Chapter twelve

Theo

When I arrived at Marked on Aaron’s first day, Max was already at his station with one of his regulars, George. “You settled in?”

Max asked, pausing his needle above an outline of a sloth.

George already had representations of five of the seven deadly sins inked on his left arm: a mirror, a pile of money, an overflowing shopping cart, boxing gloves, and an outstretched hand in green ink. After today, he’d just need lust.

“Sure,”

I said, despite the fact I’d spent the night before sleeping on an air mattress and drank water straight from the faucet this morning since I didn’t own a glass. I should have bought a bed and some basics, but I’d held on to the hope something would delay Aaron, and I could wait to move until the house sale went through. Instead, I was renting from Mrs. Jenkins for the next two weeks until the closing and sleeping on the floor. Not that I could call it rent. She’d charged me five dollars and a painting class at her retirement home. I was basically up half a month’s rent on the exchange, and Aiden and I were still battling it out for a fair rental price. Fair for him, that is. He’d emailed me a lease with some bullshit amount that included a construction inconvenience credit.

“I picked up Aries yesterday and got him settled,”

Max said, pressing the needle down.

“Who’s that?”

“Me,”

a guy said, stepping out of the supply closet. “You must be Theo.”

He held out his hand, and I shook it while we assessed each other. You could learn a lot about a person from their tattoos. He had some decent ink, including a Japanese-style dragon in bold blue that wound around his left arm, but most of the rest were basic prison tats: barbed wire on his wrist, a spiderweb on his arm, both black and freestyled.

“Thought your name was Aaron,”

I said, dropping his hand.

He pointed to a large tattoo on his neck. “Changed it.”

“To the Zodiac or the god?”

“Ain’t they the same?”

he said, laughing.

“How do you spell it?”

“A-r-i-e-s.”

“That’s the Zodiac.”

“Theo’s Greek,”

Max said, as if that explained why I was being a dick.

“Ah, got it man,”

Aries said, scratching his chest. “Didn’t mean no disrespect. You speak English good.”

He laughed softly. “Probably better than me. I stopped going to school when I was thirteen.”

Max shot me a look that made my balls shrivel. Growing up, I’d butted heads with my old man all the time and never felt an ounce of guilt, but the few occasions Max and I had gotten into it had left me feeling like a complete piece of shit. That look was an order to be the man he’d helped me become.

So instead of telling the dumbass who displaced me that I was born and raised in Peace Falls, I pointed to the partial sleeve on his right arm. “You do any of those yourself?”

“Yeah, this one,”

he said, pointing to the spiderweb.

“It’s good,”

I said, because considering he’d probably done it with pen ink and a staple, it didn’t look half bad. “Guess you’re a leftie?”

Aries nodded. “You do any of yours?”

I held up the Xs on my hands. I had half a dozen more I’d done myself, including the Omega with Logan’s name, but the Xs told him the most about me.

“You did both your hands?”

he asked, his eyebrows raising in disbelief.

“I’m ambidextrous,”

I said as the bell rang to announce a client entering the waiting room.

“No shit,”

he said. “You’re the first one of those I’ve met. I can’t imagine being able to use both hands the same.”

“It’s why he’s such a good art teacher. He can switch depending on who he’s teaching.”

If every muscle in my body tensed at the sound of her voice, they knotted as I watched Aries scan Poppy up and down. His eyes, which had looked a little bored while we talked, sparked to life. He flashed her a huge smile. “Good morning, how can I help you?”

I’m not sure what my face did, but he stepped back and held up his hands. “My bad, man. Seriously, no disrespect. Must happen all the time though, right?”

I braced myself and turned. Poppy had added a green streak to her hair that sharpened her moss-colored eyes to jade. Her shirt draped artfully off one shoulder, showing the strap of whatever black lacy thing she wore underneath. I swallowed, hard.

After Rose, Chris, and Rowan left yesterday, Cal and Aiden gave me enough shit about my conversation with Poppy to stink up Maple and Sullivan Streets. But it had to be done. Even if part of me had wanted to follow her into the kitchen and beg her to forget everything I’d just said. I’d planned to stay in the studio until I felt confident I wouldn’t. If Lauren hadn’t left, I’m not sure how long I’d have been there. But what I’d told Poppy was the truth. We could never be more than friends.

“What must happen all the time?”

Poppy asked.

“Other guys checking out his girl.”

Poppy shook her head. “We’re just friends.”

I’d be lying if I said I was relieved she sounded relaxed. A selfish part of me wanted her to be angry or even hurt, which basically proved I was not, and would never be, good enough for her.

“In that case,”

Aries said, stepping right into my space to stick his hand toward Poppy. “I’m Aries.”

She took one of her hands from the bakery boxes in her arms and shook his. He gave her delicate fingers two squeezes before he dropped them.

“A-r-i-e-s,” I said.

“Poppy,”

she said. “I’m an Aries.”

Her cheeks pinked, and my stomach plummeted to my boots. Was she flirting with him?

“I bet you are,”

Aries said. “I know a badass when I see one.”

Poppy laughed. “Hardly. I’m here to deliver baklava and conquer my New Year’s resolution to get over my fear of needles.”

“You want a tattoo?”

I asked. Poppy’s gorgeous skin was a blank canvas I’d been dying to work with from the moment she walked into my life. If offering her body for me to ink was her idea of punishing me, she’d nailed it.

The pink in her cheeks deepened. “Maybe. For now, I’m just trying to be in the same room with a needle and not faint.”

She lifted her chin toward the station where Max continued to work, his needle buzzing a deeper pitch each time it connected with skin.

I reached for her instinctively. She responded by stepping back.

“I’m good. I’ll tell you if I start to feel dizzy.”

My chest tightened. She appeared cool and collected, but I could tell I’d hurt her, and she needed me to keep my distance.

“Hey, every journey begins with the first step,”

Aries said, taking a step closer to Poppy. “I’m starting one today too. I’m apprenticing with Max, so maybe by the time you’re ready for ink, I can give it to you.”

“I’ll think about it,”

she said and smiled. She fucking smiled.

“Are those for me?”

I asked, pointing to the Red Blossoms boxes.

“Yeah, Rowan went a little crazy with the zests. One is orange. The other is lemon. She cut one into triangles and the other into squares, but she made me swear not to tell you which was which. Try them out and let her know the shape you like best.”

“Thanks, Poppy,”

I said taking the boxes. “But she shouldn’t base her recipe on what I think.”

“It’s a lot of baklava, so feel free to share,”

she said, smiling at Aries again. “I know you don’t like to eat sweets.”

“Man, I’m a total sugar addict,”

Aries said, giving her a look that made me grip the boxes so hard they dented. “I can’t get enough.”

Among other things. Thankfully, I kept that part to myself. Pretty sure Max would have tossed me out by my gauges if I hadn’t.

Max’s client grunted in pain, and the pink drained from Poppy’s cheeks. “Well, it was nice to meet you, Aries. See you in class, Theo.”

She turned and Aries started walking out with her. “So, I’m new in town,”

I heard him say as the bell on the door rang. The rest of their conversation was muffled, even after I walked to the waiting room to put the pastry boxes on the counter. I watched him pull out his phone and hand it to her. Poppy typed something in it and smiled at him before she climbed into her hearse and drove away.

“Damn,”

Aries said, pushing through the door. “That’s one badass bitch. And she drives a hearse. She ever get freaky in the back?”

he asked me.

The needle stopped and before I could round the counter and beat the ever-loving shit out of Aries, Max gripped my shoulder, tight. I swear the man had wings in addition to the hearing and reflexes of an ex-con.

“Theo, I’m taking Aries outside to show him where Karma is, so he can get us some coffee to go with that dessert. Grab a twenty from the register and write down your order. Ask George if he wants anything.”

I did as he said and watched while he instructed Aries far longer than necessary to point the guy in the direction of the one and only coffee shop on Main Street. Max stepped inside to grab the twenty and the order I’d scribbled down, which included his usual flat white and George’s cinnamon toast latte. Max let out a disappointed sigh and added a double espresso to the list before he took it outside to Aries.

“Go ahead and grab a smoke, George,”

Max shouted to the back while we stared each other down.

George lumbered past us to the door. “Back in five.”

“Take your time. We both need a break.”

George nodded and headed to the sidewalk, already pulling his cigarettes and lighter from his jeans.

“You hate when people smoke out front,” I said.

“I hate it more when someone doesn’t give a person a chance,”

he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’d think you would too.”

I rubbed my forehead. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize to me. And so we’re clear, I don’t expect you to apologize to Aries either. Just stop being a dick to the kid.”

“You heard what he said about Poppy.”

“I did, and he and I had a little chat about how we treat women in this town, whether they’re within earshot or not. But you were being a dick before Poppy got here.”

“There’s something about him I don’t like.”

“Look, Theo,”

Max said, gripping my shoulder. “I get that change is hard for you. But you have the opportunity to be a great role model for Aries, if you’re willing to look past his rough edges. The guy’s had a hard life from the start. Yours only went to hell when you were eighteen. And even then, you’ve had friends in your corner every step of the way.”

I blew out a breath. “And I’ve never had to fight addiction.”

Max nodded. “If we want to help Aries become a better man, we have to meet him where he is now. Having said that, if he disrespects your girl again, I’ll look the other way while you kick his ass.”

“She’s not my girl.”

Max laughed. The kind of laugh that had him bending at the knees and wheezing.

“I’m serious.”

“I know you are,”

Max said, straightening. He gripped my shoulder again and all the humor left his face. “That’s been your problem for a while now, son. It’s long past time you started enjoying your life again.”

“You done, Dr. Phil?”

Max smiled at me. “Not yet, but soon, I hope.”