Page 100 of Exposed Ink

“Oh, yes! Tell her to come,” Taylor says. “I feel like I haven’t seen her in forever.”

Shane says he’ll talk to me and then hangs up.

“Come over for dinner, please.”

“With your ex?” I cringe. “Won’t that be awkward?”

“Maybe,” he admits. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want you there. She’s just that … my ex. But you’re everything, Kins. You’re my present and my future. Besides, you heard Taylor. She wants you there. It’s been too long since we’ve gotten our Kinsley fix, and we both know you can’t say no to her.”

Because he’s right, I agree to go. After I shower, we head over to his place despite knowing this is going to be a disaster.

The moment I walk in the door, Becky comes running over, begging to be pet, so I reach down and give her some love before I follow Shane into the kitchen, where Taylor and her mom are cooking.

“Kinsley!” Taylor shrieks. “You’re here.” She wraps her arm that isn’t in the cast around me. “Where have you been?”

“I’ve been a bit under the weather,” I tell her.

“If you’re sick, should you be here?” Jamie asks, her words sickly sweet, but her gaze is anything but.

“Jamie,” Shane says, a warning clear in his tone.

“What?” she asks. “I’m still recovering, and getting sick could possibly set me back.”

“This smells delicious,” Shane says, looking at Taylor with a smile as he lifts the lid of the pot that seems to contain some kind of soup while ignoring Jamie’s comment. “I have my shift tomorrow. If there are any leftovers, I’ll be bringing it with me.”

“If,” Taylor says with a laugh. “We both know you’re going to eat it all in one sitting.”

Shane shrugs. “Probably.”

“What is it?” I ask.

“Broccoli cheddar soup,” Taylor says, grabbing a spoon and scooping a little out. “And we serve it in bread bowls. Grams taught me how to make it. When I was little, she would cook with me. Since my mom sucks at cooking, I was showing her how to make it.”

“I do not suck,” Jamie mumbles. “I just prefer to focus my attention on more important things, like the poverty in Madagascar.”

Shane’s phone goes off, and his brows furrow in concern. “It’s the station. I’m going to take this and then wash up for dinner.” He leans in and kisses me. “I’ll be right back.”

Once he’s gone, the veil hiding Jamie’s cattiness seems to disappear. “So, Kinsley, Taylor tells me you tattoo people for a living. That must be fun.”

“She’s so talented,” Taylor gushes, missing her mom’s condescending tone. “She’s doing Dad’s arm, and she re-created a picture I drew for him when I was little.”

“That’s cute,” Jamie says. “Hey, Taylor, would you mind grabbing my migraine meds from the bathroom? I feel one coming on.”

“Sure.” Taylor rushes out of the kitchen, and the second that Jamie and I are alone, she steps over to me, her eyes narrowed.

“I’m just going to cut to the chase,” she says. “I messed up. I was so busy chasing the next story that I didn’t consider what I had here. But now that I’m back, I’m not going anywhere.”

“I think that’s great,” I tell her. “Taylor’s mentioned that she misses you when you’re gone, and she only has a year left until she leaves for college.”

It will suck, having to deal with this woman on a daily basis, but it will be worth it for Taylor to have her mom in her life?—

“I think you’re misunderstanding,” Jamie says, her voice low. “I want my family back.”

She steps closer, and that ball of emotion that was already lodged in my throat damn near chokes me, making it hard to breathe.

She wants her family back. Not just Taylor. She wants Shane.

“I’m sure you can understand where I’m coming from,” she continues. “Had you not been the reason your family is dead, you’d still be with them. But they are because you killed them. But I didn’t kill mine, and after spending this past week with Shane and Taylor, I want a second chance, and since my family is still alive, I can have that.”

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