Page 102 of Forbidden Harmony

“I was a couple months from graduating highschool and a friend let me crash at his place until we graduated. But then hisfolks wanted me out, so I lived on the street for a while.”

“You were homeless?”

“Yeah, for about six months. I was good atart, and I’d go to one of the dog parks and sketch people’s dogs in exchange forcash. One day this big dude who’s covered head to toe in tattoos is at the parkand he’s got this ridiculous tiny dog. It was one of those miniature poodle crosses,some yappy little shit, and he’s fucking babying this thing. You know? Like,the dog’s got on a damn leather jacket and the collar around its neck probablycost more than any of my clothes ever did.”

She smiled at him. “People love theirpets.”

“I sketched out his dog and then showed it tohim, did my usual song and dance, and the guy looked at my drawing and thenlooked at me, and said, ‘Son, you got some fucking talent, don’t you?’”

He traced more patterns on her palm withhis thumb. “He asked if I ever drew anything other than dogs, I said yeah, andshowed him a few of my other sketches. He gave me a business card for hisshop. Told me to come by the next day and we’d talk about a job opportunity.”

“He was a tattoo artist?” Addison said.

Preacher nodded. “One of the best in the city,although I didn’t know that at the time. I showed up at the shop the nextmorning, and he offered me the chance to apprentice.”

“That’s what Nolan does at your shop,right?” she said.

“Right. An apprentice cleans the shop, booksappointments, and takes out the trash. Basically, you do all the grunt work inthe shop in exchange for being taught how to tattoo. Jorge even let me sleepon a cot in the back of the shop.”

“That was nice of him,” she said.

“Yeah.” A smile crossed his face. “Untilhis wife, Maria, found out. He caught so much hell from her. I was eighteenby then, but she said a tattoo shop was no place for a kid to be sleeping.”

“Where did you stay once Maria kicked youout of the shop?”

His small smile became a full-grown grin. “Mariaand Jorge’s house.”

She laughed and squeezed his hand. “Seriously?”

“Maria gave Jorge shit for not bringing meback to their place where I would have a proper bed and food to eat. I livedwith them until I finished apprenticing a few years later and got my tattooinglicence.”

“They sound like good people.”

“They are. Better than I deserved.”

She frowned at him. “Don’t say that.”

He just shrugged. “Anyway, then I met Gideonand we became friends. He moved back here to take care of Kira and about ayear later I moved here and opened up the Crimson Door.”

She knew that Preacher was around Gideon’sage, which meant he had skipped over a significant chunk of time between becominga tattoo artist and moving to Harmony Falls. She was intensely curious aboutwhat had happened in those years, but she wasn’t going to push him fordetails. It was a miracle he’d even told her this much. Other than Gideon,she didn’t think anyone in Harmony Falls knew anything about Preacher’s life.

“What about your parents?” she said.

“My mother died when I was twenty and I don’thave a clue where my father is,” Preacher said. “I saw him at the funeral and gavehim my cell number. He said he’d call, but he never did.”

Another flash of pain and she pressed a kissagainst the bulge of his upper arm. “I’m sorry. Your dad is stupid.”

“He was a drunk. He’s probably dead fromfucking liver disease by now. It’s why I don’t drink much.”

“That’s understandable,” she said. “I knowit might be hard to believe because of the way I sucked back that glass of winetonight, but I don’t generally drink that much either. I hate going to thebars – always have. They’re too loud and too crowded, and men and women are onlylooking for one thing. I can’t even remember the last time I went to a bar.”

He squeezed her hand. “You wanna talkabout what’s upsetting you now?”

While she liked that Preacher had opened upto her a bit, telling him her problems would bore him to death and then hemight leave. She didn’t want to sit here alone feeling sorry for herself. Shewanted to be in bed with Preacher and forget about how pathetic her life wasfor a little while.

Yeah, because it’s not at all pathetic askingPreacher to teach you how to bang.

“Addison?” Preacher said.

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