This was true, but that was in the past now, and my best friend had settled down. She’d given birth to a little girl of her own three weeks ago, and I’d never seen her as happy as she was now. I loved it as much as I loved my own happiness.
And his mom was very happy with Dr. Hudley, so in a strange way, life had come full circle thanks to my tattoo. I never thought I’d ever be grateful for the pain I’d gone through when the pencil had been forced into my side, but now I was a firm believer in beauty coming from pain, regardless of how ugly the pain was.
That’s not to say I didn’t wish it’d just happened naturally without the agony, but if every cloud had a silver lining, we’d beaten that to have platinum and steel linings in ours.
On all of the mornings that I’d woken up with knot-free hair, I’d thought it couldn’t get much more perfect than this. I’d been wrong, because those lines on the stick proved it could—the best surprise I’d never expected. Just like the baby’s father.
Still, it didn’t hurt to take him down a notch, every now and then. “It was only once. You keep talking about it like she does it every day.”
“You’re not the one who had to go and get the guy an icepack for his dick, baby. Trust me, as a man, you don’t forget that shit.”
Smiling sweetly at him, I asked, “Wanna experience it for real?”
Jinx
Four years later…
I’d been wrong that day when Sienna had told me she was pregnant.
Eight months later, she’d given birth to a little boy, Conrad Jordan Quinn, with red hair and a personality like his godmother’s.
From the second he’d come into the world, he’d let it know he meant business, and he hadn’t let up since. I’d thought his mom made my heart feel whole, but nothing prepared me for how it’d feel holding the baby that we’d made together.
Then, eighteen months ago, we’d found out Sienna was pregnant again, another surprise baby. The lady who’d done the gender scan had sworn blind it was another boy, and we’d prepared the room in the extension we’d had added onto the house for him.
Fortunately, it was only decorated with blue accessories to match the different shades of beige and cream Sienna had made me spend hours painting everything.
Why was that fortunate? Because my baby had been born missing one vital organ—a penis. The baby that the woman had sworn was a boy was, in fact, a beautiful little girl, with her mom’s red hair and my green eyes, just like her brother’s.
The second Taylor Madison Quinn had opened them on me, I’d seen a future of dogs, guns, and getting my brothers to patrol in front of my house.
I also wasn’t above organizing an escort to and from school until she graduated. We’d already started discussing it at the club, even though she was only nine months old. It was never too early to be prepared, and with all of the female babies in the club now, we needed that preparation locked down tight.
Stretching out on the hammock in the yard while Taylor slept on my chest and Conrad chased the dogs around the place, stopping periodically when he found something in the grass, I felt bliss.
My wife was working on a new project for the club just now, which was only part of her heavy workload. After posting some photos of the large vase and the plate she’d made for Blazing Inx, she was taking on larger commissions now, some of which I helped her design the artwork for.
Our businesses had merged together as seamlessly as our lives had, with her helping me out from time to time and me doing the same for her. We’d hired some new tattoo artists at the shop so that Blaze could spend time with his new family while I spent time with mine, but we still put in the hours there when we were asked for specifically, or we hit a busy period.
On the wall of the shop was a large canvas, with side-by-side shots of mine and Sienna’s tattoos printed on it. One masculine, one more feminine, but both of them equally as beautiful as each other.
Balance—I had it perfectly.
Hearing the sound of a vehicle and a bike making their way toward me, I smiled when I saw July driving with Wes following behind.