Page 64 of The Spider & the Storm

The blonde Dorothy headed in our direction, a wide smile on her face as she came to stand at Blake’s side.

“My mom’s going to be bringing the kids back in about an hour,” she said, looping her arm through his.

“Shit,” he muttered, clapping a hand to his forehead. “I forgot to put their sheets in the dryer before—”

“I’m way ahead of you, babe,” she said, patting her hand against his chest. “I washed Jake’s too.”

I quickly put the pieces together and realized Dorothy must’ve been Blake’s wife or girlfriend. Relief swept over me, as if any of it had any bearing on me at all.

Blake blew out a sigh as Stormy girl jabbed her elbow against his thigh.

“You should thank the universe for thinking you’re worthy of someone like her,” she teased. “She's a saint for putting up with your cranky ass.”

“I fuckin' know it,” he replied before resting his hand over Dorothy’s and kissing the top of her head.

Another rush of jealousy pushed its way into my veins and heated the apples of my cheeks. I looked away from Blake and his significant other and tried to remember when I’d last had any kind of intimate contact with anyone.

I couldn’t.

“Babe, is that your work?” Dorothy asked.

“Yeah, I did those. How long ago was it?”

When nobody else replied for a few seconds, it occurred to me that they were talking about me. With a start, I followed Dorothy’s gaze to my hands lying in my lap.

“O-oh,” I stammered, feeling like a socially inept jackass. “Um … three years maybe?”

I dropped the mask to my thighs and lifted my hands, splaying my fingers for them all to get a better look at the chaotic design of webs embedded into my skin.

“They still look good,” Blake complimented.

“Of course they do,” Dorothy said softly, her voice full of love and adoration and everything I was unlikely to ever know again. “You did them.”

Blake grumbled in protest, then said, “Well, yeah, but that doesn’t mean jack shit if they’re not cared for after the fact. Even the greatest tattoos will look like trash over time if they’re not taken care of properly. But these, they still look really good. Nice job, man.”

“Thanks,” I replied, not knowing how else to react.

“So, is that how you two met then?” Dorothy asked, her eyes volleying between me and the woman at my side. “At the shop?”

She thinks we’re a couple.

A cold, aching panic arose in my gut, and I immediately wanted to correct her. What if she didn’t want anyone to think we were together? Fuck, what ifIdidn’t?

Do I?

But Stormy girl wasn’t fazed at all by the question as she shook her head. “No, I was never around when Blake didSpider’s tats. But we sort of …” She glanced at me and lifted one shoulder. “We just … kept bumping into each other.”

Her eyes pinned mine as one side of her mouth lifted into a half smile, sickly sweet and painfully adorable, and the thought of kissing her hit me like a punch to the gut.

“Spider? Is that your name?” Dorothy asked.

Stormy girl’s laughter was abrupt and nervous, her eyes never leaving mine. “Actually, that’s just what we call him down at the shop. Um, I don’t, um—”

“Charlie,” I interrupted quickly before I could think better of it. My eyes held Stormy girl’s for a moment before going back to Dorothy’s. “M-my name’s Charlie.”

After all these years, they were the first people in this city, apart from a few colleagues and Ivan, to know my name. I guessed Blake had technically already known it, after doing my tattoos years ago and needing my driver’s license to do the work, but I figured it was unlikely that he’d remember after all this time.

“Ah, that’s right,” he said, proving my assumption correct. “Charlie. Not as badass as Spider, but what can you do?”

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