Page 59 of Love at First Ink

“Do you want me to take you?” he asked through bites.

Marisol chuckled and leaned over, rubbing her thumb along his chin. “Dropped some eggs there.” She let her thumb linger before falling back. She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and shook her head. “No, but thank you. I just wanted to speak with Alice before I meet with Stella and the other volunteers tomorrow evening.”

“Oh, that’s right. You excited?”

She shrugs. “Kinda. A little nervous. But Stella is really nice. I just hope she doesn’t think I’m incapable after the whole Snowball situation.”

“She won’t,” Cisco insisted. “Because she also saw how distraught you were over losing Snowball. She knows it was an accident.”

That earned him a timid smile. “Thank you.”

Cisco winked at her and then finished up his breakfast. He had to get to work soon and knew he’d probably need to go home tonight. He needed to do laundry and run a few errands. Since spending the past few days with Marisol, he had neglected many items on his to-do list. He needed a few days to get his affairs in order.

Once Marisol finished eating, Cisco took their plates to the sink and washed them off. “Call me after your meeting tomorrow. I want to hear how it goes.” He rounded the island to place a soft kiss on her forehead.

Marisol preened underneath him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him back down for a proper kiss. Her lips against his always got him going, and if he didn’t have clients today, he’d drag her pretty ass back to her bedroom and make her scream his name twice before he left.

He was so tempted.

Then Marisol broke the kiss, a flush to her cheeks. “I’ll talk to youlater.”

“Later. I want to hear your voice before I fall asleep tonight.” Cisco untangled himself from her, still smelling her candied scent as he walked out the door.

“Tiny,my favorite teenager. What’s my schedule looking like today?” Cisco asked as he walked through the doors of Golden City Tattoo. Before leaving Marisol, he had snuck a glance and saw he had clients, but not any specifics. Tiny was manning the front desk, sipping on one of her gross iced coffees she liked so much. It was mostly sugar, and Tiny had the biggest sweet tooth of anyone he knew.

“If you had other favorite teenagers, I would be worried.” She narrowed her dark eyes on him. “And you have a bit of free time this morning, but then you have two clients, both slotted for four hours. All artists are in and fully booked today.”

Cisco liked longer sessions. That usually meant bigger pieces, and he could get creative with it. “My station ready?”

“Duh. Did I start yesterday?” She rolled her eyes. “Also ordered new gloves. I realized they sent me the wrong size last time. I’ll take that raise whenever you want to give it to me.”

Cisco laughed, coming up next to her and rubbing her head. She hated that and immediately hit his hands away. “What if I buy you lunch? We even?”

“I have your credit card. You were going to buy me lunch anyway. Throw in money for the new Willows record, and I’ll call it even,” she countered.

“You drive a hard bargain, but I guess I can do that.” In truth, Cisco spoiled the hell out of Tiny. He liked to. He had no siblings of his own, and Tiny was the closest thing he had to an annoying little sister.

Cisco’s phone began to buzz in his pocket. He reached for it, seeing it was Ernesto. He had been expecting a call from him for the last few days. “Gotta take this, prima. Come get me when my first client is here.”

Tiny saluted him as he went into the back toward his office. Once the door was shut, he answered the call. “Ernesto. You better be calling me with good news,” he joked.

There was silence on the other end of his phone. Cisco thought that was odd because Ernesto was usually speaking the moment he answered his call. “Ernesto?”

There was a cough on the other end before Ernesto’s voice filled his ear. “Hey, man. You got a minute?”

Even if he didn’t, he did now. The dejection in Ernesto’s tone had him on edge. He took a seat at his desk, putting the phone on speaker and setting it down. “Yeah. What’s up?”

“I got a call back from the agent on the San Francisco property,” he said.

He had been waiting to hear back for weeks to see where they were in the process. He finished all his necessary paperwork; all they needed was to formally accept the offer. “Okay, so is it done? Place mine yet?”

“That’s the thing, man, they pulled out. Rejected.”

Cisco heard the words, but his brain couldn’t seem to process them. It made no sense. He offered above asking price and was prepared to be competitive. “Why? What the hell happened?”

“They got wind of your record, man. I’m sorry. I don’t know how that happened.”

The blood in his veins went cold as his whole body tensed. He didn’t talk about the incident often. In fact, he made sure it was buried from his record. No one should have had access toit, unless they combed the entire internet or happened across his file.

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