool, so we’re going to breakfast?” Derek asked. “I’m starving. I didn’t get to eat dinner last night.”

  “Your flight was in the middle of the night.”

  “Yeah, but Claire and I were in the middle of…” He cleared his throat. “We were busy and time got away from us.”

  “So, you were playing Batman again?”

  “You know, I can get back on the plane.”

  “Why would you be Batman?” Sofia asked, genuinely confused.

  “He likes to dress up as superheroes and then rescue Claire, and then they have kinky sex.”

  Derek reached forward and smacked me upside the head. “Ow, it’s not like she’s going to tell anyone.”

  Sofia bit her lip and laughed, turning to Derek. “Can I ask a question? Just pure curiosity.”

  Derek looked at her warily. “Okay.”

  “When you dress up as Batman, does she dress up as Robin?”

  * * *

  “That was weird, right?” Sofia asked after we left the diner.

  I nodded, thinking the same thing. I didn’t want her knowing how weird it actually was, but yeah, it was fucking weird.

  “They don’t normally talk to me so much. I mean, they’re never rude, but…”

  “Yeah,” I nodded, still not understanding it myself.

  “Why did Derek fly in?” she asked again.

  I shrugged. “He texted me last night after I got home from the shop. I had no idea he was even considering coming out here.”

  “Weird.”

  My thoughts exactly. They were all acting strange, and I could only hope that they had taken my words seriously the other night. But there was a huge part of me that was worried it was all for show. I didn’t want them to get Sofia’s hopes up only to let her down later.

  “Did you see that Andrew actually smiled at me today?”

  “When?”

  “Eric was telling the tractor story and I caught Andrew watching me, and when I looked over, he was smiling. It was creepy.”

  I nodded in total agreement. That was creepy. I pulled up in fr
ont of the shop and shut off the truck. I was tired and I needed sleep. By the looks of it, Sofia did too.

  “You know what, it doesn’t matter what happened today. Let’s just go upstairs and get some sleep.”

  “I could definitely do with more of that.”

  We headed upstairs, but as soon as I walked through the door, my guard was up again. Andrew had beaten us back here. He hadn’t stayed here since I blew up at him the other night. I immediately blocked Sofia, even though we had just eaten breakfast with him.

  “Hey,” Andrew smiled uncomfortably. He cleared his throat as he stood from his seat at the table. “I was thinking maybe I could have a few moments alone with Sofia.”

  “Why would I give you that?”

  He sighed, but there was no heat behind it. “I’m not gonna do anything. I swear, I just want to talk.”

  I knew that he would never hurt her. He wasn’t that kind of guy, but that didn’t mean I trusted him with her. Words could hurt just as bad.

  “It’s okay,” Sofia whispered behind me. “Why don’t I meet you in the bedroom.”

  Against my better judgement, I nodded and headed into the bedroom, but I left it open a crack so that I could hear what was going on.

  “I just wanted to apologize,” Andrew said.

  “For what?”

  “You know what. I’ve been a total dick to you.”

  I peered through the crack in the door. Sofia looked extremely uncomfortable, but she wasn’t trying to run either, so I let it play out.

  “Look, I know this is a shitty excuse, but it’s always been me and Joe. And when you first came here, you weren’t exactly the nicest person. I just figured it was all an act. So, when things started to change, I guess I didn’t want to believe that any of it was real. He’s my best friend, and I would never let anyone hurt him.”

  “Neither would I.”

  He nodded. “I can see that now. It took a while, but I can tell you really love him. And everyone else can see it too.”

  Sofia stood there in shock, and I couldn’t blame her. It was like someone had flipped a switch with all of them, and I knew it wasn’t me. I thought back to that night, how after I stormed out, Carly and Josh came over. That had to be it. They must have said something.