Haunted (39 page)

He nodded. “From Houma, ma’am.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, not ma’am, please. I’m on vacation!”  

He laughed and that really affected her.

I’d told him she was a high school principal and it was interesting to watch him around another woman. Even though Karen was in her late 40’s, she was very attractive and in great shape. I was wondering how he was going to handle her being mostly topless for the next few hours.

“And this is his friend, Star...”

“Stanley Stevenson. Very nice to meet you.” He sat back down next to Devon on the couch and tried to ignore Mackenzie and me.

“Stanley?” She mouthed to me, “How Cute!”  

We looked at him and he shrugged, blushing. Mackenzie started fanning herself and he got a sly smile on his face. Devon smacked him in the back of the head and he tried to behave.

“It’s nice to meet you both.” Karen turned back to us and gave us a very principal-like look and we immediately were chastised.

Karen and I went over the drawing last minute and then she went in the dressing room and took off her top. She came out holding the drape to her and I proceeded to wash the area and apply the stencil. It took a few tries. We were going over the top of her shoulder and down the back. It made the placement a little tricky. Devon and Star watched it all with great interest. Mackenzie’s first client of the day came in and that kept her occupied for the next hour.

Karen lay down on her stomach on my table and I got to work. She was very easy to work on. With all she’d been through over the past few years she could handle the pain of a tattoo with ease.

Devon stood and walked around behind me so he could see me work better. Strangely, I didn’t feel distracted at all by him. It felt natural for him to be in my space.

“May I ask about the tattoo you’re getting?” He was very sweet to ask her. I wondered how he would handle the answer.

“Of course. It’s a phoenix, the symbol of rebirth. After surviving breast cancer I feel like I'm starting over.”

He was quiet for a minute. “It’s going to look fantastic. How long have you been cancer-free?”  

“Thanks. It’s been five years now. I feel good, I feel lucky to be alive. They caught it early so it wasn’t so bad. I didn’t have to have radiation, just the double mastectomy and several rounds of chemo.” Karen had shared her story with me the first time we met. I admired her so very much.

“My aunt died of breast cancer, so I’m really glad to hear yours went ok.”

I sat back and looked up at him, quieting my machine for a moment. His sad smile was back, but he looked ok.

“Daryl’s first wife, Lila. She was just 30 when she got sick. I was little when it happened, but my mom talked about her a lot. I remember her funeral.” He cleared his throat and I smiled up at him in support. His half smile was back.

“That explains a little about Daryl.”

He nodded.

Karen looked curious.

“Daryl is Devon’s uncle. He’s also a great friend of mine. He was the man I told you about who helped Mackenzie and I get our building.”

“Ah, the biker dude. Got it.”

Devon laughed. “Hey, chère, I’m going to go out back and have a smoke. You need anything?”  

I shook my head. “I’m great, thanks though.”

He kissed the top of my head and headed out the back door. My face must have shown how bad I had it because Karen was chuckling to herself.

“Ah to be young and in love. Shit, I’d have killed to be in love with that.” I snickered.

“He’s something, huh?” She rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, something. How did you two meet?”

I could feel myself blushing. “Daryl introduced us and we were kind of working together, he and his cousins and their friends, on a memorial tattoo for his sister. It just sort of happened.”

She was smiling at me and then closed her eyes to relax. I was working on her shoulder blade area, which can be quite tender. “Keep talking, Jay. Helps me forget about the rough spots.”

I laughed. “Ok. What else do you want to know?”  

Her forehead creased as though she was thinking deeply. “How about what does he do for a living?”

I snorted. “Oh, you’ll really like the answer to that one.”

She opened an eye and frowned at me. “As long as you don’t tell me he’s a starving artist.”

I couldn’t help it. I burst out laughing.

“He is! I knew it. He’s got that brooding, intense thing going on.”

I shook my head. “Yes, he’s an artist, but he’s not starving. Not by a long shot.” I paused to clean up the area I’d been working on and inspect the line work I’d finished so far.

“Not starving? Do tell!”  

I sighed. “He’s the guitarist for Maggie’s Bones, a Metal band.”

“I know exactly who Maggie’s Bones are, are you kidding me? That’s D? Holy shit, Jay, they are hot! I can’t believe your luck! Maybe I should move to New Orleans, too!”  

We both laughed. Karen was very much in love with her husband so her teasing was just that.

“I can’t help but more deeply believe that everything happens for a reason. This past week has been good for me.”

She snickered. “I bet it has.”

“Oh, stop it Karen! It’s not what you think. It’s just that I wasn’t going to take the job. It seemed too overwhelming, out of my comfort zone, you know?”  

She turned her head to the side so I could see her eyebrow raised. “Jay, your comfort zone is quite narrow. Besides moving to New Orleans, you don’t usually do anything other than work, work, work. I’m glad you did something out of the norm. I see it’s paid off.”

“I sure hope so. But then falling in love is waaaay outside my comfort zone so we’ll have to see how it goes.” I knew my face was red when she looked up at me.

“And it could be the kind of thing that changes your whole life, my dear. Trust me. Don’t turn the Fates away when they place something beautiful in front of you. Chances are it’s not likely to be repeated.”

I thought about what she said and all she’d been through. I tended to listen when my clients shared their life wisdom with me. I learned as much from them as they got healing from the process of getting a tattoo. As I watched Devon walk back in my shop I knew that I would absolutely embrace what Fate had brought to me.

Devon was carrying his guitar with him. He must have had it in his car. “Jaylene, will it bother you if I play?”

“Not at all. You might want to turn off the stereo though.” He laughed at the dirty look Mackenzie shot me.

“What? I thought you’d appreciate some live music.”

Her eyes lit up. “Of course! For that you can always turn off the stereo.”

He sat back down on the couch and dropped a notebook next to him. “I hope this won’t bother you, just have some ideas to put down.”

I smiled at him and shook my head, hoping he knew just how much I would never mind listening to him play.

“Just warn us if you’re going to sing any of the, you know, more colorful songs, so we can be prepared.”

He chuckled to himself and I found my heart swelling in my chest. He trusted me. He was here in my space and seemed so relaxed. This was definitely a gift I would never willingly turn away.

About three hours in, Karen needed a food break so Mackenzie and Star ran down to the deli and grabbed sandwiches. I gave her some juice so she wouldn’t shock out on me.

Karen sat up, rolling her head on her shoulders. She was such an easy client to work on. We were a little more than halfway done. I did some stretching as well and I walked over to where Devon was sitting. He’d been playing a very cool song for a while and on his sheet of paper he had taken many notes.

He looked up at me and smiled, then narrowed his eyes and played a few chords from Sin on my Face. I rolled my eyes and walked over to the front door to get some air. The weather was perfect, a balmy spring day with little humidity.

Karen joined me for some air and she breathed it in deep. “I can smell the magic in this place! I might have to spend a summer break here. Maybe I can finally write my great American novel!”  

I bumped her with my shoulder. “With all the material you’ve gathered over the years, I bet you have a lot to write about.”

She nodded. “Working in schools definitely gives you a lot of material. Some of it I wish I could forget.”

She’d shared some particularly heartbreaking stories with me before. She knew what I had planned to do with my life before my father died and I had asked her for her advice. She assured me I would be great, but that it would take a toll.

“Hey, how is your stepmom? Do you guys talk much?”  

I shrugged. “Every once in a while. They came to see me two weeks ago.”

Her eyebrows rose. “And how’d that go.”

“I don’t know. It’s always hard to be around her. I feel like seeing me makes her melancholy and when she talks about Dad, she’s so very sad. She got in a few jabs.”

Karen crossed her arms. “And I hope you jabbed right back.”

I laughed. Karen was a great corner coach.

“Well, I told her I was happy, that I was successful and she didn’t need to worry about me selling my body to support myself. For some reason she didn’t find that amusing.” I heard Devon snicker in the back. I hadn’t realized he was listening. “But Grandma called after they left and gave me a great pat on the back. She’s always been good at that. I promised them I’d come home at Christmas so I have some time to work on my comebacks.”

Karen rolled her eyes. “I love how people try to tell us how to live our lives. Your stepmom certainly never holds back, does she?”  

I shook my head, wondering what she would say about Devon. It was mere curiosity, though. I didn’t honestly care what she thought.

We headed back inside when Mackenzie and Star returned and we ate quickly so we could get back to work. After lunch, Devon asked if he and Star could go upstairs for a bit to my flat, he wanted to work on something with him.

“Of course.” I leaned up to kiss his cheek and whispered, “What’s mine is yours, baby.”

He looked down at me with that intensity and I shivered. “Thanks, chère. We’ll be back in a little while.”

“Take your time. I’ve got another couple hours with Karen and then Jonathan will be here. His shouldn’t take me more than a couple of hours.”

He frowned. “That’s kind of a long day, isn’t it?”  

I shook my head. “It’s about normal. I usually tattoo about 7 hours a day at least. Today is different because I normally wouldn’t do another after a big one like Karen’s, but I needed to put them together to only be gone one day.”

He shook his head, looking bitter. “You mean because of us?”  

I nodded, but grabbed his bicep. “Yes, but it’s fine, really. I feel great.”

He smiled down at me and kissed me before leaning to whisper in my ear, “Me too. I love being here with you. I hope it’s ok.”

I beamed up at him. “It’s more than ok. Now go on, we need to have girl talk time and you won’t want to hear what we talk about.”

Star pouted. “I want to hear girl talk! No fair! You got to hear dude talk all week!”  

Mackenzie threw a pen at him and he ducked.

“Alright, geesh. I guess girl talk is more violent than dude talk.”

The two guys went up the back steps and we giggled conspiratorially.

Mackenzie had been busy for most of the morning so far with piercing appointments, but after we ate, Sabrina came in and they got to work on her hair. As she sat in the chair getting processed she called out to me, “Hey Jay, how’d the clothes work out for you?”

Mackenzie spoke before I had a chance. “Sabrina, our little girl has finally gone and done it. She let a boy touch her feminine side!”  

I groaned. I knew it was a bad idea to have these two gang up on me.

“Kenz! Seriously? Do you have to?”  

She nodded. “Oh baby girl we’ve been waiting forever to see you find happiness with a boy! Of course, being the overachiever you are, you find it with a bonafide rock god!”  

Sabrina gasped and I quirked my eyebrow at Mackenzie. “WHO IS IT! ? Omigoddess you have to tell me, Jaylene!”  

I sighed. I guess she’d find out sooner or later, especially if he came down while she was still here. “His name is Devon and he’s from Houma and he happens to be a musician.” I waited a beat while her eyes got bigger.

“You can’t mean Devon BOUDREAUX! I’m going to faint over here.” She was fanning herself and I rolled my eyes, trying to concentrate on Karen’s lines but Karen was giggling so hard it made it difficult.

“Would you stop? I’m going to make your phoenix look like Wavy Gravy!”  

She apologized. I got back to work and she sighed.

“Is it going to be weird knowing that millions of women want a piece of your boyfriend?”  

I paused the machine for a minute and cleared my throat. When I spoke it was in a low voice. “It’s scary as hell. I’m so far out of my league here, I don’t even know the sport!”  

Sabrina laughed but Mackenzie got pissed. “I better not hear you talking like that. He is just a man, Jaylene Renee, and he is lucky to have you. Remember that or I’ll kick your ass!”

“Yes, Mom,” I whispered.

Karen laughed, but then she said, “She’s right, you know. And I can tell by the way he looks at you that you have nothing to worry about. But I know you’ll worry.”

“You are worried, aren’t you Jay?” Mackenzie and Sabrina were standing behind me, looking over my progress.

I was a little uncomfortable discussing my fears with these strong women. “I am, a bit. He’s my first boyfriend. What do I know about making things work? And other women? All I can do is trust that he’ll be honest with me. I know temptation will be all around him, but I have no control over that.”

Sabrina pulled up a stool and sat across from me. “Look, Jaylene, I know it’s on a much smaller scale, but Kurt’s band has it’s share of groupies, even for a local band. I worried like hell in the beginning. One night we got in a huge fight about it and he said, ‘Babe, if I wanted all that I wouldn’t be with you. You’re what I want and I’m not going to fuck that up for all the pussy in the world.’” We all burst out laughing. She continued, “I never said he wasn’t crass. But I had to take him at his word, right? And we’ve been together for five years now. I believe him. He’s shown me over and over that I’m important to him so I take him at his word.”