Page 90 of Twins For My Bestie's Brother

I loop my arm around her neck and kiss the top of her head. Then, I run my free hand over her stomach. She catches it with her own and keeps my hand pressed against her. Mine. All mine.

“Fine, fine, fine,” Danforth quells Carina’s pleas. “Under one condition.” His eyes find mine.

It takes me a moment to realize what he’s about to suggest. “Oh, no.”

“Oh,yes,” he says.

“Jackson doesn’t like needles,” Lily intercedes. “I couldn’t do that to him.”

Carina’s lower lip pokes out.

I swallow. Dammit. The man just closed a deal with me. The last thing I can do is disappoint him. “No. I’ll do it. I’ll be . . . I’ll be fine.”

Famous last words.

Chapter 29

Lily

The tattoo gun buzzes as I shade the belly of the red male cardinal. I pause momentarily to get a bit more ink and, as I do so, I glance up at Jackson. He’s got a hand over his eyes and his lips pursed. “Almost done, baby,” I say.

He lets out a tight breath. “Good.”

I giggle, returning to his bicep. He’s been a champ sitting for me for the past four hours. This is his fourth tattoo and his biggest yet. Despite his hatred of needles and being a wuss with the pain, he’s gotten the bug. It started with Danforth’s ultimatum, the words “and whatever” on the inside of his forearm to match the tattoo on my inner thigh. Only a few days later, he said it looked a little naked without something to match it. So, I complemented it with a simple outline of a lily. You know, for obvious reasons.

Afterthat,he felt that having his other forearm bare made him too heavy on one side. Jackson had the bright idea to get a sibling tattoo with Kayla. So, I gave him a stack of books on his forearm while she got a simple black outline of a bicycle.

That was it.

At least that’s what he said.

Until we started seeing cardinals everywhere. It seemed symbolic until we realized there was a nest outside the nursery window. And what I didn’t know until then was that cardinals mate for life. So, when Jackson said I should fill in my sleeve with an image of a female cardinal, and he’d get the male to match, I couldn’t say no.

Mine’s already been done by my talented apprentice, Vic. Now all that’s left is this last bit of shading and . . .

“Okay, that’s it. Good thing we live together because if I see an error, I can just whip out my gun and—”

“You absolutely will not,” he says with a long sigh.

I laugh and wipe off the excess ink. “Looks great, if I do say so myself.”

Jackson wills himself to peek between his fingers at the finished product. He smiles. “My bicep has never looked better.”

“I’d have to agree,” I say. I blot the tattoo, then sit up and stretch my arms upward. “Oh, God, my back.”

“I wanted to do it in two sessions . . . ”

“I’m pregnant, not broken,” I say, pushing my stool away from the tattoo chair to grab wrap to protect the tattoo.

“It’s pretty impressive, the way you work around your belly.”

I laugh. “Just wait to see me in three months.”

“You willnotbe tattooing when you’re nine months pregnant.”

I raise an eyebrow. “You’re forbidding me, Jackson?”

“Well, I know I can’t stop you,” he grumbles. “But I’d rather you not.”

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