Page 27 of Exposed Ink

“Oh, wow,” I say, “Better than the unicorn tattoo.”

Taylor snorts out a laugh. “And it’s not permanent.” She shrugs. “Unlike the tattoo my dad got.”

“True,” I agree. “But at least his is meaningful.”

“Oh, you’ve seen it?” she asks, raising a brow. “Wait, do you two know each other?”

“I treated her for a food allergy,” Shane says.

“And while you were doing that, you guys discussed my dad’s tattoo?” Taylor quirks a brow, way too observant.

“Actually, I did the tattoo for him,” I tell her.

Her eyes go wide, and then after several seconds, she bursts out laughing. “Oh my God. Now, it all makes sense!”

“What?” her dad asks, confusion laced in his tone.

“I couldn’t figure out what made you get a tattoo after all these years of you saying you didn’t want to mark your body permanently. But now, it all makes perfect sense.”

“Taylor,” Shane warns, but it only makes her grin wider.

“What?” I ask, clearly out of the loop. “What makes perfect sense?”

“It’s like a scene from one of my romance books,” she explains. “Guy saves girl, falls for her, and then gets a tattoo from her as an excuse to see her again.”

It takes me a second to wrap my head around what she just said, but once I do, I can’t help but laugh because she isn’t wrong.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” she says, her gaze flicking between her dad and me. “I should’ve put two and two together when he said the woman doing his tattoo said it needed to be meaningful. You’re his tattoo artist.” She glances at her dad. “You totally got a tattoo to impress her.”

She smacks his arm playfully, and I snort out another laugh.

“Kinsley and I are just friends,” he says with an eye roll.

“Oh no.” Taylor’s features turn serious. “Did she turn you down?”

She turns her attention on me. “Did you turn my dad down? He’s a good guy. Doesn’t sleep around or cheat. He’s an amazing dad. He works hard. I mean, he’s not a billionaire, but he owns his own home and can provide for his family, and since my mom is too busy traveling all over the world, he pretty much has zero other woman dram?—”

Before she can finish, Shane reaches around and covers her mouth. “You’ll have to excuse my daughter,” he says. “She spends most of her free time reading romance and thinks every situation is straight out of a novel. We’re not people. We’re tropes.”

I laugh again. “I get it,” I tell her. “I actually love romance. But I’m not looking to date. These days, I’m sticking to fictional men instead of the real thing.”

I wink at Taylor playfully, and she laughs.

“Same,” she agrees. “Romance books make it hard for real-life men to live up to the expectations book boyfriends set. I work at Books and Beans, so my life pretty much consists of romance books and caffeine.”

“Oh, I love that bookstore! And their coffee is delicious.”

“Right?” she agrees. “And I get a good discount on their books. I prefer to read on my Kindle, but you should see my library at our house. It’s filled with so many trophies.”

“Who’s your favorite author?” I find myself asking.

What is it about these two that makes it so easy to talk to them?

Like father, like daughter, I guess.

Taylor wastes no time in telling me who her favorite authors are, and I find that despite our age difference, we love many of the same ones.

When she mentions having a special edition from one of my favorite authors, I can’t help but blurt out, “I’d love to see it!” without thinking.

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