Page 32 of Forbidden Harmony

Smiling, Addison turned and lifted the backof her shirt so that Grace and Kira could see her tattoo.

“Oh my gosh, it’s gorgeous,” Kira said. “Ilove it.”

“It looks great,” Grace said. “It’s so… you.”

“Thank you. I love it too. Preacher drewit last night after I couldn’t find a flower that I liked from the choices heshowed me. He’s a crazy good artist.”

“Holy shit,” Grace said. “You have aPreacher original? Girl, you’re gonna be eating Kraft Dinner for months. Youmust have maxed out your credit card to pay for it.”

Addison fixed her shirt. “What do youmean? It only cost a hundred dollars.”

Kira turned to Grace. “Did she just say ahundred bucks?”

“What?” Addison said.

“Addie, the minimum charge for a tattoofrom Preacher is one-seventy-five. That’s theminimumcharge.” Kira pointedto the butterfly tattoo just above her ankle. “Remember when Preacher did thislast year? This tattoo, which is smaller than your orchid, cost me two hundredbucks and Preacher gave me a discount.”

“What?” Addison touched the tattoo on herback. “No, that can’t be right.”

“Oh, it’s right,” Kira said. “And I justpicked this out of the book, he didn’t draw it or anything. Also, I’m prettysure his price has gone up since then.”

“Gideon told me an original drawing byPreacher is ridiculously expensive because Preacher’s one of the top tattooartists in the state. Apparently, last year he was number three on a top ten tattooartists list on a popular tattoo website. Since then, his business has doubledand there are people coming all the way from New York to get a tattoo by him.He’s hiring another artist to work in the shop,” Grace said.

“Honestly, I’m surprised he even tattooedyou last night,” Kira said. “Connor tried to book him for August and Preacheris booked solid until late October.”

“His assistant guy did say he was booked,but then Preacher said he would tattoo me last night,” Addison touched the tattooagain. “Shoot, now I feel really bad about paying so little for the tattoo. Itold him it seemed too low, but he said it wasn’t.”

“Don’t feel bad,” Grace said. “You askedhim the price and he’s the one who said it was a hundred bucks. Besides, youmore than made up for the low price by banging him. Hell, he should have beenpayingyoufor the great sex … wait, that didn’t come out right.”

Both Kira and Addison laughed as Grace slappedherself on the forehead.

“Thanks, you guys. It really helped to talkabout this,” Addison said.

“Girl, any time you want to talk about sex,just call. I’m always up for talking about dick,” Grace said.

Kira laughed again. “Oh God, Grace. I loveyou.”

“Love you too, Kira, baby. Love you too.”

* * *

“So, are you going to tell me why youtexted me last night asking me to ask Grace to make sure Addie was safe at homewithout telling either of them you were asking? Because,” Gideon drank a swallowof beer, “it feels like some next level teenage girl drama bullshit.”

“Busy in here tonight.” Preacher studied thepeople crowded into the pub. Like it always was in the summer, the ThirstyBeaver was overrun with tourists and locals. Hell, he was lucky he’d found atable for him and Gideon near the back that was relatively quiet.

“Always is this time of year. What was upwith the Addison thing?” Gideon said.

Jesus, his best friend was like a dog witha bone. He supposed Gideon couldn’t help it – he was a goddamn cop after all.

You invited him out tonight knowing hewould ask. Youwantto tell him what happened withAddie last night, you dickhead. So fucking tell him.

“Preacher?” Gideon leaned in. “What the hellis going on, buddy?”

“I fucked Addison last night.”

Gideon’s mouth dropped open and the look ofshock on his face almost made Preacher laugh. Would have made him laugh if hecould get the look of regret on Addie’s face after they were done fucking outof his head for one goddamn second. His apologies had only made it worse andafter she’d taken off, his worry about her walking home in the dark had kickedin. He’d almost grabbed his bike and gone after her, but what the hell wouldhe have done if she refused to get on the bike? Just followed her home at a snail’space like some fucking weirdo stalker?

He'd done the next best thing he could. Hetexted Gideon and asked for his help. He hadn’t stopped pacing his smallapartment until Gideon texted him with an update that Addison was safe at home.

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