Page 51 of Forbidden Harmony

He waited for her to pout and whine and doher little speech again. Instead, her shoulders slumped, and she stared at thefloor for a moment before straightening her spine and staring up at him. “Okay.Thanks for hearing me out. Good-bye, Preacher.”

She slipped by him and walked out of theroom without looking back.

Chapter Thirteen

“Hey, man. Why aren’t you at work?” Gideonstared at him in surprise.

Preacher petted Tank when the big dogsqueezed past Gideon in the doorway and leaned against him. His tail wackedhim in the thigh and Preacher winced before rubbing the Great Dane’s ears. “Tookthe afternoon off.”

“Seriously? You have a Saturday afternoonoff in the middle of tourist season?” Gideon said.

Preacher just shrugged and after a second,Gideon said. “C’mon in. Gracie and I were just having beers in the back yard.”

“She’s not at work?”

“She has the weekend off,” Gideon said.

Preacher took a step back and said in a lowvoice. “Shit. Are you proposing to her today? Did I ruin the fucking moment?”

Gideon glanced behind him before shakinghis head. “No, tomorrow. I was going to do it today but the tap in theupstairs bathroom started leaking and I had to fix that first, and then I havethis whole cardboard note thing with Tank I want to do when I ask Gracie, and…anyway, tomorrow. I’m doing it tomorrow morning. Come in.”

He followed Gideon and Tank down the hall towardthe door that led to the back yard. Grace was just stepping inside, and shesmiled at him. “Hey, Preacher.”

“Hi, Grace.”

“Preacher has the afternoon off,” Gideonsaid.

“Cool. Head into the yard with Gideon, I’llbring us all fresh beers.” Grace said.

She grinned at Gideon when he grabbed herass as she walked by. Preacher followed Gideon into the yard and settled intoa lawn chair, grunting when Tank immediately sat in this lap.

“Tank, go on,” Gideon said.

“It’s fine.” He petted the heavy dog andtried to shift in his chair. “As long as he stops trying to crush my fuckingballs.”

Gideon laughed and pointed to a patch of sunlight.“Go lay in the sun, Tank.”

The big dog woofed before standing up andambling to the sun. He stretched out on his side and closed his eyes. The snoringstarted almost immediately, and Preacher envied the dog’s ability to sleep. Hehadn’t slept a fucking wink last night. Instead he’d tossed and turned,Addison’s request for lessons on fucking rattling around in his brain until hethought he’d go insane.

His shop didn’t open until eleven and he’d finallygotten up at six and gone for a workout at the gym. It hadn’t helped clear hismind the way working out usually did. He couldn’t concentrate on tattooing worthshit, and he’d finally done something he rarely did. He’d cancelled on his clientfor the afternoon, told Nolan to close the shop when Nix was finished his lasttattoo, and then left.

Knowing Gideon had the weekend off, he’dcome here to talk to him about Addison’s request, but, he grimaced and glancedat the kitchen window that was wide open, he couldn’t exactly talk to Gideonabout it with Grace here.

He could hear the soft ring of a phone andthen Grace’s voice drifted out of the open kitchen window. “Hey, Kira. Yup, Iknow. Yes, I’ve already made the potato salad. Wait…what? She went where? ToWillington? Seriously?”

He tuned Grace out as Gideon said, “I’ll goget your beer.”

“I can wait,” Preacher said. He’d had noappetite today and the idea of mixing beer with his churning stomach acid made himwant to barf.

They sat in silence for a few minutes,Gideon sipping at his beer, Preacher picking at some threads on the lawn chair.

“You gonna tell me what’s wrong or just sitthere?” Gideon said.

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“Bullshit,” Gideon said. “You don’t justtake the afternoon off. What’s going on?”

Preacher glanced at the open window andlowered his voice. “Addison asked me to -”

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