Permanent (Indelibly Marked) (Volume 1) (29 page)

“It’s like you can sink right in.” Lindsay ran her hand along one of the couches.

He looked down at the blue carpet.

“With four kids, it was just easier.” His mom patted the sofa. “Now I can’t get rid of them.”

“I wouldn’t. I love it.”

The woman who bought everything new loved the couch? That couch? The sick couch, the well couch, the couch he caught Carson making out on and took a picture with his dad’s Polaroid? “You love the couch?”

Lindsay looked at him through her eyelashes, nodded and turned to his mother. “Can I help you with anything?”

“Come.” His mother hooked her arm in Lindsay’s and dragged her away.

Who knew what they could do to her in the bowels of birthday central?

“Hey.” He followed, ignoring his aunt, miniature cousin, and Carson. His nerves amplified as he pushed passed Ivan, and he almost tripped over his grandma, shoving his way into the kitchen.  He found her at the counter next to Emily, slicing carrots. “Lindsay!”

Every female in the kitchen turned to him.

“What’s wrong with you?” His mother shooed him out with a dishtowel.

He backed up but pointed at his girlfriend. “I wanted to know where she went.”

“Where would she go? Now, go away.”

 “But ...”

“But nothing.” She stood in front of her son, blocking his view.

“Mom,” he whined.

“Don’t you take that tone with me?” She raised a finger. “You told me how important Lindsay is to you and now it’s my time to get to know her better.”

He watched Lindsay smile before she turned her back to him.

“Come here.” Mom guided him out and away into the hall. “How’s everything?”

“Great.” He gave her a toothy grin. “Maybe I should go say hi to grandma.” An interrogation was upon him, he could tell by the glint in his mother’s eye.

She gripped his sleeve to keep him in place. “How’s the shop?”

“Great.” Another grin.

“Lindsay said she’s got the records organized.” She elbowed her son. “She seems very smart.”

He could get out of the interrogation faster if he used as few words as possible. “She does and she is.”

“She said you have a system.”

Since he used five words before, he needed to conserve, so he nodded. Anything at the shop was Lindsay’s system. He only did tattoos, like it was meant to be. Meant to be.

“I asked her about the bills,” his mother whispered.

He grabbed the bridge of his nose.

“She said she has it covered.”

“Yes.” One word, excellent.

“Also, about the …” She mouthed the letters I.R.S.

He understood, he didn’t need to hear those letters aloud either.

“Lindsay says they’re only going back a year.”

Before he excused himself to go hurl, he needed to make a mental note to ask Lindsay how she managed to tell his mom so much in less than two minutes. It must be a girl thing.

“She says you’re helping her too, and telling her everything she needs to know.” She put her hand on Shane’s cheek, leaned up and kissed him.

Without a doubt he was going to end up with his head in the toilet. Maybe if he ended up in the hospital, Lindsay would forget the part about him not telling her bout the letter, and his parents wouldn’t notice how badly he screwed up.

“You’re still my little guy.”

“Mom.” He scratched his hand down the side of his Mohawk. He wondered if his grandma had any of that scotch stashed away in her flask.

“We’re so proud of you and want you to have this.” She shoved a check into his hand.

“Please don’t.”

“You need it now that you’re getting everything together.” She patted him.

“I don’t want it.” He tried to give it back.

“Shane Thomas.” She snapped. “Take it, pay something off.”

“Maybe you should keep it and buy a couch from this millennium.”

She gave him the eye. “Take the money and when you and Lindsay get married, I’m going to give her the couch she loves so much.”

Married? The concept of being married to Lindsay didn’t bother him nearly as much as that couch or the check.

“I know you’re not arguing with me on your father’s birthday.” She pointed toward the dining room. “Go put yours and Lindsay’s things in your room. I’m so happy you’re staying over.” His mother gave him one last kiss and returned to the kitchen.

The acid eating away at his guts would soon destroy him and seep over to Lindsay. He leaned back and peeked at all the girls cooking away. They giggled as they put the final touches on the meal. He backed away. He needed her and had to tell her. The pressure with the business was overwhelming. He needed to prove he hadn’t wrecked everything. He had to reformulate his plan for the few days with the family, since staying out of the interrogation had failed miserably. Strike one.

“There he is.”

A shudder ran through him at Uncle Rufus’s voice. Strike two. “Hey, I have to run to my car.” He tried to avoid eye contact.

“Let me go with you, I want to show you something.” Rufus rolled up his sleeve. “It’s just a dry patch.”

His stomach churned and the only person he could call for help was making carrot curls. “I’m not a dermatologist.” Every time. Uncle Rufus needed to go to a doctor, or crawl in a hole, or at the very least, leave him alone.

“I trust you more. You know skin.” He thrust his arm at Shane.

When he laid eyes on the red, scaly, scabby skin that was all. “Lindsay.”

Rather than his woman, his sister Emily appeared.

“Mom wants you to stop yelling and sit down. Everything’s ready.” She pointed toward the dining room. “You too.” She smiled at Rufus and hid behind Shane.

“I’ll catch you after.” The living scab walked away.

“Thanks.” He swallowed the acid back to his stomach.

“He’s so gross.” She made a face. “Lindsay’s helping mom. She’ll be right out.” She pushed him. “Whoever thought you would be the possessive one?”

“I am, so there.” He slinked toward the table, deciding to stay in his funk until Lindsay returned.

“At least I get the real estate questions. Have fun playing doctor.” Dillon sauntered by with a huge grin.

He ducked into the bathroom. Strike three.

*~*~*

“Lindsay.”

At hearing her name, she tiptoed down the hallway. A pair of familiar arms grabbed her and dragged her backward into a bathroom. Before she said a word, Shane pushed her up against the sink, pressing his lips to hers.

She pulled back and put her hand over his mouth. “Are you all right?”

“What makes you think something is wrong?”

“Well …” She put the back of her hand to his cheek. “You feel clammy. We’re supposed to be sitting at the table, but we’re in the bathroom.”

“I wanted to make sure you knew where the bathroom was.”

“No you didn’t.”

“I had to look at Uncle Rufus’ skin condition.”

“Aw, I’m sorry.” She patted his hair. “We should go sit down. I don’t want to ruin your mother’s party. She’s been looking forward to it.” Kathleen Elliott had also told her how critical it was to the family that she helped with the shop. His parents invested a lot to make their son a success. Now the responsibility of its success seemed in her hands.

“I need you, Linds.” He pressed against her and buried his face in her neck. “Just me and you.”

She fought against becoming lost in him. Something seemed off, but they were in the middle of this family affair. “Let’s go eat then maybe after, we can take a walk. I really want your mom to be happy.”

“All right.” He kissed her once more, took her hand and led her out.

Under every eye in the house, she took her seat. Her boyfriend neglected to tell her about his huge family, and they were all quite the characters. She loved how different and unique they all were, just like the man next to her.

While Shane seemed spooked in the bathroom, once he sat down, his father began chatting with him and he relaxed, running his thumb along the back of her hand while he talked. She tried to listen, but Dillon entered the room.

She hadn’t seen him since that night. Shane wouldn’t talk about him and neither would Carson or Emily. Armed only with bits of information, all she could piece together was that he’d left the shop hanging to go to New York. Surely that wasn’t the whole story. While the three younger siblings took it as a betrayal, she sympathized with the ostracized brother. He strolled into the room, all smiles and with his gaze set on her and Shane. An uncomfortable chill ran through her and she shivered when he sat next to her.

Not wanting to do anything to put any sort of pall on the party, she smiled nicely while keeping a death grip on Shane’s hand. The strategy would work right up until Shane needed to pick up an eating utensil and she wished she’d sat on his other side.

Shane was entrenched in a conversation about building a tattoo machine while Kathleen and two of Shane’s aunts filled the table with food. Dillon took that moment to speak to her.

“It’s good to see you.” He leaned over.

“Thank you.” She focused on her plate and one of Shane’s uncles joined in on the tattoo machine conversation. He laughed. Apparently it wasn’t the skin challenged uncle.

“I guess it’s not that great to see me,” Dillon said.

“Your words.” The best strategy was to offer little to feed his fire.

Another Aunt trotted over to Dillon and squeezed his face. “It’s so good to see you. I didn’t think we’d be getting you back from New York.”

 “It was time to come back.” Dillon smiled.

“I thought the next time we saw you it would be for your wedding or your baby.” She sighed.

Dillon grunted. “Wasn’t meant to be.”

Lindsay wrinkled her nose. No matter what happened, this was not a conversation for a party.

The woman moved closer and attempted to whisper. “When I first saw Shane’s girlfriend in the kitchen, I thought she was with you.”

Somehow Lindsay managed not to dig her nails into Shane’s hand, instead opting to pick up a spoon and study the pattern. Plain, but that could be interesting, right?

“You would think that wouldn’t you.” Dillon’s voice lowered. “They’re a little mismatched.”

She pursed her lips at the spoon, wishing instead she would have opted for the knife.

“How’s the tattoo business going?” the woman asked.

“I have no idea.” Dillon shrugged.

Lindsay bit her lip, but she wanted to yell that it was amazing, never better.

“It seems like it’s doing well.”

She didn’t even need to look over at this woman to know that she was staring at her.

“Well, last I heard my brother was in a ton of trouble and being audited by the IRS. I’m not really sure, since I’m not involved.”

Lindsay held her breath, and wondered if anyone knew about his lack of a vehicle.

“Ohhh.” The aunt moved closer.

“That’s how they met.” He gestured toward Lindsay.

The woman nodded. “Some girls love the bad boys.”

Lindsay wiped a small trickle of sweat from her temple while she ached to enlighten the woman on who the bad boy in the family really was.

“Shane just wants to parade her around as part of a show,” Dillon whispered.

She couldn’t help but straighten, priming for action, she just didn’t know what kind.

“That place is disgusting. She’s trying to be something she’s not and once she realizes that, or the place goes under, she’ll run back to where she belongs.” He punctuated his statements with a nod.

Words could be worse than weapons. She tossed the spoon aside not even realizing she stood until she glared down at Dillon. “I can tell you what’s disgusting.”

He looked up at her with a cocky grin. She had vowed never to take that kind of crap from anyone again. She slapped his face. The sting resonated from her palm throughout her body, and silence enveloped the room. One glance told her she’d made a terrible mistake and she ran.

*~*~*

Shane watched Lindsay race from the room as if it was on fire.

“What the hell?” With his hand over his cheek, Dillon stood and pointed at his brother. “She’s psycho!”

“You ass.” Emily threw her glass at Dillon splashing water across the table and dousing him. “I hate you.” She burst into tears.

Shane shot up fast enough to knock his chair over and grabbed his brother’s collar, thrusting him back. “What did you do?”

Dillon tripped and fell, toppling both his chair and Lindsay’s.

“What’s happening?” His mother ran in from the kitchen. “Ronald, where’s Lindsay?”

Emily pointed. “He’s a jerk and Lindsay put him in his place. I only wish she would have kicked him where it counts.”

“You’re a dead man.” Every protective DNA molecule in his body fired off at once and Shane dashed after Lindsay, stopping in front of the bathroom to the sound of her crying. He barged in to find her sitting on the edge of the tub and put his arms around her and pulled her to his chest. “You all right?”

“I don’t think so.” Her voice came out muffled by his shirt.

“That was probably a stupid question.” He combed his fingers through her hair. “What happened?”

Never looking him in the eye, she sniffed and toyed with his shirt. “In case you missed it, I ruined your mother’s party and your brother’s homecoming.” She let out another sob. “I also made a fool of myself, and you.”

Before he could contradict her, his father entered. “The only fool in my home is my oldest son.”

“Dad.” Even though he stood taller than his father, the man still held powerful presence.

His father put his hand up. “Lindsay, I want to apologize for Dillon.”

“No, I’m sorry.” She wiped her eyes on Shane’s shirt.

“You have nothing to be sorry for.” Shane held her tighter. He needed to get them out of there for both their sakes. “I think Lindsay and I may head back to Hollywood.”

“No.” His mother shoved herself into the crowded bathroom, followed by Emily, Carson and Ivan. “No.” She went to Lindsay and put her arm around her. “If you leave, that will ruin my party.”

Lindsay faced his mother. “I’m so sorry.”

“Carson told me what happened.” She took Lindsay’s hand and looked into her eyes.