Page 30 of Restless Ink

“We’re thinking of going on a family road trip once spring hits and the mountains are a little more passible. Daisy loves the little hikes we go on, and if Mace and I schedule just right, we can take a couple weeks off.”

“That won’t put the shop in a lurch without the two of you?” Thea asked.

“Not really. Ryan and Shep can handle most of it, and Mace and I will just make sure we have that time free booking-wise. And if it looks like we need another artist, one of the ones from Denver can come down. When Austin and Maya helped us open this branch down here, they knew it was part of the deal, as did the rest of their artists. It’ll work out.”

Adrienne shrugged, her attention on her painting. “We can’t do a super long trip like we might want to, and frankly, I don’t know if Daisy is up to that anyway, but a long weekend would be nice. I know we live in the mountains, but there’s so much more to see.”

Thea smiled, she couldn’t help it. Her sister had always been in Daisy’s life, if only on the periphery. When Daisy had been living with her mother, and Mace hadn’t had the best custody agreement, Adrienne was still always there. Thea was so happy that the new little family was making it work in their own way, and Adrienne was taking to the role of almost stepmother perfectly.

“You look so happy,” Roxie said softly from Thea’s other side. Soft, but loud enough that Adrienne heard. “You deserve to be happy.”

Adrienne leaned over Thea and patted Roxie’s arm. “Iamhappy. Thanks, babe. And you’re shading that with the wrong grey, want some help?”

Roxie frowned and looked at her canvas while Thea held back a grin. “It’s fine. Right? Why does this have to be so hard? I mean, why are there so many colors?”

Adrienne shook her head and went around Thea so she could stand behind Roxie. “Why are there so many numbers and ways to make accounts?”

“Math makes sense. Painting, not so much.” Roxie bit her lip, and Thea set down her brush so she could turn to her sisters and mediate if needed. Both were perfectionists but in different ways and, sometimes, that difference got under each other’s skin. It was the same for Thea, but they were sisters, and that was just life. Abby looked on, a smile on her face as she set her brush down, as well. The two of them toasted each other with their glasses in the air and watched as Adrienne tried to help Roxie with some of the moonscape, and Roxie tried not to get frustrated when she didn’t get it right.

It might have been Brushes With Lushes and just a fun night, but Roxie wanted to learn how to do it better, and of the four siblings, she was the one who had trouble coloring in the lines because she got impatient with not being able to do it correctly the first time. Thea didn’t mind getting a little messy, but that was why she was a baker and not a tattoo artist like two of her siblings. She was also decent at math and business—hence the changes coming up with Colorado Icing—but Roxie was her accountant for a reason. And the fact that Shep’s wife, Shea was also an accountant helped. Between the two of them, Thea knew she was in good hands.

Of course, as soon as she thought of good hands, she thought of Dimitri. She took another sip of her wine, tryingnotto think of him.

How was this going to work? She’d thought maybe they could try to be friends, but now she was worried that she’d screwed everything up by kissing him again, by wanting more from him. It scared her.

Because she liked him. A lot. She liked being near him, liked kissing him, and she sure as hell more than liked their night together. Yes, it was all far too complicated, and there were so many ties and strings tightening around what they could be that it was almost suffocating, but she didn’t know if walking away was the right answer.

Molly was okay with it.

Dimitri seemed to be okay with it.

Thea, deep down, was okay with it.

Maybe she needed to trust that part of herself.

Maybe.

“When are you going to come in and let me work on your shoulder again?” Adrienne asked when she went back to her seat. Roxie was working on her wine rather than her painting, so Thea figured the two had finished their little mini-lesson while she was lost in her own thoughts. Considering that neither of them was covered in paint and there hadn’t been yelling, Thea counted it as a win.

“Huh?” Thea asked, blinking away the cobwebs from her brain.

“Your shoulder. The tattoo you wanted.” Adrienne said. Her sister tilted her head, studying Thea’s face. “You okay over there?”

“I’m fine. Maybe I’ve had too much wine.” She set her almost-empty glass next to her easel and shook her head to clear it.

“You haven’t even finished your first glass, but okay. Anyway, what about that tattoo? It’s my turn on you since Shep got your hip last time when we first opened the shop. When can I have you?”

The two were always fighting over family members and their ink. It was the same for their Denver cousins, and Thea didn’t mind it. The Montgomerys were the best in the business, and she counted herself lucky that she’d always have some of the most amazing ink out there and would never, ever have a bad tattoo anywhere on her body.

“When I have time, I guess. Or rather, whenyouhave time. Your shop is bustling over there, and I know you have massive waitlists already, which is awesome. I don’t want to push anyone out of the way so you can work on my shoulder. Plus, the fact that Ineedmy shoulder and arm to work makes the idea of all that soreness not so much fun. And it’s not like I have time for a vacation in order to make it work.”

“First, you work too hard, but we can come back to that. Second, you’re adorable in thinking I wouldn’t have space open for you or a walk-in monthly. While I need and love heavy schedules, I’m also an artist who sometimes needs to do things out of the box or completely random. That’s where you come in.”

“I want flowers and characters from my favorite movie on my shoulder, not something random,” she said dryly.

Adrienne rolled her eyes. “The random is for the walk-ins, dork. Not that I’d pick a random tattoo for them, but it’s random forme. As in, I don’t have it planned in my head for months but they know what they want, and it keeps my creativity going. You know? As for you, though, we can do the pieces in shifts so we don’t make you too sore. I know you want it on your right shoulder, and since that’s your dominant side, it’ll be tricky with how much you whisk and stir and use that arm to do things, but it’s not like it incapacitates you. Plus, you don’t swell as bad as some people, and you follow directions when it comes to aftercare. We can make it work.”

“I know we can, but I probably won’t have time until after…well, until after the season.” Yes, she was busy during the holiday season, but she also had her new plans coming up that she hadn’t explained to the others yet. She knew she needed to tell them soon since they not only owned their parts of the building, but because they were family. Roxie knew but had kept her mouth shut. The only reason her little sister knew at all was because she was Thea’s accountant.