Page 20 of Fallen Ink

So instead of wallowing over who was out to get her shop, the sketch she couldn’t get quite right for a cancer survivor who wanted to commemorate the occasion with a delicate yet fierce tattoo, and lamenting over what she was doing with Mace, she planned to enjoy her night out with her sisters and friends.

Tonight was Girl’s Night, after all, and they were kicking off their second monthly Brushes With Lushes gathering. It was a night that consisted of painting and drinking wine, all while having fun with your friends, and being watched and guided under the careful—and usually patient—eye and hand of their instructor, Kaylee.

Adrienne had a decent eye when it came to painting, she was an artist, after all. Except her medium was ink and her canvas, skin, but in the end, she got to draw and play with pretty colors while hanging with the women in her life that made it all worth it.

Her sister Roxie was pulling in as Adrienne got out of her car, and she waited while Roxie parked and made her way over.

“Hey there. Are we late?” her sister asked as she hugged her close. “I hate being late.”

Adrienne looked down at her watch and shook her head. “Nope. Right on time, but I bet you Thea, Abby, and Shea are already there since they tend to be early to everything like you.” She gave Roxie’s messy hair and incorrectly buttoned blouse under her unzipped coat a look. “Why are you not early?”

Roxie’s cheeks reddened, and she gave her a shy smile. “Uh, Carter got off work early and, well…”

Adrienne laughed, wrapped her arm around her little sister’s shoulders, and started her way toward the renovated warehouse where Kaylee had set up her studios. “Good to know you’re still in the newlywed phase where you’re all over each other.” The two of them couldn’t be more opposite from what Adrienne had seen, but she knew they were in love—even if it looked as if they’d rushed into their marriage. But it wasn’t as if she knew exactly what was going on in their relationship, and as she was secretly banging her best friend, she had no room to talk.

“He’s my Carter.” Roxie let out a dreamy sigh that was so unlike the annoyed one she’d given last time she’d spoken of her new husband. “What can I say?”

“You’re happy, so that makes me happy. Plus, he’s a sexy mechanic so…”

Roxie laughed. “And he’s my sexy mechanic. I’m glad he could fix your car.”

Adrienne groaned as she opened the door to the warehouse. “For now. I’m going to have to suck it up and get a new one soon. Well, maybe not a new one, but a newer one than I have now.”

“You’ve had that one for almost a decade. I’m surprised it’s been running as long as it has.” They put their coats on the rack near the door and went to the back where the Brushes With Lushes event was being held that night.

“It would have gone to the junkyard in the sky last year without Carter. So make sure you give him a kiss just for me.” She winked. “I was going to say something like a hand job or something, but then I realized he’s now my brother-in-law and he doesn’t know me well enough for that.”

Roxie just laughed and hip-bumped her. “I don’t think Carter needs any extra help getting those things. In fact, I’m going to end up needing a wrist brace at some point if I’m not careful.”

And that was why the two of them were laughing so hard they were crying as they entered the paint room and took their seats alongside Abby, Thea, and Shea. Their mom had come with them the first time but had bowed out this week since she had date night with their dad. The fact that her parents still had date nights made Adrienne’s romantic heart swoon. She might have put her career and art before her love life for far too long, but she believed in love and everything warm and bubbly about it.

“Do I want to know?” Thea asked, her voice taking on that motherly tone that fooled no one. Thea was just as dirty as the rest of them, even if she liked to boss them around lovingly.

“Probably,” Adrienne said with a wink as she unwrapped her scarf. It was getting colder and colder every night, and she knew she’d have to switch out her fall coat for her winter one soon. She hated that, these days, she couldn’t wear her cute leather one for longer periods since winter tended to creep up on them faster each year.

“Whoever came up with this idea was brilliant,” Shea said as she sipped her red wine. Each of them usually only had a glass since they all had to drive, but it was fun to enjoy the time together regardless.

“I know,” Abby agreed. She owned the tea shop, Teas’d, next door to MIT, and had been friends with Thea since she moved into the building a few months before Adrienne had. “I heard they’re all over the country now, though, and since I’ve finally heard of them, they probably won’t be popular for too much longer. I’m always the last to learn anything.”

Adrienne snorted. “You’re not alone. I never know what’s the in thing to do these days, but wine and painting? I’m in.”

“Better than your knitting?” Thea asked, her eyes twinkling.

Adrienne did her best to flip her sister off without anyone else noticing, but the older woman behind their crew stuck up her nose. Whatever. She and her sisters were the inked and pierced crew—even if two of their group were accountants who hid their ink thanks to their jobs—all of them were used to looks. They were Montgomerys, after all, and tended to stand out in a crowd.

“Knitting?” Abby asked. “You knit?”

Adrienne winced. “I tried. My cousin, Meghan, tried to teach me along with my other cousin-in-law, Jillian. Jillian did a little better, but I faked my way through most of it.”

Abby frowned, tilting her head as she studied them.

“What is it?” Roxie asked.

“You’re talking about Meghan and Jillian Montgomery? Married to Luc and Wes respectively.”

Adrienne sat straighter on her stool. “Yeah, Meghan and Wes are our cousins.”

“We have like forty of them or something,” Roxie put in dryly.

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