Inked (8 page)

“What is it, Avery? What’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t do this,” she whispered, and tucked her head into the crook of his shoulder. “It’s not you, it’s me.”

Brody took a step back, breaking all physical contact with her.

“Brody, let me explain,” she began, but his harsh tone cut her off mid-sentence.

“What’s there to explain? I kissed you. You said no. End of discussion.”

“It’s not as simple as that.”

“Let me guess, it’s complicated?” Brody turned on his heel and stalked off, not wanting his frustration to get the better of him and ruin any chance he might have of getting her back. Slamming the door behind him, he bypassed the elevator and headed straight for the stairs, already plotting out his next move. No way was he about to give up on her that easily.

Chapter 6

“So, who’s the new guy?” Chloe looked at her sister curiously. “Have you slept with him yet?”

“Not in front of Parker,” Avery scolded, and glanced over her shoulder at the little boy sitting in the booster seat. Parker was staring intently out the window at the passing cars while his two cousins giggled at the cartoon playing in the overhead DVD player. Avery wished he’d interact more with other children. She’d even taken him to a specialist, thinking that something might be wrong with him, but the doctor had assured her that Parker was perfectly healthy and sent her home with a list of activities to do to try and improve his socializing skills. Thus far, they’d been ineffective. No matter what she tried, Parker still chose to keep to himself. Avery sighed and sunk back in to the passenger seat of her sister’s minivan, allowing her own gaze to wander out the window.

Sheets of heavy rain pounded hard against the windshield as they pulled into the parking lot of
Chuck E. Cheese. People rushed towards the relative dryness of the awning covered sidewalk with their children in tow and Avery found herself scanning the rows of cars and crowds of people for any sign of Brody, but he was nowhere to be seen. It was the sound of her sister’s voice that drew her attention back to the present.

“Hmm?”

Chloe looked at Avery and shook her head in frustration. “I think you’ve got it bad for this guy.”

“He’s only a friend,” Avery repeated for the tenth time.

Without any advanced warning, Chloe jerked the minivan to the left, beating out a blonde soccer mom for one of the few available parking spots.

“You drive like a maniac,” Avery teased, and unclasped her seatbelt in final preparation for the mad dash to the restaurant.

“You grab the presents from the back and I’ll get the kids.”

The women looked at each other and nodded in agreement. Within seconds they were running full out towards the crowded entrance, Avery laden down with brightly colored gift bags and Chloe dragging three soaking wet kids behind her. The awning provided very little cover from the torrential rains, but it was enough to keep them out of the direct path of the downpour.

She looked around one last time for any sign of Brody before following her sister through the front door and into the chaos that awaited them. When Chloe turned to speak to her, Avery could barely hear her over the cacophony of screaming children.

“Yeah, you’re right. You’re not smitten in the least. In fact, you always walk around with a dazed look on your face.”

The last thing she needed was for Chloe to start hounding her with questions about Brody, so she quickly changed the subject. “Where’s Scott? I thought he was meeting us here.”

“He’ll be here as soon as he finishes work.”

“Since when did Scott work on a Saturday?”

“Since he found out that Parker’s birthday party was being held at
Chuck E. Cheese,” Chloe laughed.

Avery waited in the lobby with the kids while Chloe went in search of the hostess. A minute later she was standing on the opposite side of the dining room and frantically waiving her hand in the air, motioning for them to join her.

“Okay, follow me.” Avery waited until Parker and his cousins were holding hands before attempting to lead them through the overcrowded restaurant. Leaning down, she kissed Parker on the cheek and whispered, “You ready to go, little man?”

Parker looked up at Avery and smiled. Even he couldn’t resist the lure of video games and an oversized talking mouse.

I wasn’t until they neared the table that Avery saw her sister talking to a well built man with dark, rain slicked hair and tight fitting jeans. Avery didn’t need to see his face to know exactly who it was.
Oh God, he’s already here.
She quickened her pace, almost dragging the kids behind her as she maneuvered through the dining room. Her sister was already curious enough about Brody’s identity, and she had a knack for sweet talking answers out of people, so the two of them talking without a buffer could only lead to disaster.

Avery approached the table cautiously, craning her neck in the hopes of overhearing the discussion, but the screams of children a
t play drowned out all sounds.

“There you are,” Chloe said, grinning up at Avery. “I was just introducing myself to your friend.”

Avery anxiously glanced from Chloe to Brody, praying that he’d kept his mouth shut about being Parker’s father. She sat down and settled Parker into the seat beside her while Chloe and the twins, Steven and Stephanie, sat across the table.

“Sco
tt better get here soon,” Chloe cursed under her breath.

“Who’s Scott?” Brody asked nonchalantly.

“Scott is Chloe’s husband,” Avery answered while her sister tried to calm the twins with promises of video games if they finished all their dinner.

“He’s going to be missing his favorite appendage if he doesn’t get here soon.”

“I can take the kids to the arcade until the pizza get’s here,” Brody offered.

Chloe looked at Brody like he had tentacles growing out of his head then looked at Avery quizzically, silently asking if this guy was some sort of a perv or just out of his mind for offering to watch three kids in a
Chuck E. Cheese.

Answering her sister’s unspoken question, Avery turned to Parker and asked, “Do you want to go and play a few games before dinner?”

Parker looked from the arcade to him mom and shook his head yes.

“Do you want Brody to take you?” After the confrontation she and Brody had in the hallway, Avery half expected Parker to say no, so she was caught off guard when Parker nodded his consent, slid off the chair, and offered his hand to Brody. But Avery hadn’t been the only one shocked by Parker’s actions. Chloe sat there, openly gawking at the two of them as Parker took Brody by the hand and started leading him towards the nearest row of video games. Avery was about to dig into her wallet for money when Brody produced a handful of preloaded game cards.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got it covered.” He smiled and cast a wink at her over his shoulder.

Avery and her sister stared after Brody as he led all three kids in the direction of the arcade.

“Okay, where in the hell did you meet him and why haven’t I met him before?” Chloe blurted out, but not before Brody was out of earshot, because the corners of his mouth quirked up into a know-it-all smirk, telling them that he’d heard every word.

“He’s an old friend.”

“Old friend my ass! Friends don’t look at friends the way he looks at you. So spill the beans. I want every juicy detail.”

The waitress appeared at the table, giving Avery a temporary reprieve from Chloe’s questions, but no sooner did the waitress leave did Chloe jump right back into her inquisition.

“Well, are you going to tell me or do I have to ask him?” Chloe jerked her head in Brody’s direction.

“Fine,” Avery conceded. “I met him a few years ago when he did my tattoo.”

“He’s a tattoo artist?” The surprise was evident in Chloe’s voice. “I figured you for the geeky intellectual type, not the bad boy in tight jeans type. And you trust him with Parker?”

“Explicitly,” Avery replied honestly.

Chloe sat back in her chair and sipped at her diet soda as she watched Brody play a video game with the kids and get his ass kick by Steven, the older of the twins. “You know, they could almost pass for father and son. The resemblance is uncanny.”

Avery froze, not even daring to breath
e.             

Chloe slowly turned around in her chair, her eyes wide and knowing. “Oh my God! Brody is Parker’s father, isn’t he? It all adds up. You got that damn tattoo just before you found out you were pregnant. But you said that Parker’s father wasn’t even from Boston, that he was some foreign student from Germany. Why would you lie about something like that? Does Brody even know that Parker is his son?”

Avery stared down at her hands, unsure of how to answer her sister’s question. There was no sense in denying it. The truth was out in the open, and if Brody was going to be in Parker’s life, she might as well lay all the cards on the table. “Yes, Brody knows. He showed up at my apartment a few weeks ago and knew that Parker was his son the second he laid eyes on him. I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t think Brody would want anything to do with him. What guy wants to be burdened down with a kid after a one night stand?”

“That one,” Chloe replied bluntly, and pointed towards the Skee Ball machine.

Avery looked in the direction of the arcade and her heart leapt in her chest. Parker wasn’t being his typical shy and quiet self. Instead, he was laughing and playing and grinning at Brody with a mile wide smile plastered across his face. He looked… happy. It took every ounce of Avery’s strength to not run over and scoop Parker up into her arms while she smothered him with kisses. Spending half an hour with his father had done him more good than a dozen trips to the psychiatrist’s office.

“I think they’re fond of each other.”
             

“Who’s fond of whom?” Scott asked as he bent over and planted a kiss on his wife’s cheek.

Before Avery could tell her to zip it, Chloe answered Scott’s question, “Parker and his dad.”

Scott gaped at Avery, shell shocked by this sudden and unexpected announcement. “Parker’s dad is here? Now?”

“Yep!” Avery replied matter-of-factly, and three sets of eyes settled on Brody, Parker, and the twins, who were in the midst of a rambunctious game of Skee Ball. It wasn’t until the waitress returned to the table with their pizza that the three of them pried their gaze away from Brody and the kids.

Seeing the waitress hovering around the table, Brody ripped the strip of tickets from the machine and led the kids over to the prize counter to cash in.

“Aww, but we still have credits left,” Stephanie whined. “Can we please play one more game?”

“We can play again after you eat. You don’t want cold pizza, do you?” Brody laughed silently to himself. Who would’ve thought… him, the voice of reason?

Plastic toys of every color and stuffed animals decorated the display case and the wall behind the counter. Steve settled on a rubber snake and Stephanie’s eyes were immediately drawn to the glittering tiara—which was okay for the older kids—but Brody recalled the woman’s words of caution about age appropriate toys. Quickly scanning the display case, he decided on an oversized pair of bright yellow sunglasses for Parker.

Dinner was an uneventful event. The twins begged to play more games while Scott and Brody droned on about football. Parker, on the other hand, sat there quietly and ate his pizza, smiling up at Brody between bites.

With the guys attention now focused on the upcoming hockey season, and the twins bickering over the last of the soda, Chloe leaned across the table and whispered to Avery. “Look at the way Parker looks at him. Do you think he knows?”

Avery glared at her sister, willing her to shut the hell up. Now was not the time or place to be having this conversation, but Avery knew how nosey and relentless her sister could be, and the only way to shut her up was to answer her. “No. How could he possibly know?”

“Are you going to tell him?”

“When the time is right I will.”

“I meant Brody, not Parker.”

Avery cast a dubious glare at her sister then looked in Brody’s direction, making sure that they hadn’t been overheard. “Can we
please
drop this? We’ll talk about it later.”

“Talk about what later?” Scott asked, his attention now drawn to the girl’s conversation.

By some good grace, Avery was granted another temporary reprieve when the waitress appeared at the table holding a birthday cake festooned with sparklers and a large, red candle in the shape of the number five. The group spontaneously broke into song.

Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday, dear Parker. Happy Birthday to you.

Brody, who was sitting closest to the waitress, took the cake from her and placed it on the table in front of Parker. “Make a wish, buddy.”

Avery’s heart melted at the sight of Brody helping his son blow out the candle. And for the first time in a very long time, Parker looked ecstatic.

When the last slice of pizza had been eaten and the last piece of cake devoured, Brody retrieved the plastic games cards from his shirt pocket and waved them up in the air. “Who wants to use up the last of the tokens before we leave?”

“I do, I do,” the twins screamed in tandem.

“I’ll take them,” Chloe offered, and snatched the cards out of Brody’s hand. “You and Avery finish your sodas. Scott, you take Parker and I’ll take the twins.”

The smile faded from Parker’s face as Scott took him by the hand and led him towards the arcade, but it quickly returned when he turned around and saw Brody waving at him. Parker raised his hand and waved back, not once taking his eyes off of him until they were around the corner and out of sight.

“He’s a great kid. You’ve done a good job raising him.”

“Thanks,” Avery replied nervously, and fidgeted with her napkin.

“Scott’s cool, but I don’t think your sister likes me much.”