“You’ve got so many beautiful tattoos upthere.” I pointed to the wall that had a mix of fanciful and imaginarycreatures on it. Fairies seemed to dance up someone’s calf in one, and inanother, there was a unicorn that looked so real I wanted to reach out andtouch it.
Eli was drawn to a grouping of photos thatshowed different kind of phoenixes, and he wandered off to look at them.Knowing his background, and from the look on his face, it was easy to pictureone of the mythical birds on his body.
Wilder beamed and looked around like aproud parent. “A good portion of them are mine, or at least my designs. I’mglad you like them.”
A snort came from behind Wilder and anolder gentleman walked out of a back room I thought might be an office. “Allthe ones we put up are tattoos you’ve done or designed, and you know it.”
Wilder looked slightly embarrassed; it wassweet. He shook his head at the man. “You do a fabulous job. I just have awider range of things that I’ve drawn. You just don’t like to practice.”
Wilder turned back to me and gave me asmile. “Lane, I’d like to introduce you to Stan, my boss.”
Stan snorted again. “Only your boss becauseyou won’t be my business partner.”
Wilder laughed. “I’m not going to learn howto do the paperwork, Stan. You’re on your own with that.”
Wilder had mentioned that Stan wanted totake his position from being an employee to a business partner, but he hadn’tseemed to be that enthusiastic about it. I hadn’t really pushed, but the issueseemed to be that he didn’t have enough time in the day to put in the extrahours that the paperwork would require and get all of his illustrating done.
From what he’d said, Stan had made nosecret that his primary goal was getting someone else to help run the businessside of things. If the paperwork hadn’t been an issue, I thought Wilderwould’ve said yes long ago. He clearly loved the business, and watching hisface light up as he looked around the room, I knew he thought of it as his.
As he reached us, Stan stuck out his hand.“Nice to meet you. Wilder’s pretty tightlipped, but he’s had good things to sayabout you.”
The stiff way Stan held himself, it wasclear he wasn’t quite sure what to make of me, but he was trying. “Thanks, andit’s nice to meet you. You’ve got a wonderful business.”
Stan nodded and glanced around like a kinglooking over his castle. “Thank you. We’re doing pretty well.”
I wasn’t sure what to say, but Wilderquickly filled the silence by introducing Eli and pointing out things aroundthe room. The waiting area held comfortable chairs and a coffee table with whatlooked like photo albums of more tattoos and designs.
Behind the long counter where the cashregister and some forms were sitting, there were several work areas that lookedlike they could be curtained off for privacy. Wilder pointed out differentmachines and things, but most of it went over my head.
I was too distracted watching his excitedsmile and feeling the relief flooding through me at Stan’s acceptance. Wilderhad been sure it’d be fine, but considering Stan had thought Wilder wasstraight until very recently, the fact that I’d shown up in a skirt and heelscouldn’t have been easy for him.
Eli gave us a few minutes before he startedgetting antsy. “All right, as interesting as this is, we gotta get going orwe’ll be late.”
Wilder nodded at Eli and turned back toStan. “All right, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Giving Eli and me a long look, Stan seemedto decide he didn’t want to know what we were going to be doing. It wasprobably a good thing, because I wasn’t sure what Eli would say. As we startedwalking toward the door, Wilder grabbed a box from under the counter andgrinned when I gave him a questioning look.
Stan distracted me, however, when hestarted grumbling about getting back to work. I gave him a wave and called outgoodbye. He returned the gesture, but then gave me a long look as he stood inthe doorway. “You talk some sense into him. As good as he is, there’s no reasonfor him to still be an employee.”
I didn’t make any promises, but I gave Stana smile. At the very least, I was curious to talk to Wilder about it. Leavingthe building, we headed down the street to where we’d parked the car. Decidingnot to wait, I reached for Wilder’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “Is thepaperwork really the only reason you don’t want to go into business with him?”
There were a lot of reasons that he mightnot want to do it, but I hadn’t really heard any others. Wilder shrugged. “Iknow it sounds ridiculous, but I have a lot on my plate already. I don’t thinkhe understands how many hours a day the illustrating takes up. There isn’t enoughtime in the day for it all.”
Taking a deep breath, I turned my gaze backdown the street. “You know, if that’s the only problem, I could help out. It’sprobably stuff I’ve already done with my own business and the rest of it won’ttake that long to learn.”
I felt awkward extending the offer, but itwas genuine. There were a variety of systems I could set up to make thepaperwork and accounting more efficient. If a person saw it as something thatwas frustrating and painful then they wouldn’t be looking for ways that made iteasier. They just avoided doing it.
Wilder squeezed my hand. “You would? Iavoided it so much I honestly don’t even know what’s involved with it. I justknow it takes him hours every time he sits down to do it. But if you could helpme get it under control, I’d consider it.”
He leaned over and pressed a kiss to thetop of my head, not worrying about how many people were around. I glanced up athim, smiling. “Okay, we’ll talk about it. And maybe we’ll sit down with Stananother day and actually see what it all entails.”
Wilder nodded. “That’s probably a goodidea. He needs to know I’m not promising anything, though.” Wilder was quietfor a moment before he spoke again. “He’s usually not that pushy about theidea, but I think getting sick made it more important to him. I hope he didn’tmake you feel uncomfortable.”
I’d take being uncomfortable about businessdecisions over everything else that could’ve gone wrong any day. “No, I thinkit’s cute he thought I have so much sway with you.”
I was pretty positive that Stan wouldn’thave said that unless he understood how important I was to Wilder. Wilder had atender look on his face, but before he could say anything, Eli poked his headbetween our shoulders. “No more PDAs and making lovey faces at one another. Iwant to know what’s in the box.”
I just laughed. “Don’t be nosy.”
