“Alta,” I corrected.
“Yeah.” He nodded as if it was all coming back to him. “I was just about to get started on her, actually.”
I started forward, charging right around the counter. “Great, I’ll just grab her then.”
A hand stopped me in the center of my chest. “Woah, hey. She asked for a solo room. She wanted some privacy for the location she chose. Artists only. Sorry, you know the deal.”
I looked at the hand on my chest, using every bit of strength in me not to rip it off his fucking body. Then simply knocked it aside. “Fuck off, Tore.”
A room?
She was in a private room in this shithole of a tattoo shop and giving away her first tattoo to this prick? I could punch something I was so mad... And jealous.
But it was more than that.
A resignation letter? A literal written decree on how she was leaving when shepromisedthat she wasn’t going anywhere, andnow I had to find her here of all places. I know I fucked up and waited too long to come back to her, but this was too much.
No—this was not fucking happening is what it was.
I gave the back room of Tore’s shop three quick raps as I leaned my ear into the door. “Alta, it’s me. I’m coming in.”
“Who?” Someone called out from the other side. It was her voice. Her sweet angelic voice that I’d been missing so damn much. And she didn't recognize me?
I grit my teeth. “It’s Harper, sweetheart.”
A pause. “Oh.”
Oh?
“Don’t come in,” she added quickly.
I frowned. “What the fuck do you mean, don’t come in?”
“I’m about to get my tattoo, Harper. You can’t come in here?—”
Yeah fuck that.I jiggled the door handle, fully prepared for it to be locked, but to my surprise the door opened right away. And there she was…
There she was,sitting alone and fully clothedon the chair in the center of the room. Her legs crossed at the ankle as they swung below her. Her hands clasped primly in her lap as she waited for me with the biggest smile on her face.
The biggest smile?
I stepped into the room, turning my back briefly to close the door. When I turned toward her again, I can’t imagine what kind of look was on my face. Because whatever it was, it caused her to tip her head back and laugh her little ass off.
Chapter Forty-Three
ALTA
Was it mean to laugh? Probably. But I just couldn’t help it when I saw the sour look on his face.
He looked like a kicked puppy, all angry and confused. His anger about me being here in his “rival’s” territory was written clear all over his face. His surprise at me not being here to actually get a tattoo was pretty darn clear too.
“Baby,” he breathed, his eyes connecting with mine in the most anguished and simultaneously peeved expression I’d ever seen on his face.
“I’m here,” I said simply. Because what else could I say. The only thing I’d required of him wasto come and get me, and he had. Now I just wanted him to come a little further. To come in all the way.To just come back to me.
And he did. His face changed, morphing into something all too familiar and planting a bloom of hope right there in the center of my chest. Of love.
Inclining my chin, I found his eyes, the biggest brown eyes, and I felt right at home. “Can I tell you a story about that look you’re giving me right now?”
