Page 58 of Sinful King
Today my grandda would tattoo me with the same ink he and my da shared—the ink my great grandfather had worn too.
“And upset your namesake? Nah,” I said with a little scoff as I pulled my shirt over my head. “He pretends to be okay with this arrangement but I can tell he misses you.”
It wasn’t until we were settled and the buzz of his tattoo gun filled the space between us, he replied.
“My sons know they can see me when they please,” he said. “Eoghan came up last week. Your da two weeks before that.”
Mmm.
“News to me.”
The needle touched my skin, reminding me of how much I liked pain.
“Some things aren’t meant for you to know right away.”
I kept quiet, head in my arms and eyes shut.
There was always a lesson in shit he said. I learned early on it was better to listen and absorb. Eventually, whatever he wanted to get across would come to you naturally.
“What’s the girl’s name?” he asked, shifting topics.
Or… maybe not.
“Blair Amoy Phillips.”
Her named rolled off the tongue with feelings attached as always. Even I could hear how much I loved her in the way I said it.
There wasn’t just one thing about Blair that won my heart, it waseverything—a accumulation ofeverything.
“The daughter of the pastor.”
It wasn’t a question and I didn’t respond.
“You should come back,” I said instead. “My da told us you got ordained. I can give you a church.”
The ranch had always been a quiet place for him, just nature and the horses he kept. But I knew he missed the city and only needed one good reason to come back and be with us.
But he lifted the needle from my skin when I said it, his answer evident to me even before he spoke.
“I feel her out here,” he murmured, continuing on with my tattoo like he hadn’t meant to stop. “Wherever she is, is where I want to be. Do you feel that way for Blair?”
There was no doubt in my mind about it.
“Yeah, I do.”
He hummed.
“Protect that feeling, never let anything or anyone take it away from you.”
“Do you have regrets?”
“None,” he said without pause. “I knew what I signed up for and so had your mhaimeó. We kept our promise to one another. I’m here and she keeps me company.”
There was a lot I wanted to know but chose to keep quiet and let him work.
We sat like that for two hours before he stood and said, “You’ll need two more sessions to fill it in.”
Coming back wasn’t part of the plan but something about the way he said it gave me pause.
