“Just for calling me woman, I’m going to go and get one that covers my whole back instead of the small one I was thinking about getting. You can thank yourself for that every time you have to look at it.”
Then, tapping her chin, she mused, “I’ve always wanted a tattoo of my parents. If he puts that on my back, Arnie, it’ll really mess your life up.”
Arnold’s mouth open and closed, and then he looked at Sienna’s parents, begging them with his eyes to dig him out of the trench he’d just dug for himself.
“You had it coming,” her mom, Shelby, pointed out. “I’ll come with you, Mom. We can go and get mother and daughter tattoos.”
Sinclair, Sienna’s dad, had just taken a mouthful of coffee, which he choked on and sprayed all over the floor.
Not saying a word, Sienna reached over for a napkin from the pile on the coffee table, then changed her mind and picked a few more up before passing them over. That was probably a good choice—one napkin definitely wouldn’t have covered it.
“Cooee,” Maddie sang from the doorway, dancing through it with bags weighing her arms down. “Where are my nephews?”
The question broke Arnold’s mood as he leaned in closer to me. “Why does she always go for the dogs first? Don’t humans count anymore?”
There was only one thing to say to that. “Because she’s Maddie.”
The jerk of his chin and nod conveyed this explanation was correct, as did the way Sinclair snorted and rolled his eyes at me as he wiped up the mess he’d made.
“How are you feeling today, Jinx, my man?” she asked as she made her way over to me. “I got you a gift.”
Dropping a small bag on the couch beside me, she made her way around the group before I could thank her, leaving me staring at it like it was a bomb.
Between Maddie and Sienna’s grandmother, I’d had several interesting gifts since the incident. A man thong that wouldn’t press against the wound while it healed, a naughty nurse uniform for Sienna, a pillow that looked like a pair of tits… I didn’t know which one of the ladies were worse.
“Aren’t you going to open it?” Arnold asked innocently, but he wasn’t fooling me. “Madison went out of her way to get you something to make you feel better. You should open it.”
The smile I shot his way made him frown, and then I was opening the bag and pulling out what was inside it. The first bark of laughter that came out of me hurt, but it was a bittersweet pain that I was willing to put up with. Plus, it’s not like I could have stopped it from happening, even if my guts had been hanging out.
Why? Because she’d gotten me something called a cross-stitch kit with a porn scene on it. Who wouldn’t laugh at that?
“I know you’re getting bored, so I thought it’d help,” Maddie winked.
“What did she—” Arnold started to say as he leaned in but snapped his mouth shut when he saw it.
Walking around behind us, Rose leaned over my shoulder to look at it. “Well, there’s a lot of detail on that. It’s an advanced pattern, but they’ve printed it onto the fabric, so that should make it easier to do.”
Then, pointing at the guy’s nuts, she asked, “You’re the expert—what do you think the tattoo on his janglers is?” Before I could reply, she was waving her hand through the air. “That bit might be difficult, but the rest? No, that won’t be hard. Do you have to do the veins, too?”
“Looks like it’s plenty hard,” Arnold muttered under his breath, sinking down in his seat after it with whatever look his wife had given him.
“Hello,” Mom shouted as she walked through the door with Faith trailing behind her.
“Where are my nephews?” Faith called, clapping when the boys ran up to her. “I bought you some yummies. I know, who’s your favorite auntie?”
Yeah, Maddie and Faith had more in common than you’d expect. Individually they were a riot. Together, they’d literally cause a riot.
“Tapped, I tell you,” Arnold murmured, touching his finger to the side of his head.
He was all talk. Yesterday, both women had fussed over him when he’d burned his hand reaching into the toaster to pull a slice of bread out of it. You’d have thought he’d lost the hand with the way he acted, making sure he got every ounce of attention and sympathy out of them.
Leaning down to kiss Sienna, Mom cupped her cheek. “Beautiful like the sunset on the ocean.”
Mom had taken one look at my girl and had fallen in love. It’d been while I was getting stitched up in the hospital, and Sienna had been waiting anxiously in the waiting room. Maddie said Mom knew immediately who Sienna was and had burst into tears, thanking all of the gods in the universe for how beautiful her grandkids were going to be.