Page 17 of Renewal After Dark

McKenzie sat in the Adirondack chair next to him. “She taught me how, too, but it never took with me. My attention to detail isn’t what it needed to be, or so she said.”

“That sounds like her. ‘Duke,’ she’d say, ‘if you don’t apply yourself, you’ll never learn anything new.’”

McKenzie laughed. “I’ve heard that one a time or two myself. I used to say, ‘Iamapplying myself.Thisis what I’m capable of.’ She didn’t like that answer.”

“No, she wouldn’t have cared for that.”

“I still can’t believe you’re a cross-stitcher.”

“Messes with my image as a tough guy, huh?”

“Kinda?” She tried to suppress the giggle that gurgled from deep inside but failed miserably.

His eyes danced with amusement, which was when she realized that not only was he handsome, but he was also kind of sexy. “Are you laughing at me by any chance?”

“I’d never do that.”

“And yet…”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s funny. A long-haired, tattooed dude like me isn’t exactly the target audience for cross-stitch. I was next door one day and saw her doing it, asked what it was, and she showed me. I thought it looked fun and a bit challenging, so she set me up with a simple sampler, and that was that. I’ve been at it ever since.”

“I’m seriously impressed.”

“I see it as a way to be creative without having to expend as much mental energy as I do at the shop when I’m permanently marking someone’s skin with art.”

“I get that. What’re you making?”

He turned the sampler, which was held tight by a wooden loop around it, so she could see it. “I’m making this one up as I go.”

McKenzie was stunned by the gorgeous field of wildflowers in an array of dazzling colors, shapes and sizes. “You’re making it up? Not following a pattern?”

“Nope.” He handed her a drawing done in colored pencil. “I’m following that—loosely.”

“Now, that is seriously impressive.”

“I’ve been freelancing for years, so it’s not that hard anymore. Takes forever to get stuff shipped out here. I started making up my own designs so I wouldn’t get bored waiting for new ones to arrive.”

“You’re very talented.”

“Art is the one thing I got.”

“You’re lucky to have that one thing. I’m still looking for mine.”

“I thought you were a woodworker?”

“I’m a wannabe woodworker. I have the interest but not the skills. Not yet, anyway.”

“What do you do for work?”

“I’ve kind of bounced around from one career to another—my degree is in fashion, but I’ve never really used it. In hindsight, I probably should’ve majored in something that lent itself to a real salary. I was working in retail when Jax happened.”

“So he was a surprise, was he?”

“You could say that. I’d been seeing his dad for a year when I got pregnant. I was on birth control that didn’t work, which was a shock, to say the least. When I told him I was pregnant, that’s when I found out he’s married with a wife and two kids and wasn’t interested in another. He told me he’d had a vasectomy, so the baby couldn’t be his. That was almost worse than the wife and kids, since he knew I’d been faithful to him, which was more than he could say.”

“I’m so sorry. That’s awful. What aloser.”

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