Stories Beneath Our Skin

by Veronica Sloane

  To his consternation, the shop was actually locked up when he arrived. He knocked, but no one rushed to open the door. Annoyed, he leaned against the acid green wall to wait. Fifteen minutes later, Deb pulled into the lot and Ace climbed out of the passenger seat.

  "We're meant to be open now," Liam groused.

  "Copy shop took longer than we thought." Ace tapped impatiently on the trunk, and Liam smothered a laugh at the unconscious echo of Cole. "It was worth it though. We went for glossy postcards instead of the flyers."

  "Guy told us it would take three days." Deb rolled her eyes, stretching as she got out. "I flashed him a twenty and voila! Whole thing cost way more than we should have spent."

  "If it gets us three new customers, it paid for itself." Ace lifted a box out of the back. "Get the door."

  "What's the magic word?" She jangled the keys.

  "Professor, kneecap her."

  "Are you crazy? She could turn me into a pretzel." Liam held up his hands. "Just tell the lady please."

  "Yeah, Ace. Say please." She winked at Liam.

  "Either open the goddamn door or take the box," Ace growled.

  "Well, with an attitude like that, it's amazing that you never get laid," she teased, but opened the door. Liam slipped in after her, holding it wide as Ace brought the box inside.

  "How many did you have made?" he asked, when the box cracked down hard on the coffee table.

  "Only some of them are for the street fair. I figured it'd be good to have some out on the desk and give some to Goose when he goes to local concerts." Ace pulled a pocketknife out of his shorts and tore into the box. "And when the college fills back up in the fall, we can dump a whole bunch at events there."

  "That's more than he's thought about marketing since this place opened," Deb said wryly.

  "I got you some very nice business cards, and there were those t-shirts. Even if they were ugly as hell," Ace pointed out, slicing open the last of the tape. "And we have that running ad in the local paper."

  "We have a local paper?" Liam frowned. "Wait, you mean that collection of coupons that gets sent around every few weeks?"

  "There are actually articles in it." Deb took out her bottle of nail polish remover and a handful of cotton balls. "I think the whole thing is run by one guy with a press in his garage and a grudge against every local politician."

  "These came out pretty great. Take a look." Ace put a handful of glossy cards into Liam's hands. "What do you think?"

  The gaslamp Liam had sketched onto his resume had been recolored to emit a thick red light that fell onto the blocky lettering of Great Sin Ink.

  "That's mine." He ran his thumb over the picture.

  "Yeah, figured we'd put a little of everyone's stuff on it." Ace plucked the card out of Liam's hand flipped it over and put it back. "See?"

  The back did sport one of Goose's psychedelic imps stealing into a building that could have come straight off the wall in Ace's room. The store's contact information was printed next to it, including a website that Liam remembered as remarkably sketchy from the glance he'd taken at it before applying.

  "Shouldn't you be on the front? I mean, it's your place."

  "Nah. No one is going to look at the front if all the information is on the back." Ace clapped Liam's arm. "We tried to figure out something for Deb, but she can't draw for shit."

  "My one failing," she said dryly, scrubbing at her nails with the cotton ball. "What do you think, Professor?"

  "I like it. It looks really professional." It did, in its own graffitied way.

  "Good. Might as well keep that one. We'll bring a few handfuls with us tomorrow." Ace hefted the box up again. "I'm going to store this in the back by the copier if anyone is looking for them."

  "Got it." Deb cracked open a bottle of bright blue polish, waiting for Ace to be out of earshot to say, "I swear to God that little sketch of yours must have magic powers."

  "What do you mean?" Liam slid the card into his pocket, where it settled against his thigh.

  "Nothing." She started painting one dagger long nail, pointedly not looking up at Liam.

  "It's not nothing--" Liam started, but the door swung open and Goose trudged in. "What's wrong with you?"

  "Nothing." Goose walked past them both, hands shoved deep in his pockets and his head hanging low, a picture of cartoon despondency.

  "Well that's most definitely not nothing." Deb watched him go. "You gonna take care of that?"

  "Me? Why me?"

  "Because Ace has an appointment, and I'm terrible at comforting people." She stroked the black brush over her thumbnail, studying the effect of the blue gloss. "If someone doesn't listen to him, then he'll start playing that throbbing dubstep stuff that drives Ace up the wall. Believe me, we don't want the two of them going at it."

  "They fight?"

  "Once a year or so. Epic shouting matches. Like a married couple blowing off steam. Then they don't talk for a day, and then they go get drunk together and then we open hours late because when they get drunk alone together, they always decide to go camping. And they get lost in the woods. Which we want to avoid, so off you go."

  Liam rubbed a hand over his eyes and tried to remember why coming in early had seemed like a good idea. The heavy smell of incense bombarded him as he cracked open Goose's door. Goose was slumped in his chair, hat cast aside for once to let his dense black curls spill every which way.

  "What happened?" Liam asked, perching on the edge of the table.

  "Man, if I knew I would tell you. She leaves me this voicemail right when she knew I'd be asleep. I mean, maybe other people are awake at six a.m. in the damn morning, but everyone knows I don't get up with the sun."

  "Frankie?"

  "Who else?" Goose shook his head. "Tells me that she's busy this weekend with the whole street fair thing, but would I mind stopping at the bar on Tuesday night. Because we have to talk. How the hell is she going to dump me when we've never even gone out on a date?"

  "Why do you think she'd do that?"

  "What else does we have to talk ever mean?" Goose planted his elbows on his knees and dropped his face into his hands. "It just figures. I finally got enough to move back out of Mata's house and set up on my own. Got a car, a job. Can't have the girl, too, I guess. Just not enough room in the cosmos for that much happy Goose."

  "Maybe it's something else. I mean, she's got a lot going on in her life. Maybe she needs your help with something."

  "Nah, you've seen how Frankie gets people to help her. Food bribery. Works every time. I'm telling you, dumpsville."

  "Maybe not. I think she likes you, at least a little. She hasn't said anything this far, and you flirt with her pretty hardcore."

  "Flirting is one thing." Goose shrugged. "Its relationships that freak her out."

  "What about you? Do you do relationships?"

  "Sure. Hell, I was married for six years."

  "What? Really?" Liam gaped.

  "Don't sound so shocked." Goose's lips twitched into the threat of a smile. "I'm not exactly undesirable to the ladies. Olivia and I started dating in our senior year of high school, got married a few months after we graduated. We were crazy about each other."

  "So what happened?"

  "Liv got a job offer in Kansas when she finished college. We sold all our stuff and moved down there." He shrugged. "It was a nightmare. I missed my family, my friends, and I couldn't find a job for months. I apprenticed in a parlor out of desperation, but the hours were the opposite of hers. It put too much strain on us. We separated, and I moved back home with Mata. Good times had by none."

  "That's tough." For the first time, Liam felt their age difference keenly. Usually Goose was so lighthearted that the extra decade of mileage didn't mean much.

  "I figure it happened for a reason." Goose picked up one of the small wooden gnomes that littered the room and let it trip through his fingers. "Ace got back not long after. We'd been friends in high school, lost touch when I got married, but I ran
into him a few times and we got to be close again. He kept talking about opening a place up and that I should get back into the swing of things. We wound up picking up a few hours together at a place in the city. Could have knocked me over with a feather when he showed me this space two years later and said it was his. Never figured he'd put it all together so quickly. Course, it looked like a wreck then. We put up all the walls and stuff ourselves."

  "I never would have guessed," Liam said politely. It explained a lot about the plywood walls.

  "Smart ass." Goose dropped the gnome into his lap, its pointed hat resting on his thigh. "Moral of the story, now I work for one of my best friends, doing a job I really like. I figure it all mostly worked itself out. Meant to be."

  "Then don't you think that whatever happens with you and Frankie is meant to be, too?" Liam asked.

  "Don't go turning my words on me. I'm on to you."

  "Sorry." Liam bit his lip. "But still. You can't believe in fate for one thing but not for another."

  "Is that written in a book of rules somewhere?" Goose shook his head. "You gotta allow some wiggle room in the things you believe, or they'll choke you to death. Anyway, Frankie and me... we're not star-crossed or anything. I just really like the girl, you know? She's awesome."

  "She is." Liam couldn't help but agree. "But so are you. Could be a good match if you give her a shot to talk."

  "No need to butter me up. I'm not the one that signs the checks." Goose's smile finally made a real return.

  "Just telling it like it is." Liam smiled back.

  Not fifteen minutes later, Deb was tossing paperclips at Goose while he serenaded her with "Brown Eyed Girl" complete with terrible air guitar. When he belted out his chorus with his eyes closed, Deb gave Liam a discreet thumbs up.

  "What the hell is going on in here?" Ace emerged from the hall, already halfway to a laugh.

  "Do you remember when?" Goose sunk to his knees, face tilted up beseechingly to Ace. "We used to sing!"

  "Sha la la la la la." Ace said as flatly as possible.

  "La de da!" Goose grinned and the world was right side up again.

  Around eleven, Deb flipped the sign to closed.

  "Got no other appointments, and we all need to get some shut eye if we're gonna report in so early."

  "We gonna carpool it?" Goose asked, already yawning hugely.

  "Nah. Don't need you until lunch so you can man the table while we get some food in us." Ace juggled his car keys. "Deb got roped into helping with the raffle, so doubt we'll see her most of the day."

  "Awesome, see you boys at noon." Goose waved and swung himself into his car.

  "How come he gets to sleep in?" Deb complained.

  "You ever dealt with him when he hasn't slept? It's like a baby horse that hasn't figured out how to walk yet. Hilarious for only the first few minutes." Ace watched Goose pull away. "Besides, he could use a break."

  "Yeah." Deb sighed, leaned in and to Liam's surprise, she brushed a kiss over Ace's cheek. "Night, boss."

  "Night, Deb." He shoved at her gently.

  "I missed something, didn't I?" Liam asked the open air.

  "No." Ace laughed. "Just... we take care of each other. Guess it doesn't always seem that way when you see it from the outside. C'mon, Professor. Let's head home."

  Liam followed Ace's car all the way back to the house. Back home.

  Chapter Nine

  Liam didn't even bother going to bed that night. He could feel the buzz of insomnia under his skin and settled in on the couch for the long haul. There was a surprise doze around three a.m. that carried him until six when the front door rattled on its hinges. Head pounding, he stumbled into the bathroom and took a long shower.

  The day was already heating up, the steam in the bathroom mingling with the gathering atmospheric pressure. It was thunderstorm weather, the air holding tense and ready. It would be hours yet until it broke, but when it came down, it would pelt down hard and fast. Liam tucked an umbrella into his messenger bag, along with a case of pencils and the heavy paper he'd use for the portraits.

  When he wandered into the kitchen, Ace came back inside, breathing heavy and sweating hard. He was wearing running shorts that showed off the thick muscles of his thighs and the green tattoos that wrapped around them. For the first time, Liam could see that they were intricate Celtic knots in four shades of green and a thin red outline. It was delicate work, precise and undeniably sexy.

  "It's hot as balls out there." Ace drew off his t-shirt and used it to wipe the sweat from his face. Liam dug his nails into the meat of his palms.

  No wonder Frankie had thought Ace's shirtless body would be excellent advertising. The script that always peeked out of Ace's collar was part of massive chest piece. Too weird to live, too rare to die sprawled over his left pectoral in rounded letters that melted into vortex of surrealistic color, fat just under the words and thinning across his flat stomach to come to a point at his right hip.

  "That's from a movie," Liam said, then wished he'd kept quiet when Ace dropped his shirt to pin him with a hard look.

  "Yeah. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." One finger traced the looping w. "First thing I got done when I bought the shop. Goose did it."

  "I can tell," Liam choked out. "Distinctive coloring. Um. Breakfast?"

  "Nah. I'll just grab a banana. We need to get going, and I still have to shower." A smile quirked at one side of Ace's mouth. "If you blush any harder, you'll faint from the blood rush."

  "Fuck." Liam covered his eyes.

  "Hey." Strong fingers looped around his wrist, pried his hand away. Ace was close. As close as he'd been that first day, breath on the back of Liam's neck. Liam swallowed hard. "It's cool, okay?"

  "I'm pretty sure nothing about me is cool right now," Liam mumbled, wishing for an earthquake or a hurricane or spontaneous combustion to put an end to his misery.

  "Normal reaction. I am very pretty, you know." Ace batted his eyes and maybe it was meant to be funny, but all Liam saw was those bright blue irises and the long sweep of pale lashes.

  "I'd noticed." Liam took a step back, but Ace didn't relinquish his wrist, and he couldn't pull away without making it into a scene.

  "It'd be a bad idea. You and me. You know that, right?" Ace said seriously.

  "Yeah." Liam took in a long breath and let it out slowly. "You're my boss."

  "And nine years older than you and living in your house. You're totally emotionally fucked up right now and clearly have more baggage than I can carry, and one day soon, you're going to go back to school across the country." Ace still didn't let go. "And I've got a kid to worry about."

  Liam just nodded dully. All of that and more ran through Liam's head every time he looked too long at Ace, every time his heart picked up its pace around him.

  "It's a damn good thing you're so tall." Ace released Liam's wrist in stages, more of a caress than a departure. "'Cause I'd kiss you before I could remember all that if I wouldn't have to get up on my tiptoes to do it."

  "Wait, what?" Liam asked, but he was talking to open air. Ace had already slipped away, the shower starting up seconds later.

  That Ace might return his interest hadn't even occurred to Liam, despite the rare instances of subtle flirtation. He wasn't sure if the knowledge made the whole thing better or worse. On the one hand, it was flattering. On the other, it was dangerous. It gave Liam hope. He knew the giddy feeling rising in him against all advisement, and there was nothing he could do to squash it back down into its box.

  Mindlessly, he cleaned the kitchen counters to give his hands something to do. He might have broken out the bleach and started in on the floors if Ace hadn't reemerged, fully dressed and all business.

  "Chop, chop, Professor. We've got places to be."

  "Right." Liam picked up his bag and tried to get his head on straight.

  "You're driving. I'll wind up giving the finger to soccer moms if I try to find a space in town."

  Ace seemed intent on acting a
s though nothing had passed between them. He put his feet up on the dash when they got in the car and made idle conversation about the equipment he'd been eyeballing in a new catalog.

  "They do some good custom work, too." He mused as Liam got cut off by his second minivan.

  "Goddamnit!" he swore, swerving to avoid certain death. "What is wrong with these people?"

  "Warned you about the soccer moms."

  "Are they giving away china dolls or something? Fuck." Liam jammed on the breaks. His car shuddered.

  "Use your rage, young Skywalker." Ace laughed.

  "If I could get a parking space with the Force, we would've gotten out of the car ten minutes ago."

  "Oh, hey there!" Ace pointed out a small space. "Think you can get this thing in there?"

  "Watch and learn." Liam cracked his knuckles.

  "Sound pretty cocky there."

  "I am the parallel parking master." He went quiet, concentrating. Pulling back, he tucked his arm behind Ace's seat, masterfully ignoring the enforced intimacy.

  It only took him three sharp turns and one extra twist of the wheel to wedge his car in.

  "Am I too far from the curb?" he asked mildly.

  "Jesus." Ace popped the door open. "You're like an inch away. How the hell did you manage that?"

  "I'm good with tight spaces." He grabbed his messenger bag.

  "I'll just bet," Ace muttered darkly.

  "Hm?" Liam adjusted the strap, counting the crack in Ace's everything's normal facade as a win.

  "Nothing. Brat. We're setting up this way."

  The street fair took place not on the busy state route where the bulk of what could arguably be called "town" existed. Instead it took advantage of the one vaguely historical stretch of cobblestone that a few older buildings clustered around. A lot of vendors had begun to set up elaborate tented areas. Ace lead them further down the street to what must have been the cheaper spaces. The setups got simpler, folding tables with faded cloth thrown over them.