2.

I have to say that self-care is important to me. If your feet look like you could use your toenails to scale a tree or start a brushfire by rubbing your heels together, there's not a chance in hell I'll be interested in touching any part of you. Ever.

Text from Amethyst to Tama'i

T AMA'I

"What does your schedule look like today?" Pearl, the artist who had a station next to mine, asked over the buzz of the tattoo gun in her hand.

"I've only got consultations today, and I have to go pick up Tameka from school since the boys will be in practice."

"I love that girl. Are you bringing her back to the shop or taking the evening off?"

I leaned back in the chair as I rubbed my irritated eyes. I'd been looking down at the lit drafting table for at least an hour now, and I could feel a headache coming on. Finally, I answered, "I have a consultation at four, so I'll bring her back with me."

"If you don't have any plans this evening, would you like to do some touch-ups and maybe a tattoo?"

"Yes to the touch-ups, but what size tattoo are we talking about?"

"I don't know. It's my mom, so there's no telling what she wants."

"She doesn't know?" I asked, not thrilled at the prospect of tattooing someone who hadn't already made what I considered a life-altering decision. Some people didn't consider that a tattoo was forever, and since I'd started tattooing, I'd made it my policy to remind them of that, especially when they wanted something stupid that wouldn't stay vibrant or was some sort of passing fancy. "If she has no idea what she wants, then why is she getting it now?"

"She has a blank space," Pearl told me with a shrug as she sat up straight and wiped the tattoo she was working on. She studied it for a second and then dipped her needle into a color well before she bent back over her client's leg. As the machine buzzed, she explained, "She's been considering a new one for a while, but when I told her that you started working here, she got serious about it."

"What does she need touched up?" I asked.

"Some of her older ones need a refresh, and she scraped her arm pretty badly working in the garden with Gamma, so she wants that fixed now that it's been healed for a while."

"What's your mom like?" I asked, trying to imagine my own mother covered in tattoos. As far as I knew, she didn't have a single one, which was saying something since she was career military. On the other hand, my father had more than a dozen - one for each country he'd been stationed in during his own career in the Navy. "I take it she doesn't disapprove of your chosen profession."

Pearl laughed, and it reminded me of my sister, who I already missed. It wasn't that I didn't love my sister, but we hadn't lived in the same town in years. My guess was that I probably only missed her because she'd left me with her three teenagers, two of which I'd already had problems with even though she'd only been gone for a few weeks. I knew that they were great kids who were just trying to test their new boundaries, but if they didn't cut their shit out, I'd have to not so gently remind them who the matai of our little tribe happened to be, just like Tutu had when she was raising me and my sister.

"My mom is not your average middle-aged . . ." She stopped talking and gasped before looking around the shop as if someone was about to jump out and attack. She hissed, "Do not mention that I used those words."

Pearl's client laughed along with me when the other artist who worked with us popped his head out of the breakroom and said, "I heard that!"

"Mom is unique and awesome in every way you can imagine," Pearl said, ignoring Stone's laughter as he walked to his station.

"You don't have to suck up, Pearl. She's not here."

"I'm not sucking up. Tell me I'm wrong."

"I couldn't describe her better myself," Stone agreed as he opened a cabinet and started sorting through ink bottles. As he pulled out the ones he wanted, he said, "She's a hoot, Tiny. You'll love her."

"You will, but let me warn you right now that she's gonna love you," Pearl drawled as she looked up and smiled at me. "Just remember, she's married to my father, so whatever she happens to say when she's surfing the tattoo endorphins doesn't really count, okay?"

"I'll keep that in mind," I promised. "Your parents are friends, right?"

"They are. Our moms are really close, and our dads grew up together," Stone explained.

"Your brother-in-law knows them," Pearl added.

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. When they were in high school, Bart dated my sister Di, so he's met our entire family. So has your nephew Aleki since he's in the same class as my youngest brother, Onyx. He is probably friends with my sister-in-law Mercy, too, even though she's a year or two older than him."

"Small town connections, I guess."

"The population makes it sound like a big town, but it seems like everyone knows everyone. Was your hometown like that?"

"It's on an island, so it's definitely got that small-town feel."

"When did you move to the States?" Stone asked.

"We moved from Samoa to Hawaii when I was really young but then transferred to California when I was in middle school. The summer before I started my senior year of high school, we moved to Florida."

"That had to suck," Pearl commented.

"The same thing happened to my sister right before her senior year. That was when we moved to California. That's why she asked me to come stay with the kids instead of dragging them away from their friends."

"How long is she going to be gone?"

"She'll be gone for another six months and then home for good. My brother-in-law is retiring and will be back sooner than that, though."

"And then what will you do?" Pearl asked curiously. "Will you leave or stick around and work here?"

"My Tutu is here so . . ."

"Tutu?"

"That's our word for grandmother," I explained. "Since my parents are still on active duty, they can be transferred at any time, so Rojo is going to be our new home base, even though it's nowhere near the coast."

"Your parents are in the Navy, but your sister is in the Marines?"

"Yeah. She and I were rebels and joined the Marines instead of following in our parents' footsteps and joining the Navy."

"How long were you in the Marines?" Stone asked.

"I did four years and then got out. I should have listened to my mom when she insisted that military life was not for me."

"I couldn't do it," Pearl admitted. "I don't take well to people telling me what to do."

"Pfft," Stone said. "That's an understatement."

"Make sure you don't ever end up in prison then because for people like us, that's a living hell."

I walked up the steps to the school and wondered how the office staff would react to my appearance today. They'd been informed that I was the guardian for my sister's kids when she got all the paperwork in order, but seeing that in print was much different than meeting me in person. I was aware that I could be . . . Okay, I was almost always an intimidating guy, considering my size and apparent inability to control my facial expressions. Knowing that didn't make it any easier when people stared at me or cowered in fear.

In certain instances, I was perfectly fine with people thinking I was more menacing than I really was, but I tried very hard to avoid those times since I got out of prison. I hadn't been completely successful, but at least I'd never gone back. I counted that as a win.

However, parenting teenagers, even if it was for a short time and I had Tutu's help navigating the choppy waters of hormones, emotions, and rebellion, might very well put me behind bars again. Not that I'd ever harm a child or intentionally hurt anyone in my family, but if things kept going the way they had been for the last week, I might commit a crime just so they'd send me away.

I'd thought about it, and prison seemed to be the only reasonable excuse I could use to make my escape. Considering I'd already lived that hell on earth for nine years, one month, three weeks, and one day, it was definitely telling that I was thinking about prison as a long-term solution.

If my eleven-year-old niece, Tameka, had another screeching fit and slammed her bedroom door one more time, I was probably going to lose my shit and go knock off a convenience store for chump change and a second felony. Same with Kai and his attitude. The urge to knock that boy down a peg or two had been almost overwhelming. Lo and behold, he'd apparently encountered a teacher who felt the same way I did.

I walked through the front doors of the high school and passed a few groups of twittering young women before I finally found an adult and asked them how to find the office. The second I walked through the glass doors, I heard Kai yelling. My day was even shittier than I thought, and my nephew's was getting worse by the second.

Without even thinking about it, I walked around the desk, past the middle-aged woman who was looking at me in complete shock, into an office where I found my nephew with three women.

"What in the fuck is wrong with you that you'll speak to an adult so disrespectfully, Kai? I better not ever hear you take that tone with a woman again," I roared as I walked into the room. I slammed my hand down on his shoulder and forced him to sit in the nearest chair. Kai looked up at me in shock, and I leaned down so we were almost nose to nose before I growled, "Have you lost every bit of fucking sense, boy? " Kai didn't respond, and I noticed that he didn't even squirm beneath my hold, so I gripped his shoulder even tighter as I looked up at the women and asked, "What's going on here?

"I don't appreciate your language, Mr. . . . Who are you?" The woman who asked that question looked like she'd just sucked on a lemon as she slid to the side and reached for the phone on her desk, probably to call the law to fulfill my fantasy of late.

"I'm Tama'i Fuamatu, this little asshole's uncle. I'm his guardian while his parents are away."

"Mr. Fu . . . Fua . . . um . . ."

"Fuamatu," I said slowly. "Again, what's going on?"

"This is bullshit," Kai said from his seat as he squirmed under my grasp. "I'll tell you . . ."

"Shut your fucking mouth until I give you permission to speak," I barked. I looked up at the women and asked again, "What happened?"

The one who I guessed may be Kai's teacher didn't look nearly as intimidated as the one I assumed was the principal and was more than happy to spill the story. "We had a pop quiz today, and I caught Kai using his phone to look up the answers. When I asked him for the phone, he refused to give it to me, so I ordered him to go to the office. He wouldn't leave his seat and called me a racial slur before he threw his test paper at me."

"Did you do that?" When it looked like Kai was going to argue, I said, "One of two words will be acceptable in this case: yes or no. Did you do that?"

"Yeah."

"You were cheating?"

"Yeah," he said petulantly.

"Give me your phone."

"What? But I . . ."

"If I have to take it from you, it's gonna hurt really fucking bad," I warned. Kai held his phone up, and I let go of his shoulder to take it. I held it with both hands and snapped it in half, ignoring his cry of outrage and their expressions of shock and then handed the pieces back to him before I looked at his teacher and said, "Problem solved. No more using his phone to cheat on tests. Now, what do you suggest I do to get rid of his attitude because I've got a few ideas, and every one of them is right along those same lines."

"For every drop of paint you get on the floor, you owe me a lap around the track," I warned before I turned my stool around and looked at my niece. "Take your homework into the breakroom and get started but feel free to come get me if you need help, okay?" Tameka glanced at her brother and then back at me before she swallowed hard and nodded. "You can grab a drink and a snack out of my bin in the fridge but don't mess with anyone else's stuff."

"Yes, sir," Tameka said before she slung her backpack over her shoulder and walked toward the back of the shop.

I watched her go and saw Kai look over his shoulder at her, so I barked, "Focus, Kai. That wall ain't gonna paint itself."

"I didn't realize that hiring you meant I got free child labor," Fain said as he sat down on my table. He smiled at me and said, "I see parenthood agrees with you."

When I scowled at him, he laughed. Pearl walked by and asked, "Did my dad publish a parenting book and not tell me?"

"That is definitely a punishment Lout would use," Fain said as he watched Kai dip the Q-tip I'd given him into the bowl of paint and then dab it against the cinder block wall in front of him. "Is he gonna do that whole wall or . . ."

"Every fucking inch," I interrupted. "He'll be here with me for the rest of the week."

"Damn," Pearl whispered. "That boy done fucked up."

"If he thinks my punishment is bad, just wait until I tell his mama what I fucking heard today."

"That bad, huh?" Fain asked. When I nodded, he put his hands together as if in prayer and looked up at the ceiling. As the bell over the front door sounded, he said, "Thank you God for letting me get through parenthood with my sanity intact and giving me the opportunity to have grandchildren who act just like their fucking parents so they can understand the hell they put me through."

I heard a man say, "Preach it, brother."

"Hallelujah!" a woman cheered. "That's every parent's prayer."

I turned my head and found a couple walking across the lobby, both of them heavily tattooed and very obviously Pearl's parents. The man had skin almost the same color as mine with a shaved head and a permanent scowl that was also a lot like my own. The woman, however, was white with a shocking swath of dark purple hair that swooped up as if she'd been in a windstorm, barely contained by the black bandana she had tied around her head. She was covered in tattoos ,and I admired the work as she walked closer while also admiring her athletic body and outgoing personality.

"Oh my goodness! What do we have here?" the woman asked as she tried to walk closer to me.

The man holding her hand frowned as he kept her from walking any closer and said, "Down, girl. I'm right fucking here."

"Hi. What's your name?"

"Tiny."

"I sincerely doubt it," she retorted. When the man next to her growled, she turned and smiled at him. "You're still the handsomest man I've ever seen, and I love you the most, Cocoa."

"Blech," I heard Pearl snort. "Mom, leave poor Tiny alone. He's probably defenseless against your powers."

"Aren't we all?" Stone asked cheerfully. "Hi, Aunt Willow. Lout."

I stood up from my stool and watched Pearl's mother's eyes widen and her father's frown intensify. I stuck my hand out toward the man first and introduced myself, and after he shook my hand, I nodded at his wife before I smiled and said, "Are you ready for some ink?"

"Yes, please," she answered before she let her husband's hand go and walked across the room to look at my nephew's progress. He looked at her over his shoulder when she asked, "Wow! How bad did you screw up?"

When he didn't answer, I said, "That's my nephew, Kai. He's not allowed to talk for a while because he's practicing the skill of keeping his fucking mouth shut."

Out of the blue, Willow asked, "How old are you, Tiny? Are you married? Dating someone? Single?"

"I'm thirty-six, and yes, I'm single."

The woman's beautiful face transformed into something almost ethereal before she said, "That's perfect!"

"Let the games begin," Lout muttered as he walked past me toward Pearl. As he pulled her into his arms for a hug, I heard him say, "Call your sisters and give them a heads-up that your mom is plotting."

"Where's the fun in that?" Pearl asked as she smiled up at her dad. "I'm going home. Please keep her in line."

"Where's the fun in that?" Lout mimicked as he let his daughter go. In his normal voice, he said, "As if I could anyway."

I decided to let them have their drama . . . or amusement. I wasn't sure exactly what to call it. They acted as if this sweet woman was rabid or something, but I could tell she was a fun person to be around, which I needed in my life. Well, at least in small doses.

After just a few minutes of discussion and then a few more minutes of sketching, I had what Willow proclaimed was the perfect flower to add to a small gap in her sleeve and then looked away as she stripped down. When she was standing in front of me in the same clothes I'd seen other women wear at the gym - a tight cropped tank and matching shorts, I looked over her other tattoos and explained what I could do to touch up the coloring and clean up the outlines that had faded over time.

After a little discussion, we decided to start by touching up the color on the bows on the backs of her thighs, so Willow got comfortable on my table while I chose the ink I would use for the color and shading. Lout sat down in Pearl's tattoo chair and leaned it back before he propped his feet on her stool and closed his eyes for a nap. I appreciated the fact that he wasn't hovering over me, considering his gorgeous wife was my canvas this evening.

I had been working for a few minutes when Willow asked, "I know you said you're single and new to town, but have you met anyone you're interested in yet?"

I knew that keeping my clients talking helped take their mind off the pain I was inflicting, so I made sure to converse with them as much as possible if they started up a conversation. Since she seemed like a personable lady and was interested, I answered honestly.

"Actually, I met a woman today and got her number."

"Oh, really?" Willow asked but didn't seem nearly as excited as she had been before. I chalked it up to the tender area I was tattooing but then it dawned on me that she was disappointed because she had a woman in mind. "Three of my daughters are single and close to your age."

I avoided her obvious attempt at a set-up and asked, "How many daughters do you have?"

"Five."

"Holy shit," I mumbled. "Pearl mentioned that she has brothers too. How many are there?"

"I have four sons."

"I have to say that you do not look like you've given birth to nine children."

"Thank you! Technically, my three oldest daughters are my bonus kids, so I only had six pregnancies."

"Well, you look fantastic," I told her. I heard a deep grumble and looked up to find Willow's husband glaring at me. I shrugged and asked, "What? Do you want me to lie?"

Willow burst out laughing at the same time Stone yelled, "Holy shit!" Lout's gaze never wavered, but it went from a scowl to a grin. I took that as a win, considering I'd spoken without thinking and really didn't want to throw down with my co-worker's father and one of the club brothers of the shop owner.

Through her laughter, Willow said, "I don't know your type, but I've got three single daughters. Surely, one of them would be perfect for you."

"I don't know about all that, but don't call me Shirley."

Willow started laughing again while Stone and Lout chuckled and snickered. I was glad I'd broken the tension my compliment had caused. I gave in and confided, "Actually, I did ask a woman out this morning, but she partially shot me down."

"Partially? Is that a thing?"

"She said she wanted to exchange phone numbers and talk before she agreed to meet me in a well-lit and crowded place just in case I'm a serial killer."

"Good call on her part," Lout said cheerfully. "Sounds like a smart girl."

"I would say so. She's a doctor."

Willow had been laying on her stomach but pushed up so that she was resting on her arms as she craned her neck to look at me. "A doctor?"

"Yes, ma'am. I had an appointment this morning, and she . . . Well, I'm afraid of needles." When laughter broke out again, I interrupted, "I know, I know, it's stupid because I'm covered in tattoos and I work with needles everyday. I'm not saying it makes sense, but it's true. Anyway, she talked me off the ledge, and I let her give me a shot in exchange for her phone number."

Lout scoffed and Stone rolled his eyes, but Willow just smiled. "So, what do you think about this doctor you met?"

"Other than the fact that she's obviously very smart, she's beautiful and funny. She's got absolutely no filter, which is refreshing now but might make things uncomfortable at some point, and she's cautious about who she dates, which is something I appreciate."

"Have you called her yet?" Willow asked.

"Honestly, I'm rethinking the whole thing," I blurted. What the fuck was wrong with me? Yes, I talked to and engaged with my clients, but I didn't usually pour my heart out to them. It was usually the other way around. Most people couldn't stand silence for any length of time, so they filled it with mundane chatter that usually ended up telling me more about them and their personality than they realized.

"Why?"

And just like before, I suddenly started baring my heart to this woman I'd just met. "Because she's a white-collar professional, and obviously, I'm not."

"So what?" Willow asked.

"Doctors are snooty country club members, and I'm . . . Well, the first time I saw her was at a biker wedding in the mountains."

"Oh, at Dub and Elizabeth's wedding."

"Yes." After a few seconds, I admitted, "There seemed to be something there, but maybe she's just that kind of person."

"What kind of person?" Willow's husband asked.

"Electric. That's the only way I can describe it. Maybe she's the kind of person who is good at connecting with people, and the spark I felt was just her being friendly. It just felt like something else to me."

"Hmm," Willow said as she turned back around and started typing on her phone. "So, you're not going to call her?"

"I don't know. Maybe if it's not too late when we get out of here, I'll call."

"You really want to take her on a date?"

"Yes. I'd love to see her again, but this time, I want to be on more even ground. There's a spark there, at least on my part, and I guess if it's meant to be, it's meant to be."

"Remember earlier when Pearl said this was a small town?" Stone asked.

"Yeah.Why?"

"It just got smaller."