Page 14 of Tempting the Tender Guy: Imperfect Heroes

Sadie is inside twirling around as she looks up at the sky through the domed glass ceiling. “Mack, this is amazing! How did you know this was here?”

I place the cooler down and flap the blanket up to spread it on the floor. “I go hiking in the park a lot and saw it on their page a few years ago.”

She bounds over to me and throws her arms around my waist. “Thank you, thank you for bringing me here!”

Laughing, I hug her back, warmth filling me at her happiness over the simplicity of this. The way she’s acting, you would think I gave her a diamond necklace or something.

“You are very welcome. Ready to eat? Or do you want to walk around the park some first?”

Eying up the cooler, she grins. “Eat. I’m starved.”

Since I brought far too much food, I’m happy to hear that.

We dig the food out of the cooler and it’s only after we have most of it laid out on the blanket that I realize I neglected to bring utensils. Most of the food can be eaten with our fingers, but the banana pudding is going to be a problem.

Piling our plates with food, we eat, and Sadie tells me about her time in girl scouts when she was younger.

“Was that why you named your cat Cookie?”

Her blue eyes light up. “Yes! And I was the best seller in the troop three years in a row.”

“Imagine that,” I tease.

Her pink lips purse up as she crinkles her nose at me. “Are you picking on me because I talk so much?” Her giggles rock her entire body. “Because everyone says that, so I’m used to it.”

“You have an amazing personality. I’ll never tell you that you’re talking too much.”

“You say that now but give it a bit and you might change your mind.”

Smiling, I hand her the container of fruit. I don’t see how anything could change my mind. Sitting here with her is the happiest I’ve been in quite a while. I’ve been content with my life. Good job, money in the bank, Charlie to come home to. Yet I’m realizing now that being content is different from being happy.

“I grew up in the city. I had zero interest in boy scouts. Hockey, video games, and hanging out were all I cared about.”

Fishing out a piece of watermelon, Sadie pops it in her mouth and sucks the sticky juice off her fingers before she chews. “How did you end up doing tattoos instead of, I don’t know, being a video game designer or playing pro hockey?”

“You’re greatly overestimating my hockey skills. I wasn’t that good at it. As for being a game designer, I never gave it much thought.” I take the container from her and get a wedge of pineapple. “My uncle had a lot of tattoos and saw me doodling in a notebook one day and asked me to draw him an eagle clutching a skull.”

I laugh at Sadie’s expression. “Hey, you’d be surprised at how popular skulls are.”

She gives a delicate shudder. “No, I get that. Everyone has different tastes. I just can’t imagine one of my uncles asking me to draw such a thing.”

Crunching into the pineapple, the tart sweetness floods my mouth. I swallow and pull out my phone, scrolling through my pictures until I come to one of my Uncle Ed. Holding the phone out to her, I chuckle at her gasp.

It’s a common reaction when people see him. The man is more ink than untouched skin and I’ve lost count of the number of tattoos I’ve done for him or how many total he has on his body.

“Look on his left shoulder,” I instruct, enlarging the picture for her.

Sadie leans closer. “Is that the one you drew?”

“Yes.”

Her eyebrows shoot upwards. “Wow. That is impressive.”

Pulling the phone back, I exit out of my photos and toss the phone onto the blanket. “I’m not the one who tattooed it. Just drew it.”

“And it’s still impressive. How old were you?”

“Thirteen.”

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